Train your brain 8/9 and 9/9

Hello,

Now the last chapter of Harry Alder’s book “Train your brain”. I embedded a list at Amazon of all the great Harry Alder self-help books.

Let us start with chapter 9: Three Week Peak Performance Plan - that is all, just read the chapter if you want to go on the 21 day exercise.

Before that, read chapter 8: Techniques to Train your brain

• Balloon Diagrams - they are forerunners to mindmaps and allow you to represent your thoughts in a graphical way
• Brainstorming - you should be familiar with that and don’t forget the most important rule not to interrupt anyone else or ridicule someone else’s thought/idea
• Brainwriting - graphically as Brainsketching (one puts ideas on a board graphically, same rules as at Brainstorming applies) or as Brainwriting Pool (one writes 4 ideas on a piece of paper and shares them in the middle, same rules as at Brainstorming again)
• Chunking - you take a word/problem and chunk it down or up
• The Concept Fan - you work your ideas backwards; it reminds me of DBM where you e.g. ask yourself “I like to drive a car” - What kind of car you like to drive? How do you like to drive it? Why is it that you like to drive a car? You simply go into more detail and ask for the right motivation and solution to a problem. Sometimes you discover that the obvious answer is not right because the problem described is not the real problem. This is similar to a method mentioned as Repetitive Why Analysis.
• SWOTs - using the SWOT technique: Strenght, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. Again, DBM has a tool called “FADS” - Fear, Angst, Development, Safety. The more dynamic and the more you might want to move in the model, e.g. you could draw a cross on the floor and stand in the situation, the better. Have someone to guide you through it!
• Flowscapes - you write down what comes to your mind when thinking of the problem. you then rank them time wise A, B, C - arrange the base list graphically to have a flow-chart. You then examine the points and see where the problem lies.
• Force Field Analysis - showing similar to SWOT which forces are for or against a situation
• “How to” Diagram - working backwards asking how to do certain things - very similar to the concept fan
• Metaphors and Analogies - using stories and examples from out of the workplace to find a new idea.
• Reversal - you change your point of view by 180 degrees. This can be physically, mentally, imaginative or just by putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.
• Root Cause Checklist - checking whether your answers touch the root of the problem. Going deeper into possible solutions.
• Sleight of Mouth - reframing technique from NLP which is described in detail in Wikipedia.

Let me thank Harry Alder for this great book. It summarizes a lot of NLP, common sense and how to use certain techniques to be more creative, perform better and have a greater life. Enjoy reading it in detail and start changing your life today.

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Train your Brain 6/9 and 7/9

Making your own luck

Alder talks about Serendipity - a word I had to look up to be honest. It is about noticing the unnoticeable. About having experience in different fields and ambiguity to find a new way of doing things. Question anything unusual. And, come up with the great idea on how to make life more worthwhile or earn millions of pounds. Whatever might be your goal?

Getting into a creative state of mind

Without wanting to rush, chapter 6 was only a few pages but great examples! Now, back to creativity. Change your self-belief and stimulate your mind. You need to relax, to might want to bounce ideas off other people’s thought/ideas, you like to talk about a problem, draw or write it down…. - do a self-appraisal and find out when you did what and why you were creative. You might have to change your current situation or routine to get into the state of mind you really want.

Alder offers help on “changing a belief”.

1. Identify the disempowering belief
2. Decide on an empowering replacement belief
3. Choose three supportive behaviours
4. Mentally rehearse your new behaviours

Alder then offers more help on changing beliefs, behaviour, relaxation and refers to the Disney technique. I do not want to go into much detail but his techniques are great and similar to meditation. While meditation really tries clearing the brain and thoughts, his relaxation technique opens up new thoughts and pleasant feelings.

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There are only 9 chapters not 21

Feel a little stupid. I summarize the chapters of Alders book and realise there are only 9 chapters. His programme is over 21 days at the end of the book, ergo you really would need to buy it to get the most of it. However, the chapter summaries and techniques and thoughts are here.

Anyone buys me that T-Shirt?!

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Train your brain 5/9

I hope I do not bore the audience but Alder has really valid points in his book. Whilst some think it is nothing new and more of a guru talk I really think that Alder has a nice guideline into everyday life with things that really work. The next chapter is about:

Turning Stress into Success

The first headline is that people perform better under stress up to a level they cannot cope. This of course is a different level for each individual. So, how do we turn pressure into peak performance? And, please do not confuse pressure and stress, as pressure is something you definitely want to get rid of.

I remember a good friend saying “my stress is all positive stress” - sure, if you start re-framing it (NLP technique), surely it can work as a motivator rather than limiting you. Who does not know those days in the office where you really need to get things done? You create pressure on yourself, artificial stress, and just work your things off to go home at 5. Human flight and fight response I suppose.

Harry Alder has a great graph on the level of pressure in his book. I found another one at Google Search at a university website:

I remember studying that at university. But, I am still not sure how to measure your own anxiety level. Guess it is try-and-error and it is all about yourself. If you do sports, live a healthy life-style and sleep a lot, your anxiety level might be higher and so your performance. However, if you are easily stressed, cannot take any pressure, then you might not have such a high peak performance, a lower anxiety level.

What about the long-run? Can we all perform at peak performance with a high anxiety level? Is this peak performance something to wish for? This comes back to ideas of Work-Life-Balance (this year is the 10th anniversary of WLB) and the idea of relaxing after a proper stretch.

Alder offers a guideline on how to make your own personal pressure training plan. He also talks about re-framing, acceptance of the situation and changing of mentally attitudes. Those NLP techniques are brilliant to make the most of the situation. But do not believe you are a super human - Alder refers to sensory acuity, something John from Sensory Systems often refers to.

This is the first chapter where Alder offers an action plan - mental action plan. It is a great way of changing your attitude towards life and life situations. Best refer in detail to his book!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

cb consulting - enhancing performance from within

Train your brain 3/9 and 4/9

We moving quickly: Two-Sided Thinking

In this chapter it is all about the left brain (convergent thinking) and right brain (divergent thinking). Convergent looking for a single solution, divergent opens up possibilities. There is vertical and lateral thinking. Is the latter one “out of the box” thinking? de Bono wrote an interesting book about lateral thinking.

This chapter I found quite poor, touching on thinking processes, feelings and thinking spectrum. Nothing new that we have two sides of the brain that work differently and can be used for different purposes. Supposedly the right side is less used and one can train brain activity for creativity. When I studied I had my desk, wall and room cluttered with so many different coloured things, sparking my brain with new inputs all the time. That worked really well for me. I tried finding a picture but did not. A shame….(maybe better ,-))

Live Changing Lessons In Creativity

This chapter talks about intuition and that you take a break in order to re-cap things and think them over again. It suggest after GIGO (garbage in - garbage out) to really get involved in different things. Extend your hobbies, interests and develop a richer lifestyle. New experiences, challenges, new places, travel - anything that can spark a new input that helps and will be connected to an old problem. That is what we are looking for, isn’t it?

Another common sense rule is to have a good night’s sleep before making a decision, or to have some exercise. Anything again that relaxes the brain whilst the unconscious is still working on the problem. We are just not aware of it. So relax, take it easy before you make any major decisions. I assume that is the same principle that if you get an email from your boss saying “the work you have done is crap” - then you should rather walk the anger off or meditate for 10 minutes rather then press “reply” straight away. The heat of affection usually does not help.

Alder also suggests that a good question is 80% of a good answer; meaning if you really know where you want to go and end up with, ask the right questions to filter the right answers. Get away from the crowds, take on a different thinking hat (de Bono) and look at the problem from different angles and see what you can do differently.

That is what I will do now. I will walk away and leave you with this brain-twister.

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Train your brain 2/9

World Changing Creativity

In this chapter it is all about taking your mind off things to come up with the answer to a question that you already know in your unconscious. Musicians, actors, entrepreneurs, scientists and so on have experienced it. Everyone of us has experienced it. But there does not seem to be a how and why?

What I would be interested in is how do you spark your creativity? How do you think outside the box? Einstein who “sat on light beam”.

On my homepage I have Alan Alda’s quote:

Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you’re doing. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.

Going into the wilderness of intuition and on the other hand Alder says take your mind off. Going for a walk, sleeping on the sofa, doing something different. Was it not proven that people who go outside for a cigarette break during their working day come up with more ideas than others. But, you do not have to start smoking in order to be creative.

Anything will do, e.g. you are working on a problem on how to find a job. If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always got. Be creative, think outside the box. Start thinking about other ways on how to find the right job and then do not think about it for a while. Your unconscious still works on it and bang…..it might just happen while you do the dishes, you think of a new way and find the job you always wanted.

Nothing spectacular I suppose - not a new technique at all.

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Train your brain 1/9

Now I found the ultimate book by Dr. Harry Alder in my shelf for this blog:

Train your brain:

The ultimate 21 day mental skills programme for peak performance

The synopsis reads as:

Scientific breakthroughs in neurobiological research have identified how extraordinary feats of creativity can be achieved, and how we can all reach this inspired state. This is a discussion of what it means to operate in a state of “flow”, or peak performance, when anything and everything seems possible. Alder shows readers how to identify, achieve and “capture” this heightened state, so that they can experience peak performance at will and take the hit-and-miss element out of personal achievement. The chapters cover: the mind-body experience; right and left brain thinking; achieving a creative state of mind; developing and trusting intuition and insights; creating creativity; turning pressure into peak performance; and creative problem solving. There are also simple practical exercises and examples of what may be achieved when a person is in a state of “flow”.

I am flabbergasted. This book needs to be a guideline for the next 21 days - or as often as I can. Let me aim to get this book’s ideas across by the end of August, it will absolutely fit into the idea of NLP revisited. Dr. Harry Alder has written a lot of very interesting NLP books, surely most of the techniques are not new but show a way of using NLP. So here we go with session one (please note that my aim is not to replace the book but to discuss the chapters, you should still buy the book and other books by Harry and I will not copy any extracts here):

1 Flashes and Flow - Introduction

Flashes are described as sudden ideas or solutions to a problem that show up in your brain. Flow in the contrary are great performances, e.g. once you pass the pain barrier running a marathon, that let you do great things. This body-mind partnership can be trained and peak performance is defined as a holistic, body-mind experience. The process is unconscious but already O’Connor and Seymour state the learning process as:

1. unconscious incompetence
2. conscious incompetence
3. conscious competence
4. unconscious competence

So no exercises but a purely introduction to which I might add the following list of left and right brain “capabilities”.

Left Brain: Logical, Sequential, Rational, Analytical, Objective, Looks at parts

Right Brain: Random, Intuitive, Holistic, Synthesizing, Subjective, Looks at wholes

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