What not to do!
I came across a wonderfully BrainClumsy post on LinkedIn today. “13 Things You Should Give Up If You Want To Be Successful” it was called. It listed all the things you really should abandon:
1. Give Up On The Unhealthy Lifestyle
2. Give Up The Short-term Mindset
3. Give Up On Playing Small
4. Give Up Your Excuses
5. Give Up The Fixed Mindset
6. Give Up Believing In The “Magic Bullet”
7. Give Up Your Perfectionism
8. Give Up Multi-tasking
9. Give Up Your Need to Control Everything
10. Give Up On Saying YES To Things That Don’t Support Your Goals
11. Give Up The Toxic People
12. Give Up Your Need To Be Liked
13. Give Up Your Dependency on Social Media & Television
It may sound intuitively right: Give up what you don’t want. But from a brain perspective, it is not. Rather it is BrainClumsy to “quit” things. If you want your brain to help you create the change – you need to turn all these 13 things upside down and define which paths you want to strengthen instead (say “Focus” or “Do one thing at a time” rather than “Quit multitasking” etc. etc.). From then on, you need to gently and consistently redirect your attention and behaviour to walk down that path when you are not.
Much self-help advice is futile and counterproductive because this fundamental principle of the brain is unknown to most people. The essence of self-directed neuroplasticity is that we can change the “wiring” of our brains via the way we think and the things we focus on.
Thus, it becomes essential to primarily keep in mind what we want to strengthen (and not what we want to weaken, delete or abandon). The principle of “the ironic boomerang” implies that the brain notices the specific words in a sentence (such as “perfectionism” in “Give up your perfectionism”) and seems to ignore or simply miss the abstract ones (such as “give up”) thereby nurturing the things and habits we really want less of. Also, by staring at (say) perfectionism we miss the chance of identifying and walking down much more useful paths (such as “inner calm”, “flexibility” and “the oh well ability”).
Good intentions do not equal successful implementations. In fact, humans often find that the road towards a change of habit is a lot bumpier and filled with stones than they initially imagined. It is often down to our fundamental misunderstanding that you can “give up”, “quit” and “abandon” and that “stop doing” something will ever be a sufficiently relevant order to give to the brain. It’s not. The brain needs you to paint the picture of where you want it to go.
You can view the blog post that inspired me to write this here.
Sociologist (MA) Anette Prehn is a prolific keynote speaker, trainer, and bestselling non-fiction author, who has inspired hundreds of thousands across the planet, since establishing her business in 2005.
Anette Prehn is on a mission to make neuroscience available to all, i.e. easy to understand, remember and apply. She has worked in the field of NeuroLeadership since 2009 and has taught the rules of the brain to leaders and employees since, thus strengthening their leadership, learning, habit change, cognitive flexibility, and mental health.
Highly skilled at explaining complex ideas in down-to-earth and accessible language, and impossible to pigeonhole, Anette Prehn has developed techniques that make it easy for people to turn their brain into an ally rather than an opponent. The Framestorm® method, that is patented and trademarked, teaches people to flip and widen their perspective, thus paving the way for innovation, emotion regulation and making the most of whatever life throws at you.
In 2018-2019, Anette chaired The National Stress Panel, established by six Danish cabinet ministers. The panel comprised 10 experts and was tasked with identifying 12 actions to radically influence the stress level experienced in Denmark in recent years as well as to engage the Danish public in understanding what stress is and does and how mental health can be strengthened.
Her clients include Maersk, GN Group, Grundfos, Danfoss, Siemens, Bosch, Ericsson, Roche, Lego, Novo Nordic, Man Diesel and Turbo, Nordea, Danske Bank, 40+ Danish municipalities and 100+ educational institutions and schools.
She has written more than 20 books and mini books, among these "BrainSmart Leadership" and "Play Your Brain".
Throughout these many years, her clients have been powerfully inspired to apply neuroscience to work situations, but they have also asked her::
“How do I more specifically apply the logics of the brain to parenting?” and “I can see my kids gaining from knowing this as well. What’s the best way to introduce them to these tools?”
Being the mother of two and the stepmother of two, those questions got Anette Prehn going.
She therefore started adding to her portfolio how parents, teachers and nursery nurses can become more BrainSmart, thus nuturing environments that help kids learn, thrive and regulate emotions relevantly.
In her Brain Friends series, she is sharing with children and teenagers how to strike up a friendship with their brain rather than being at the receiving end of its impulses and habits.
Contact Anette by email: