Why you now obey your devices more than your mother

How influential is your mother?   Your mother—like most wise individuals—may instruct you to eat more vegetables, get more sleep and exercise, reduce your stress level, and do countless other things, but… How often do you immediately follow her advice upon hearing it?...

Don’t follow orders; pause and ask

Fast. Easy to work with. Get things done. Yes, the seal of approval for efficient knowledge workers. But wait. Knowledge workers are supposed to think too. Plus be agile and flexible.    The implications? Take time to pause for the cause. When we’re crazy busy trying...

What your brain needs for optimal performance

Last week’s blog post Why your brain needs exercise triggered a range of reactions. Some loved it, a few questioned it, and others hated it to such a degree that they unsubscribed from any future posts and newsletters. No one though yet has asked these two questions:...

Why your brain needs exercise

Want to increase your focus, reduce stress and improve your well-being? Take time to exercise your mind in addition to your body. By training yourself─and your mind─to be more mindful, you’re able to improve your ability to pay attention and your cognitive control....

To improve recall, use social learning

What’s been the biggest value of the pilot brain-based facilitation skills program I’m now completing with the NeuroLeadership Institute? Experiencing the AGES model as a student and grasping its power to make learning fun, sticky and invigorating. AGES stands for...

Saccharine surplus vs. nice as a vice

Two competing trends are on a collision course, one primarily external and the other internal. Will we experience a multi-car crash or a capitulation? The “saccharine surplus” movement—as I’ve named it─is the tendency for companies to strong-arm customers to say not...

5 lessons from the last frontier, our brain

What’s the last frontier left on earth to explore and conquer? Our brain. In the past 10 years, scientists have learned more about the brain than in all previous decades combined. Yet, many mysteries remain around this three-pound mass that consumes a disproportionate...

Are you guilty of using wordos?

Happy birthday, Wordnik! Originally incorporated on February 29, 2008, Wordnik is celebrating its first birthday since its successful 2015 Kickstarter campaign to add a million missing words to the dictionary. Wordnik’s mission is to “find and share as many words of...

Focus on inattention and inertia to initiate action

Our brains are hardwired for inattention and inertia. Once you accept that, it’s easier to understand why we resist change, such as the new procurement system, the new terminology for the business units, the new benefit call center, and just about anything else that’s...