Two Harvard faculty, Jeff Brown and Mark Fenske, have just published The Winner’s Brain, their conclusions on how the most effective people get what they want in life. They have connected the latest research on certain areas of the brain with those who have been successful in a wide variety of endeavors.
There are two sections in the book. The authors first list five BrainPower Tools that match the neuroscience with the psychology to high achievers. Then they describe in detail eight Win Factors.
The Five Brain Power Tools.
Tool #1: Opportunity Radar: this is the entrepreneurial skill of putting yourself in the right place at the right time and investigating interesting opportunities. Often these are disguised as problems. Trust your gut on these.
Tool #2: Optimal Risk Gauge: meaning is often made from stretching ourselves. When it comes to risk, you need to be good at recognizing what they are, which you can tolerate, and whether you are willing to pay the price.
Tool #3: Goal Laser: this is about deliberately taking the steps to go after what you want regardless of the inevitable life distractions you have. “It gives you the patience to delay gratification, often for years, without getting sidetracked along the way.”
Tool #4: Effort Accelerator: are you willing to push through all the obstacles, work hard, and avoid procrastinating on what you must do whether you feel like it or not?
Tool #5: Talent Meter: Know your own competencies and where you need to improve.
Which of these eight Win Factors describe you?
1. Self-Awareness
When you are clearer about your strengths and the areas you need to improve on, you can create circumstances that help you succeed. You can become more effective in all areas of your life.
For example, the more you are willing to bridge the gap between your public and real self, it is easier to gauge how others experience you. “You come across as unafraid to share your real self and are more likely to be perceived as a confident, authentic person.”
Also, “People who have a very stable sense of self, regardless of their present circumstances, tend to be long-term thinkers.”
2. Motivation
This is your fuel. Consistency is important when it comes to motivation because this will sustain you through the necessary mundane tasks too. Ideally, find a way to feel inspired by the dull activities too (get in a state of ‘flow’) since they are helping you reach your goal.
Most motivation needs to come from within you. Recent research on motivation published in Daniel Pink’s book, Drive, finds that money and material gain rarely drive us – especially with work that is interesting, creative and self-directed.
3. Focus
Being clear about what the most important task is and doing it first is what ‘winners’ do. The challenge is shutting out all the distractions and interruptions. The good news is that getting better in this area is possible with practice, firm boundaries and self-discipline. Practice can also mean making sure you prepare well – for a meeting, presentation or performance.
Conversely, “sometimes not focusing during idle moments gives us the solution to problems.”
4. Emotional Balance
You don’t want your emotions to take control of your brain – successful people do things whether they feel like it or not. Recognizing and anticipating the emotional responses of yourself and others means you know when to stop, start and adjust emotions to fit into any given situation.
For example, when musician B.B. King feared a fight might break out at a concert, he would deliberately change the lineup of his songs and play something upbeat to change the mood of the crowd.
5. Memory
We all use past experiences to evaluate ourselves; the winner’s brain makes sure it is improve performance. In other words, such people don’t beat themselves up and dwell on failure. They seek ways to grow and be proactive. They use their memory to make predictions about the future that can help them reach their goals.
Being able to look farther ahead means you can consider better the consequences of your potential actions and adjust your strategy. Practice helps strengthen your memory too – especially useful if you need to recall information when you are under pressure. Ideally you want this to get to automatic pilot – why it is mandatory training for physicians, firefighters, FBI agents and pilots.
6. Resilience
Making mistakes is human. We don’t get what we want every time. The journey does not always go according to plan. The winner’s brain bounces back faster and reframes failures into lessons to work to their advantage.
It’s like speed dating: meeting a lot of people makes tolerating failure easier and can strengthen your resilience until a great fit for you comes along. Remember the BEST hitters in baseball only connect on one out of three.
In addition, winner’s have an internal locus of control which means they believe they can take charge of much of their destiny – not just blame their past, wait for the phone to ring or to get a sign from a higher power.
Also, you cannot outperform your self-image. But you can build this up stepping out of your comfort zone gradually and consistently and being “willing to take a few blows to the old ego”.
7. Adaptability
Your brain has plasticity and is always changing. Winners make the most of this by adapting to changing circumstances. Because of the extensive knowledge they need to have covering 25,000 streets and thousands of places of interest, London Black Cab drivers actually reshape parts of their brains.
You can change your thinking and change the shape of parts of your brain: “it is quite literally the secret to molding a Winner’s Brain and the backbone of brainstorm tips in this book.”
“You can take control of your brain and overhaul your life.” With enough repeated thought, new neural pathways can grow denser. Isn’t that exciting news?!
Yoga, meditation and cognitive behavioral psychology can help the brain adapt too. They can slow down our racing minds, increase calm, awareness and enhance emotional detachment. Brainstem nuclei get thicker which increases serotonin – linked to us feeling a greater sense of wellbeing.
8. Brain Care
Cultivating your brain can be helped by getting lots of exercise, giving your brain rich and meaningful experiences, getting enough sleep and eating a proper diet. Increased oxygen and better blood flow help you grow neurons and prevent Alzheimer’s. “Living an interesting life full of challenges, relationships and accomplishments” stimulates neural connections.
In terms of food, everything that passes your lips goes to your brain. Essential fatty acids found in fish, eggs and nuts develop brain power. Antioxidants found in apples and blueberries in particular also help stimulate brain regeneration. Lastly, do not skimp on sleep! Seven-eight hours a night is what the authors recommend.
To sum up, there are takeaways for all of us here. Whether we need to think longer-term about how to get where we want to go, to find ways to follow through better on the less-enjoyable things we must do to reach our goals, or simply to get more sleep, good luck on your journey!
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Author: Matt Anderson, The Referral Authority, Author of Fearless Referrals
Tags: Matt Anderson, Referrals:Clients
