Will Power and Your Brain!
It’s the second week of January and how it’s going with all those New Year Resolutions?
If like millions of us the answer is not very well, don’t despair. Just blame it on the brain!
Recent Research
There is some interesting research about will power which suggests that if we try to focus on making too many changes at once the prefrontal cortex, (the part of the brain responsible for willpower), becomes overloaded. And so we give into temptation. This part of the brain is also responsible for short term memory and problem solving, among other things, so it’s pretty busy most of the time!
In one experiment, led by Baba Shiv at Stanford University, U.S.A., several dozen undergraduates were divided into two groups. One group was given a two-digit number to remember, while the second group was given a seven-digit number. Then they were told to walk down the hall, where they were offered either a slice of chocolate cake or a bowl of fruit salad.
The students with seven numbers to remember were nearly twice as likely to choose the cake as students given two digits. The reason, according to Prof. Shiv, is that those extra numbers took up valuable space in the brain—they were a “cognitive load”—making it harder to resist a fattening dessert. In other words, willpower is so weak, and the prefrontal cortex is so overtaxed, that all it takes is five extra bits of information before the brain starts to give in to temptation.
That’s an amazing piece of information and seems to suggest that strength of character and positive thinking has little to do with losing weight! (And this was an experiment about food choices). But, suggests, Jonah Lehrer, this is not so different from simply thinking about the brain as a muscle like any other. Your leg muscles get tired after a lot of activity and so does your brain. It too needs a bit of rest and recuperation!
Catch 22?
Other experiments have also shown that exerting willpower successfully requires energy, which is… er… food in some form or another! And as losing weight is often one of the most common resolutions across the western world for both health and vanity, and that requires us to eat less, a vicious circle seems to be emerging here!
But don’t despair yet. There are tactics you can employ. One is the art of distraction. For example, do you remember hearing about the marshmallow experiment some time ago?
The Marshmallow Tale
Research by Walter Mischel at Columbia University et al, has demonstrated that people who are better at delaying gratification don’t necessarily have more restraint. Instead, they seem to be better at finding ways to get tempting thoughts out of their minds.
Prof. Mischel found that four-year-old children who are better at resisting the temptation of eating a marshmallow—(they get a second marshmallow if they can wait for 20 minutes)—are the ones who sing songs, play with their shoelaces or pretend the marshmallow is a cloud. In other words, they’re able to temporarily clear the temptation from their mind. They seem to instinctively know that will power is weak and so focus on something else as a distraction.
And you can practise self control in other areas of your life and strengthen your will power muscle!
Do let me know how you’re getting on with any new goals for 2010 and any tips you might share.
2010!
Hogmanay
Having a Scottish father (and now a Scottish husband) Hogmanay, or New Year’s Eve, has always been a significant time in my life. Apart from when a tiny baby I cannot remember a time when I haven’t stayed up to see the new year in, and tonight will be no different.
In our household it was always a time of great celebration and partying with family, more so than Christmas. However, as a child I couldn’t understand why, when what was a clearly a fun time, would often be tinged with sadness as glasses were rasied to ‘absent friends’ at midnight.
Honouring the Past
It was only as I grew older that I began to appreciate this honouring of the past year and what had gone before; I still do it myself (and yes, I still have to wipe away a wee tear-it’s a family tradition! My Mum calls it ‘piping your eye!))
But I also take time out to think about the year past in a positive light (Pollyanna is never far away!) and I hope you can find a little time to do the same. Whether the past year has been great, or not so great for you, it’s part of you and you will have grown and developed professionally and personally throughout it.
Reflect
What have you learned about yourself this year? What new skills have you acquired at work or at home, at leisure? Maybe a difficult economic climate has caused you to dig deep into your reserves and discover strengths you never knew you had? Maybe you have seen new qualities in your friends, in yourself? Perhaps you read something that touched you in a significant way or added to your knowledge? Maybe you started a new job or qualification?
Take time out to reflect on all the positives of 2009 and take that with you into 2010. Leave behind any old hurts where they belong- a new year is beginning with fresh opportunities for you!
Whatever success means to you – family, wealth, career, health, and happiness, go for it in 2010! Grab the new year with both hands, take the opportunities that present themselves and be the best you can!
Happy New Year!
As the old year closes, reflect awhile.
“Many people look forward to the New Year for a new start on old habits.” ~Unknown
Well, perhaps, but we can always change!
If you feel your resolutions are always a rehash of your previous ones, just take a few moments out to reflect upon your past year. What have been your highlights? Don’t dwell too long on what went wrong, but look again at what went right. And resolve to do more of the going right stuff and leave the not so good behind in 2009!
Become a Problem Solver!
Read on for some tips on boosting your problem solving ability! Learn how to be a slow thinker and also slow your stress levels.
For many of us the start of each New Year means making resolutions, usually ones we think will improve the quality of our lives like losing weight, being more fit, giving up nicotine. You may find that you keep making the same resolutions year after year!
You are not alone. Richard Wiseman, a UK psychologist, undertook some research into new year resolutions; his team tracked more than 3,000 people attempting to achieve a range of things including losing weight, using the gym, quitting smoking or drinking less.
Men and Women ARE Different
They concluded that New Year’s Eve is not a great time for making resolutions (!) and that you have more chance of success if you plan ahead for the changes you want to make. They also found some interesting gender differences in achieving success. For men, the secret of success lies in setting specific goals and focusing on the rewards you will get if you achieve them; for women, the best way to keep a resolution is to tell people about it. At the start of the project 52% of the participants were confident of success but Dr Wiseman found that only 12% actually achieved their goals.
Men
Men were 22% more likely to succeed when they set goals for themselves, such as losing a pound a week rather than losing weight in general. In addition, men tended to succeed when they focused on rewards, such as losing weight to become more attractive to the opposite sex. “Men may be more likely to adopt a macho attitude and have unrealistic expectations, and so simple goal setting helps them achieve more,” said Dr. Wiseman.
Women
Women were more successful at keeping their resolutions when they told family and friends about their plans. They also responded better to encouragement not to give up if they reverted to old habits temporarily – such as treating a chocolate binge as a setback rather than failure. Telling others increased women’s chance of keeping resolutions by 10%, although sometimes they were reluctant to do so, losing this source of support.
Most Likely to Succeed
The researchers found that the resolutions most likely to succeed were:
Enjoy life more, (32% of people stayed with it)
Improve your fitness (29%)
Lose weight (28%)
Be more organised (27%)
Quit or cut down drinking (25%)
Quit or cut down smoking (24%)
Try Nothing
However, I have another suggestion for an enriched life this year. Book some space in your diary to do…..nothing! Read on and find out how.
We know quite a lot about how the brain works and how important it is to exercise it and keep mentally active. We know that successful people are whole brain thinkers; they utilise both the left logical side of their brains along with their creative right handed side and we know many techniques to help this along.
But there is a potential flaw in this approach- the creative and visual techniques, initially designed to help you relax and tap into deeper parts of your self or subconscious are now being used as problem solving techniques in themselves.
Brainstorming, for example, is now a mainstream tool, but it started life as a creative right brain activity. Once we start putting pressure on ourselves to come up with a result in a time limited way we can lose the very essence of what we were striving for, tapping into our creative subconscious.
Tip of the Tongue
How many times in a day is information on the tip of your tongue and yet the more you try to remember that person’s name or a phone number, the more it eludes you? Yet when you give up and stop trying to remember and relax, suddenly it comes to you!
Guy Claxton has written a fascinating book on this topic (although be warned, it’s not light reading) called ‘Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind’. In it he argues that we overvalue the hare brain, by which he means the intellectual thought and quick wit highly prized in the world of work and business. Our minds works at different speeds.
For example, if we’re in a crisis situation like avoiding a road accident, we may go into auto pilot and react instinctively using all the driving skills we have acquired without doing any of it consciously. Afterwards we may marvel that we did it at all and at how fast our brain was working!
Then there is logical reasoned thought. We employ this type of thinking when we’re trying to solve a problem at work, when we deliberate over something and come up with a solution, like the mechanic tutting over your engine, or the board members debating a particular agenda item. Generally someone who is good at this type of thinking we think of as clever or bright.
There is a third way of thinking though which is the one I want to encourage to you experiment with. It is not as purposeful and is more ‘dreamy’ in style.
It’s when we ruminate or mull things over- often without realising that we are doing it. It’s taking time out from our hectic schedule to just stop and look out of the window, or simply close your eyes and take yourself to somewhere that makes you serene and tranquil, real or imaginary. Make time in your life to simply ‘stand and stare’*.
Slow Thinking
The idea of slow thinking feels contrary to our Western take on problem solving. However, there has been some scientific research that demonstrates that the more patient, slow type of thinking is more effective than deliberate, logical thinking when we are trying to solve a problem that is ill defined, when we don’t know exactly what we are looking for, what the parameters are, or simply where to start.
You will probably have experienced this already, for example, how often do good ideas come to you at odd moments, maybe in the shower, or when you are on the brink of sleep and your brain waves have slowed but you are still awake? (Incidentally, this is why visualisations are so successful as they take your mind to that point just before sleep but leave you mentally alert).
Allowing your mind time to unwind is not a luxury, or being lazy, but positively good for you!
Contemplate
To tap into these slow ways of knowing, or our inner wisdom, we need to throw off for a time our Western need to do everything fast and know why we are doing it and have a theory to explain it. This is something known by many of the great thinkers of our time. Einstein, for example, was often found just sitting in his office staring into space and Sir John Harvey Jones (ex-Chair of ICI) said that a meeting without long silences meant that no one was thinking.
In my training for many years now I have tried to build in some reflective space and to encourage participants just to wander for a while, actually or figuratively, to allow some of the ideas and strategies just to percolate round in their head. It’s something we rarely get a chance to do in the fast paced world of work but it costs nothing and can greatly enhance your problem solving capacities, your mental well being, and your enjoyment of life!
So, put some time in your diary now. Slow Thinking Time (STT). And see what happens – you may be surprised! And if colleagues scoff, tell them you are employing a well known technique from Einstein!
Suggestions for Further Reading available from Amazon
Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind by Guy Claxton
* This quote is from a poem by William Henry Davies, called ‘Leisure’.
