A friend on twitter sent me this prayer today and I wanted to share it with everyone.  These are words we can live by, regardless of whether you are trying to achieve self-actualization, achieve improved happiness or just survive the day.

Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself. I mean, do not be disheartened by your imperfections, but always rise up with fresh courage. I am glad you make a fresh beginning daily. There is no better means of attainment to the spiritual life than by continually beginning again, and never thinking that we have done enough…. Those who are fretted by their own failings will not correct them. All profitable corrections come from a calm and peaceful mind.

This is a continuation of an article that can be found here. You should read that article first to get the most value out of this post.  Enjoy!

Ken Ritchie

Intuitively, I’ve grown up rather “creatively” so I don’t tend to reach intentionally for L or R, but rather interplay and balance.

R-Mode Accessing Techniques:

• - draw, sketch, doodle, diagram, flowcharts
• - listen to music
• - I drive and carry a voice recorder to capture the words (but it doesn’t capture the visualizations)
• - I walk around (bodily-kinesthetic or haptic but spatial none the less)
• - Analogies come easily, and I look for parallels and similes
• - I seem to favor the visual-structural modeling and sketching as my break- from-L-mode tactic

Comment: I met Ken many years ago and find him to be very right brain or at least able to go to extreme right brain when needed. Its nice that he still has lots of R-Mode shifting exercises he uses.  Ken tells me that he is very visual but others have assessed him as being very even L-Mode / R-Mode.

Robert Poulk

Read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (P.S.) by Robert Pursig. It’s not a  self-help book by any stretch of the  imagination, but his writings on the two ways to sense the world around us are foundational to this discussion.  It is one  of the 3 books that are required reading  for all analysts/troubleshooters. There are 2 ways to assimilate the world around us, the way engineers do and the way the other 99.99% of the population does. This is about learning to grok your customer’s context so you can solve the problem rather than just fix the symptom.

Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection (Sherlock Holmes) — we spend 75% of our time troubleshooting our own assumptions. These stories are all about not doing that. \

The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle’s-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions (1st book) — Technologists and troubleshooters especially are not always so smart about the world of people. This book contains everything you need to know to survive the world in which we practice our craft.

The trick is in seeing that every problem  can be solved with linear methods only at the micro level, and then only if you  understand the macro context that  surrounds the symptoms. Performing  tests to refine the symptoms is actually a  way to generate points that  help define  the context.

Michael Spayd

I like Hermann’s http://www.hbdi.com/home/ work on brain stuff (wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herrmann_Brain_Dominance_Instrument.

I don’t think per se about going right brain, but I do think a lot about getting myself and others into their body, which I think has fundamentally the same effect.

I use  these practices:
- meditation
- shamanic journeying
- simple body-based exercises
- systemic constellations
- drumming - chanting
- dancing, acting/theatre exercises (e.g., Lee Devin who wrote Artful Making and teaches theatre),
- playback theatre (a form of improv)
- and in general just create my own rituals.

Martin van Laerhoven

The best way to enhance and improve both sides is by meditation. Not only will meditation help you synchronize and improve the use of both hemispheres, search for whole brain function or see example link

Meditation will also help you to use the brain over a wider range. Where mostly we are in the awakened state in Beta, with meditation you become capable to also utilize Alpha, Theta and Delta while in an awakened state.

I have used Holosync Meditation for more then 6 years and I can tell you it has helped me tremendous. See last link, here also more on the previous issues:

Links:
http://www.guide-to-self-help-techniques.com/brainwave-synchronization.html
http://web-us.com/brainwavesfunction.htm
http://www.centerpointe.com/

Comment: I meditate and it helps me more than I  can attest here, so I know thew value of meditation. Two of the three links above refer to products for sale. I have not used these and cannot attest to their value. So buyer beware. However, if you try them, please let me know what your opinions are about the products.  I do use some guided visualization audio CDs for helping me meditate at times and find them to be wonderful. The ones I use are locally made (in Richmond VA) and as well I make my own custom guided visualization CDs (not for sale, just for my use).

Michael Haskell

I also draw as a hobby, something I recently rediscovered from grade school and earlier and something that I had forgotten about completely until taking a drawing class in college. I’m more of a right-brainer by nature, so it’s the left braining that I’m more apt to try to focus on.

That said, one exercise I’ve found to be helpful in “getting the whole picture” of things is Edward De Bono’s ‘Thinking Caps’ (Six Thinking Hats). I try to exercise his paradigm when planning or troubleshooting things.

I don’t mind the questions, I think people should communicate as much as possible, especially in cases of development and understanding.

Comment: I’ve read several of De Bono’s books and love the concepts. I practice some modified versions of these when I brainstorm as an individual. I’ve not been successful applying the six hats in teams. My teams tend to have problems that need solutions that seem to benefit from other types of contrast brainstorming.

Next Up

I’ll continue to post on this topic as I learn more and as others provide their input. I will write a post about my practices for Brain Lateralization but that may be in a week two.

Book’s Mentioned In This Article

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (P.S.)

Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection (Sherlock Holmes)

The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle’s-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions

Six Thinking Hats

Achieving Excellence through Self-Actualization

Are you on the road to self-actualization. Are you striving to achieve excellence?

If you want to accelerate your self-actualization and achieve flow you should read on. Many people have found these two practices to be helpful on this vital journey!

1. Metacognition – thinking about your thinking (and then improving your thinking)
2. Intentional Brain Lateralization – being able to shift from left to right and back again (L-Mode – R-Mode shifting) when you want to

When you are skilled at these two practices and aligned with your strengths you will achieve flow routinely! And  you will be unstoppable! On to your own personal greatness! “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.”

This post is about Brain Lateralization. Maybe I’ll post something about Meta-cognition in the future but until then you can read Are You On the Road to Greatness?

The Question

Yesterday I posed this question on linkedin and sent the question to many of my contacts and friends. The responses are pouring in. And even though I’m sure I’ll get more, I wanted to summarize them here now for your benefit:

Do you have any special ways that you shift from left brain to right brain (L-Mode to R-Mode) to help solve problems?

Details: I’m taking Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain to help my creative process and am able to go R-Mode easily. But I’m hoping I can set up some exercises to help others that are L-Mode dominate so they can practice going R-Mode. You can see my drawings at http://vitaljourney.org/tag/drawing/

Why You Should Care About Brain Lateralization

If you are unfamiliar with the Left – Right Brain (L-Mode, R-Mode) brain dominance concepts you might want to visit wikipedia and this site at MIT. And for a really great write up, Betty Edward’s book, The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain details the benefits of Right Brain thinking and is one of the best general explanations of Brain Lateralization.

We do know this:

• Most people are left brain thinkers (logical, analytical, verbal)
• Society tends to be oriented towards left brain thinking
• Solutions to complex problems require 1) left brain analysis of the problem (critical thinking) and left brain collection of information about the problem and potential solutions 2) right brain synthesis of the facts and data collected by the left brain and 3) right brain usage in the development of solutions
• Schools (K12), while acknowledging the importance of right brain thinking, tend to discourage right brain thinking
• Performance and visual artists (musicians, painters, sculptors, etc.) use the right brain extensively

And the kicker is that long term life satisfaction and happiness requires achievement of flow and when you are engaged in right brain thinking, you achieve flow. See the Dr. Martin Seligman’s video at the bottom of this post to learn more about long term happiness and flow.

Answers

And now for the answers. I have summarized and shortened some of the answers for brevity. Where I have permission I will highlight the person’s full name and blog URL.  My comments are noted as such below.

Cody

I’ve been using both sides of my brain since the time I started to really dig into the web… I would design with one app, and code in another. Constantly switching back and forth from Photoshop to vim. Color palettes to php… I think web developers/designers are folks that are forced to do this day in and day out.

Comment: I have to agree. My job as a web professional requires dramatic and sometimes extreme lateralization from left to right and back again.

Ann

Try the Whack on the Side of the Head books.

Tony

These days, I’m a professional photographer. Thus, my ability to switch from Left (managing the highly technical equipment of high end photography) to Right (to produce effective fashion and art) is crucial to my field. It’s understanding that the thought processes for the two are led by two different goals: The Left is lead by a desire for a define answer that is achieved through logical thinking while the Right is lead by emotions (my own and the “viewers’”). I have to switch from “technical solving” mode to “emotionally creative” mode in a split second and back again, sometimes even taking on tracks of thinking for both sides simultaneously.

How does one learn how to do this if not born with it? I have to train my assistants and other photographers to do this often. “Think” versus “Feel”. Think too much, you ruin the feeling. Feel too much, you have a hard time thinking and solving. Do both right and you’re brilliant. Again, I think that it must come from an understanding of how these things are different so that they are applied at the appropriate times and application. If I’m looking at art or creating something artistic, I must feel my way through it. How does it make me FEEL? If I need to solve a math problem, my feelings about it are totally irrelevant. I should follow a logical process in that event. So what do I suggest as practice for achieving such mental switching? Look at a lot of art and focus on how it makes you feel. Explore these feelings by thinking about the associations you are making to cause these feelings. You likely moving to Right and primed for creating something of your own. To make the trip back, freeze frame that mental mode and immediately look for something that must be solved logically and through a define process.

Here is an example that applies to me. I might open a fashion magazine or some form of artistic photography magazine and look at the images there. Right side: how does the image make me feel? How can I create something to evoke that same feeling? Left side: What equipment was used to make that image? What lighting and camera settings do I need to create that image?

Comment: I wanted to edit down Tony’s response but I left it whole because of the amount of useful information packed in his words.  Tony is a photographer who used to be a marketing expert and just picked up a camera one day and it felt natural. He is extraordinary in his talents.  When I worked with him years ago he was able to go extreme left and right. He continues that tradition.

Ami

Another R-brain exercise - sketch your non-dominant hand after taking one good look at it, then don’t look again til finished. Use a single unbroken line to do this.

Read the rest of this entry »

A friend of mine (twitter @kcreamer) recently told me about a great blog site litemind.com that is “Exploring ways to use our mind efficiently.” I’m finding this site to be a very fun and productive read since I have an interest in Whole Brain Thinking and the impact that brain dominance plays in our own abilities to be creative, achieve success in life and work, and be happy. I’ve only just begun to explore the site but in that process have discovered that twitter user @lucianop is the site owner and primary author.

These recent posts at litemind.com can help us begin to understand how greatness can be achieved. You might want to go read these and come back for my commentary:

Einstein’s Secret to Amazing Problem Solving (and 10 Specific Ways You Can Use It)

This article deals with the importance of critical thinking and problem definition in solving big problems.

How to be Great: Rising Above the Talent Myth

This article deals with the myth that we are born great. It lays out some practical steps for what is termed “Deliberate Practice” for achieving greatness. One thing is certain, when striving for greatness; it takes lots of practice and work.

Deliberate Practice, Self Actualization and Meta Cognition

The process of achieving Deliberate Practice can help you achieve Self Actualization. The ability to look at your own performance, in a non-emotional, non-judgmental manner is so very important on the road to Self Actualization. And Self-Actualization is required for sustained greatness.

Meta-Cognition, the thinking about your thinking, is key to the ability to look at ones-self and examine the good and the bad, and then deciding what to change and how. Progress toward greatness cannot occur without this introspection and correction. Yet many of us get hung up emotionally about our failing and faults and then come to believe that we can never eliminate or overcome our failings. Our failing become self-limiting beliefs.

Strengths Alignment

To harness your greatness you need alignment of strengths, goals and values and the identification and elimination of self-limiting beliefs. Otherwise, the effectiveness of deliberate practice is limited.

People have innate strengths, as highlighted in the Gallop Organizations StrenghsFinder book and assessment (also known as Strengths Finder) and the VIA strengths discussed by Dr. Martin Seligman When your work or play is aligned with your strengths (your core abilities), your ability to achieve mastery rises exponentially. In addition, people that operate in alignment usually can achieve “flow” or right brain thinking easily. And as one of the leading positive psychologists Dr. Seligman has learned, being in the flow leads to sustained happiness or achieving the so called “Good Life”. Deliberate Practice becomes much easier when you love your work and this love emanates from the alignment of strengths and the resulting flow.

You can read more about strengths at Why You Need To Assess Your Strengths Now.

Self-Limiting Beliefs

Additionally we are conditioned to believe that we are limited beings. Most of us travel through life with many self-limiting beliefs. Teachers, peers, parents, friends and others condition us from very early on to believe that we can’t do this and we can’t do that. These beliefs then form self imposed barriers to our own achievements. Truly great people identify their self-limiting beliefs (or don’t have them to start with) and work to tear them down and replace them with greatness beliefs. Tiger Woods belief that he would be greater that Jack Nicklaus is a great example of replacing self-limiting beliefs with beliefs of greatness. Consider as well the 4 minute mile. Until Roger Bannister broke this barrier in 1954 no one thought it possible (other than Roger). Then a month and a half later his record was broken. And since then, the sub-4 minute mile has become routine.

People wanting to achieve greatness have to start off with a belief system that the impossible is possible, and that they will be the one to make it happen.

In future articles, I will outline simple steps for identifying and eliminating self-limiting beliefs and replacing them with greatness beliefs.

What do Robotics, The Closet and Conflict Resolution have to do with Self Actualization? Good Question you ask! Bear with me as I weave this real story of self actualization that touched my heart and that of many others.

Self Actualization

According to Wikipedia, people that are self-actualized are characterized by these traits:

• They embrace reality and facts rather than denying truth.
• They are spontaneous.
• They are interested in solving problems.
• They are accepting of themselves and others and lack prejudice.

While there are many people in the world that are self actualized, I would dare say, there are many more that are not. But who can challenge the benefit of self actualization? Knowing who you are, and being able to grow your own abilities in a non-judgmental way can help you achieve whatever greatness you want out of life. Be that the greatness of self-fulfillment, joy and happiness, financial abundance or that of achieving specific and distinct other goals in life. Anyone want to climb a mountain or sail around the world?

Parents and teachers of middle school and high school kids know all too well that getting them to understand that they need to embrace, in a positive and constructive manner, their own realities and seek ways to improve, is one of the greater challenges of being a parent. And teaching them to be non-judgmental is very tough, especially as parents carry their own judgments with them through life.

Robotics

I have been participating with US First Robotics competitions for three years as a Coach and Tournament Judge. Yesterday (November 15, 2008) I had the privilege to Judge 12 First Lego League (FLL) teams in the Robot Engineering category at the Maggie Walker Richmond Tournament for Virginia First.

The Closet and Conflict Resolution

We were interviewing one of the teams at the tournament during engineering judging and heard this story of The Closet. To put it in their own words:

We are all strong headed and only want to use our own ideas. We don’t want to listen to the other team member’s ideas!

Yet while we were interviewing them we did not see any evidence of this Strong Headed-ness. In fact, they supported each other and respected each other in a forum that easily can get out of control. So we probed a little and they told us the way they dealt with these conflicts it to get the parties involved, get them in a large closet with a mediator and work through their disagreements. They leave the closet agreeing on a direction and even more remarkable, the other team members don’t participate in the conflict resolution at all. Yes, they agree to agree! How remarkable for these young people. This process leads to respect, allows for brainstorming and non-judgmental spontaneity and allows for disagreement since they have a mature and respectful process for conflict resolution.

In the end, they collectively came to understand their team and individual realities, strengths and limitations and found a way to solve problems that was positive, mature and non-judgmental. Clearly they are on the road to self-actualization.

We can all learn from these young people. Discover your differences, embrace them and resolve them.

USFIRST Robotics

If you have children that need a creative, engineering like outlet for expression, or even just want them to gain experience with teamwork, research, presentations and have fun doing it. Consider having them join a USFIRST Robotics team. For FLL (ages 9 – 14) teams start to form in the early spring usually. Ask around and you may find a existing team, or consider starting one of your own. You can always post a comment here and I will find you your local or state FIRST representative to contact for more information. Support USFIRST. It does make a difference!

Now go hug your child and embrace them for they are our future!