It's No Secret!!

In this complex world there are two key ways to ensure you enjoy your achievements and continue to develop as a person.

1. Find a meaningful way to contribute to the world.
2. Engage and actively participate in life long learning.

This month’s Scientific American Mind discusses new findings demonstrating that Neurogenesis (the production of new neurons in the brain ie new brain cells) is possible. This overrides the long held belief that neurons could neither divide nor emerge from elsewhere. This emerging research showing that neurons do divide, may be great news for those of you concerned about your wild days and the amount of neurones you fried along the way!

One of the important factors in keeping brains wired for high achievement is keeping them active, hence the importance of life long learning. My question for you is “What learning and development plans do you have for the next six months, next 2 years, next 5 years?”. I can hear some of you saying “I don’t have time for courses” or “I’ve done that – I don’t need any more”.

BEWARE of those thoughts. They are signs of rigid thinking and becoming a creature of the comfort zone. The Comfort zone for many is actually a DISCOMFORT zone. Wallowing in the same old limiting thought patterns and repeating the same old excuses when in reality there are many ways to find more joy in life. It’s not a secret – if you want to find and maintain that joy of life you have to continually pursue new or alternative pathways to learning and growing to keep your neurons fit and firing.

This month’s newsletter is about taking active steps to develop your brain by thinking about life long learning. I will share some of my learnings from the past few weeks when I have done a number of programs. We will also talk about linking your learning to making a contribution in the world which has been proven to be significant in creating lasting happiness for people.

The first program I did was a two day workshop in Brisbane learning mind mapping skills and techniques for enhancing memory, speed reading and study skills. It utilizes the wonderful work of Tony Buzan and gave me some great inspiration for enhancing FIRE UP’s future workshops. Go to www.mindwerx.com to download trial mindmapping software or take a creativity test.

The second and third workshops took me to Vancouver, Canada where over ten years ago I began a wonderful learning journey at Erickson College with the inspiring work of Marilyn Atkinson. This was a compelling opportunity for me to reconnect with great friends and enjoy the incredible beauty of Vancouver while immersing myself into two programs one exploring the human spirit at the deepest level and the other team coaching. This links to the conversation about how we contribute to making the world a better place.

Many components of these two programs were familiar but there is a deepening of understanding that comes when one hears information again with new experiences to link the information to and new ways of integrating at a deeper level. The first program, Advance the Spirit, was a four day experiential workshop exploring consciousness which is based on the work of David Hawkins. The second program was a two day Team Coaching program looking at how to utilize transformational tools in teams.

I’m excited about how I can synthesize my new learnings to benefit all those I work and live with and how I can integrate them into the FIRE UP programs. The trip exceeded my expectations in many ways and I want to share with you some of the precious pieces of wisdom that crossed my path in those two weeks.

During this trip I was curious about exploring why it is that some people can leave a program and achieve amazing things and others get stuck in the same cycle as before. When asking Marilyn for her thoughts she simply answered “Contribution”. Reflecting on this during my flight home it struck me that perhaps one of the keys to succeeding is the ability to go beyond self and make significant contributions to enhancing the lives of others. This goes to thinking at much greater levels of how to best make that contribution in a way that has a positive sustainable impact with others.

As often happens in training courses some of the most profound learnings come from participant input and the wonderful informal discussions that occur during breaks. In Vancouver when we were discussing ways in which we can operate from higher levels of consciousness (ie commitment and acceptance of others). One of my fellow learners, Cheryl, put forward a simple theory that she uses when doing Grid Leadership seminars. It goes to the heart of thinking about contribution in a way that is holistic.

The theory considers:

INTENTION ACTION IMPACT

Think about the contribution you want to make:

What is your intention?
What action is necessary to change the intention from a thought to a result?
What impact will it have?
Have you considered any possible negative impacts?

What creates positive change is when we can have a great feedback loop happening between all these components.

An illustration of the idea of contribution is the way that people approach solving poverty and dealing with complex social issues in developing countries. My experience in South Africa showed the despite the good intentions to help others, often the action taken leads to unsustainable development and has a negative impact. For example just giving food and money does not educate the next generation how to become sustainable – it goes back to the biblical example of teach a man to fish vs give him a fish.

Unless we have a good way of evaluating the impact of our actions we can get lost in the confusion of wanting to have been right in the action taken but seeing a negative result. The form of your contribution needs to be well thought out.

Continuing that conversation, Margaret suggested a reason for people being stuck is that they are too busy being right. Often what stops people from learning or contributing is what Margaret described from a previous program she had done in which people identified the four unworkable thoughts:

1. I’d rather be right than get what I really want.
2. Something outside me has to change.
3. The grass is greener on the other side.
4. I have no choice.

These are a lovely summary of some of the reasons why people get stuck and avoid learning or making a positive contribution.

People may potentially want to make a significant contribution to humanity but perhaps a past effort didn’t get the results they wanted and so have gone into fear or stepped back into a comfort zone (or as I mentioned earlier, wallowing in a discomfort zone).

Any one of the above can be debilitating but if you combine a couple of them you can have a really solid foundation for a victim mentality when a person is gripped by analysis paralysis and excuses for staying where they are.

It reminds me of a wonderful speech made earlier this year by Kobus Neethling in which he discussed the pattern of destructive thinking that people can have where tormented thoughts and anguish are predominant and as a result they take all those around them down into their depths. Have you ever know someone who was just a misery to be around?

Reflect on whether any of the four unworkable thoughts were operating for them.

One needs to learn to self evaluate effectively – to first recognise the patterns that are not conducive to living a life of joy and then be able to do something about changing those patterns. This takes us back to my initial conversation about the incredible importance of life long learning. Part of succeeding is building effective thinking. To be effective you need to be clear in your intention and then have the ability to be reflective in a way that allows one to look at the impact of current actions and use that as feedback for what may or may not need to change.

Coaching is wonderful for producing long-lasting results for people because it is an opportunity to continually evaluate your results in relation to what you wanted. Maybe a key to building more of those neurons once you leave a training course is to get a coach and get support in keeping your brain active.

It’s no secret that brain training is great for you so tell your friends and let us help to FIRE YOU UP!

Written by Kathy McKenzie

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