In This Edition:
1.
A Young Man's Fancy
2.
Take to the Neural Highway
3.
Creativity Springs Anew
4.
Better Decisions Through Better Thinking
A Young Man's Fancy
One year, up in Connecticut, for a three day period during
mid-February,
the temperature reached an astounding seventy degrees. Everything began to
bloom. The smell of spring was in the air. Then a storm hit, vanquishing
every bud. The resulting spring was lousy and one mystery of nature had
been revealed to me. Spring, essentially, equaled sufficient temperature.
Take to the Neural Highway
The mystery of the brain is a bit more complex. As one passes 35, 40,
45, and 50 years of age, slowly we each become familiar with certain thought
and activity patterns that literally form neural pathways in the brain. All
the while, we don't realize what is occurring. These patterns literally
become second nature to us although they are not necessarily permanent...
unless we allow them to be. If you're not careful, the neural pathways you
develop will define and eventually rule the rest of your career.
It's not that people can't change in the advancing ages; it's that
their neural pathways become more firmly entrenched. Fortunately, you can
change, at any age, but it requires effort. Simply knowing that neural
pathways exist and that they can be re-routed helped to free me from some of
my own preconceived notions regarding work, life, and what I want to get
done.
Years ago I set out on a course which I think has paid off and could
work for you as well. I take different paths home, hence helping to form new
neural pathways. I listen to classical music occasionally, although it is
not my favorite type of music. I read magazines that are otherwise outside
of my immediate interest area.
I attend movies, plays and concerts that are not necessarily my first
choices. As long as I am exposed to different plots, characters, scenery,
sounds and other ways of seeing the world, I consider the experience to be
beneficial. I visit Websites that display viewpoints with which I don't
necessarily agree. I read articles by authors whose bias is obvious. I ask
young people for their opinion and I ask people older than myself for their
opinion.
Creativity Springs Anew
I know people who will take courses on topics completely out of
their field, who try new dishes at restaurants, and who strive to keep
themselves open to new ideas. The odd and wonderful thing is you can do all
kinds of new and different activities in your personal life that will serve
to stimulate your creativity at work, break free of attachment, and overcome
the inertia of immobility when you want to get things done.
Here are a few ideas:
At work:
Take a planned 15-minute break twice daily
Eat away from your desk
Brainstorm with people not in your department
Furnish your workspace with plants, pictures, or art that inspires you
Learn some aspect of the organization that is completely foreign to
you
Away from work:
Change your magazine subscriptions
Read a literary novel or epic
Dress differently for different occasions
Relax on your porch
Install a hammock in your backyard
In general, to develop your awareness:
Take an impromptu weekend trip to someplace you haven't visited
Enroll in a course
Join a book discussion group
Volunteer at a charity
Take up a new sport
Better Decisions Through Better Thinking
The ultimate pay-off these types of activities generate is the ability
to have a free and open mind, to make decisions on reasonably accurate
observations, as well as drawing upon one's collective experience.
In a Fast Company article "Decisions, Decisions," Anna Muoio says,
"Strip down to essentials, business is about one thing: making decisions.
We're always deciding something, from the small and daily such as which
emails to answer, what meetings to have, to the macro and strategic such as
what product to launch and when..."
Sooooooo.... how could you improve your
decision-making ability, starting today, without doing a lot more work?
