Robert Cooper, Author at Exclusivia

Why does this matter? Especially with our long to-do lists and the constant feeling that we’re each so busy…

The hard-wired brain mistakes “being busy”–the feeling of non-stop effort–with making more progress on priorities. Unfortunately, that “progress” can be mostly an illusion. It”s easy to get lost in this cerebral and sensory swamp of automatic and mostly mindless “doing.”

Let’s interrupt this pattern. Glance at today’s schedule. Commit to completing one specific task or meeting today five minutes earlier than planned–and devote this time to creatively streamlining and the remainder of today and tomorrow so that you can make greater measured progress on your top priorities… Note: Devote the final minute of these five minutes to reviewing and re-committing to your “To Don’t List”–which can matter even more than your To-Do List.

I think we could build a case that the biggest difference between the most successful highest performers in the world and everyone else, is that they have learned to individualize the changes they make and the improvements that they set in motion.

They are also different in the way they learn and how they instinctively want to apply the learning. That’s a huge difference between the best performers and all the rest. They link learning and initiative. The rest of the world seems engulfed in information.

The illusion we have is that information is knowledge and that is growth. It’s neither knowledge nor growth. As we’re learning things, we have to make these things our own. In what ways might they improve our life? our difference making? How could they uplift the people around us in the bigger world? We have to be testing that. We’re pilot testers and almost all human beings miss that.

We are each a one of a kind human being. There’s never been another you, and there never will be again. That neuro individuality or bio individuality needs to be honored. So just because something worked for someone else, doesn’t mean it will work for you.

There’s a lot of noise and information about one size fits all programs and strategies. An example of this might be diets or fitness programs as well as countless others. Do this, do that, and it worked for this person therefore it must work for all…. It might have worked for someone else as an individual, but programs are often promoted as if they will work for all of us the same way, and it doesn’t.So it increases the frustration.

We have all kinds of slippage and failures along the way. But if only we pause to adjust these ideas and strategies to our unique goals, our unique temperament, drive, purpose, missions and life priorities; then we might make it fit to us. Adjust it. Test it. Sense, “Is this better for me?”

All the the highest performers and teams across all kinds of industries and professions, do this testing and tailoring of everything. In moments, they just become more curious, how might this work for me? Where might I be able to test it first? How would I know if it’s working or not?

If you track through a busy day of the highest performers in the world. They are making breakthroughs and succeeding at measurably higher levels than everyone else. They make it look easy, and everyone observes and questions how they do it.

A big part of it, is they move through every single day with this awareness and this curiosity about what is possible here. What is possible in this interaction? this choice? this moment? this day? this week? This type of curiosity in neuroscience is so powerful. We call it the need for cognition.

We need more of it every single day. So we can sense deeper to be able to see what other people don’t and see what might be possible uniquely for us to make more of a difference, to have a better life along the way. Yet, too often, we miss it.

So set that reminder to pause ahead of each decision and each interaction, to ask “What is possible and what truly matters?”

An essay by Tony Schwartz in the New York Times, “Addicted to Distraction,” has created a lot of buzz, including being the most emailed piece from the newspaper in the days after it appeared. The buzz is deserved: Schwartz describes a phenomenon that plagues many people—the seemingly irresistible draw of the internet for “the brain’s craving for novelty, constant stimulation, and immediate gratification”—and he compellingly describes his own efforts to overcome it.
As a neuroscientist who has worked with organizations and their leaders for three decades, I would like to expand a little on Schwartz’s observations and suggest a larger phenomenon that might be even more important. Schwartz attributes our distractibility to a specific “addiction” to various forms of instantly-available information, and writes, “Like lab rats and drug addicts, we need more and more to get the same effect.”
It is valuable to recognize that our brains are wired for distraction, not for paying attention, and so distraction is just our brains having their way with us, as they always do if we don’t consciously manage them. In many ways, not only related to distraction, our brains’ hardwired tendencies move us away from our hopes and expectations for ourselves, not closer to those hopes and expectations. We are hardwired to be at less than our best most of the time, as our best intentions are hijacked all day long by our brains.
Regarding distraction, our brains have two independent systems related to attention: one for paying attention, and another one for being distracted. The paying-attention system is what scientists call “top-down”: you manage it with your conscious mind, but the being-distracted system is “bottom-up”: it happens automatically. The top-down paying-attention system has to be deployed by you; the bottom-up getting-distracted system has a life of its own. As one neuroscientist has put it, “The mind is always trying to wander, every chance it gets.”
Schwartz quotes Nicholas Carr: ““The net is designed to be an interruption system, a machine geared to dividing attention.” No, the net is what it is. We, and our enthusiastic brains, find interruptions and diversions appealing, and the net simply services that. Research shows that we’re just as distracted walking down the street as we are in front of a computer. It’s how we’re built.
It’s easy to imagine why our brains might be wired in this way. Flitting attention might have kept our distant ancestors safe from sudden attacks from predators, or more attuned to opportunities for hunting or foraging. It also could be that often the things we switch our attention to are just as important or valuable as the things we divert our attention from. Whatever the evolutionary or practical reason, our brains are as they are, and they want what they want.
There are scores of other kinds of brain wiring that are detrimental to our biggest dreams. They might not be as apparent or infuriating as the urge to distraction, but they’re unhelpful individually, and cumulatively their effects can be very severe. For example, there’s the inclination to view situations, other people, and even ourselves negatively—“negativity bias,” as neuroscientists call it. How costly can it be to have instant negative reactions (which often are not even apparent to the conscious brain) that hold us back from constructive engagement, or that cause us to dwell on our current and past shortcomings instead of our strengths or our future potential?
There’s the brain’s incessant observation of ourselves in relationship to others, the comparing and calibrating that can leave us satisfied with less than our best if it’s as good as others are doing, or that leads us to seek to fit in rather than being our own unique selves. When neuroscientists isolated the parts of the brain that enforce conformity to social expectations, the lead researcher said, “We have shown the mechanisms of what is probably the most fundamental social mistake—that of being too different from others.”
Other brain wiring has other potential negative consequences. It can make us too fearful of change; too committed to less-than-fully-effective reactions and habits; too quick to judge others; too ready to give up before we have given our best; too inclined to drift, on autopilot, through too much of each day.
In short, our brains often make choices for us that are different from what we actually want for ourselves at our best. Tony Schwartz put in a lot of effort to change that regarding distraction, and we’re potentially better off from his example. We also know, of course, that pieces like Schwartz’s may also get emailed and tweeted not as a serious incentive to change, but because they confirm and even subliminally reinforce the idea that this is just how life is—ain’t it awful, but maybe inevitable and even kind of amusing, too, in a misery-loves-company way?
Schwartz, after all, had resources that most people don’t have: among other things, a background in behavior change; no boss demanding instant responses; and a month-long vacation to wean himself from distraction. Bravo for him, many might say, while not feeling that they have the same skills, freedom, and flexibility—or even willpower—that he has.
The “addiction,” as he notes, will never be fully conquered. The constant vigilance that he describes is essential: he writes, “As often as possible, I try to ask myself, ‘Is this really what I want to be doing?’ If the answer is no, the next question is, ‘What could I be doing that would feel more productive, or satisfying, or relaxing?’ ” Unlike distraction, many of the brain’s traps that I mentioned above, such as negativity, comparing, drifting, and unwarranted fear, are so natural and comfortable to us that we may not even recognize that they are occurring or are interfering with the attainment of our goals, unless we learn about them and attune ourselves to noticing them. Once we start noticing them, they can be addressed by asking questions like the ones that Schwartz asks himself when he starts to become distracted: Where is my brain taking me right now? Is that really where I want to? What would be a better choice?
Schwartz also applied systems to the distraction issue. He writes of setting priorities at night and then working on them the next morning in 60-to-90-minute interruption-free periods. A great idea that changes lives when it’s implemented with commitment. Other systems can be created to be sure that the other obstacles our brains create are also challenged, not just in the moment but systematically.
By hard-wired nature, our brains are primed to do what they’re built to do. Recognizing the many ways in which they are structured to thwart our higher hopes for ourselves is a critical step for changing things. As I have written in previous posts, new studies suggest that we can add vital new brain cells through effortful successful learning—even in very brief bursts of focus—and, via self-directed or intentional neuroplasticity, we can change or guide some of our wiring into more optimal performance states for work and life.
But as a starting point, I think, we will be best served by a greatly heightened awareness of the traps our brains set for us, along with knowing practical, straightforward workarounds to sidestep those traps. The workarounds can even grow into new and more effective habits if they’re consistently applied. The more that we learn to manage our brains instead of letting them manage us, the greater our potential accomplishments and satisfactions will be.

The hard-wired brain craves coasting. Chrono-performance research shows how today’s top performers reject this tendency and act to reflectively reengineer their performance. Glance ahead and sense the clear difference.

Faith Shapes Our Destiny
Faith matters to highest human performance, yet it is uniquely and deeply personal. It can be religious or spiritual faith. It can be connected to specific holidays on the calendar, and it can also transcend that. Faith can evolve, deepen, and grow, transforming us along the way. It aligns with, and often encompasses, our deepest values and highest purpose.

Martin Luther King reminded us:
“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

Reflectively Reengineer Ways You Can Become an Ever-Greater Asset to Your Mission and Team
The greatest aspirations, responsibility, and honor come from being part of a team devoted to accomplishing the highest possible missions and goals. This fuels a deep intrinsic drive for each team member to be ever more indispensable to the team—rather than just centering on their own performance.

Here is one description of what a Tier One team values. Take a few minutes to ponder how you measure up to this—and what you could improve right away:

We are looking for a combination of toughness, heart, resourcefulness, ingenuity, adaptability, integrity, and relentless drive to be an ever-greater asset, never a liability, to the team. We must gauge a person’s selflessness, depth, drive, and true being.

Now, Elevate Your Reach Toward What is Possible
Top-performing teams embrace the commitment to plan and execute No-Fail Missions—On their top priorities and biggest goals, there is no Plan B.

The simple, neuroscience-based rationale is this: Having a smaller goal available enables the brain to hope for the best but increasingly be satisfied with performing small. Today’s top teams are always stretching forward and upward in their faith, commitment, learning, selflessness, and application, beyond “good” and “great” to the highest level of what is possible.

This is a perfect time of year for you to transcend the norm and go a little farther, carrying more than your share. What small, specific changes or adjustments will you make? And for your team? How can you ignite and incorporate more of this spirit into your life and work?

In The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, Abraham Maslow wrote:

“To be ultimately at peace,
a person must keep becoming
all that he can potentially become.”

Commit again now.
Deeper and higher.
Earn it every day.
Never stop.

This is a month when the hard-wired brain, by habit, coasts through too many days, as it unconsciously gets lost in the busyness and noise that precede the holidays beyond.

November presents the leadership challenge of inadvertently “going missing” and failing to see or capture the many previously unseen opportunities that the month can bring. The brain’s hard-wired habit of seeking comfort, not growth, is deeply grooved and lightning fast. The hard-wired brain innately tends to get caught up in what matters least instead of focusing on what matters most. Today’s top leaders see this and commit to work around those traps—while their competitors are coasting or falling behind.

Prioritize Moments of Remembrance
Since this is a special month for gratitude, commit to prioritizing what you remember and what you emphasize, and how you genuinely convey your gratitude to those who mean the most to you.

This will not happen in the best ways unless you choose to do it. Start by vividly envisioning and feeling your five most important memories of significant turning points across your life. Take the time you need to really feel the significance of those occasions. Do not allow your thoughts to turn negative. Our brains are wired to think of at least two bad things for every good thing we remember. That’s one of the unfortunate ways that we are harmed by what neuroscientists call our negativity bias. Focus on the positive things that are stored more deeply in your brain.

Then jot notes as you ask yourself: For each of these five special memories—Who were the people who were there to mentor, encourage, or support you?

Every morning across the weeks ahead, soak in these feelings of gratitude—and decide how you might express appreciation to those people or their families for being there for you. It is likely that if you do this regularly, you will start remembering additional important moments, and feeling thankful for more people who have helped you with your successes.

Pausing to feel authentic gratitude, even if only for a few seconds, expands the brain’s sense of abundance—helping us move past our typical hard-wired competitive mindset, which hinders performance more than it helps it. Research has shown that competitive thoughts and expressions undermine the brain’s performance powers – but thinking in those ways is so common that we fail to recognize how it is limiting us. Thinking about others who have helped you at crucial moments in your life demonstrates how often it is true that no one must lose for you to win.

Deepen Your Cognitive Flexibility (and Curiosity or Intellectual Humility)
Today’s top leaders and teams make the deliberate commitment to elevate above typical November coasting and do more than ever to create the best future. It can come down to enhancing your level of curiosity—often even for moments across each day, sensing and looking more openly and more deeply at life and how you tend to work and lead.
November is a month to purposefully get out of your own way, but few leaders ever see or do this. You can. While IQ tests cannot measure them, “cognitive flexibility” and “intellectual humility” are keys to learning and creativity. More than ever before, “fluid intelligence” wins the biggest of today’s opportunities—and tomorrow’s—while traditional “crystallized intelligence” (repeating and polishing the past) speeds your decline. Cognitive flexibility and intellectual humility enable you to learn from, and genuinely respect, diversity, and inclusion—one unique human being and team at a time. And it builds greater resilience and well-being as you move forward into a better future—better because you are making it so.

In the most practical sense, this reminds me of the words of the French essayist and critic Charles Du Bos:
“The important thing is this:
to be able at any moment to
sacrifice what we are for what we could become.”

While your competitors are comfortably coasting through this month, forgetting their potential to become more and accomplish more, use this opportunity to extend your senses in simple yet powerful new ways to build more abundance.

A small mind shift can change a pattern of drooping and fading to one of rising and surpassing.

What Do You Expect?

Muhammad Ali called himself “The Best Ever” before he became that. He told an interviewer, “Once belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen, and more opportunities appear.”

Noble laureate Daniel Kahneman showed that from a neuroscience perspective, the wholehearted embrace of higher expectations does indeed ignite the senses, heart, and nervous system to subconsciously elevate performance in pursuit of these potential outcomes.

In essence, the rising story we tell ourselves about the pursuit of what is possible in our lives and work will raise the odds that it will become the story of our lives and work.

Just as powerfully, the brain develops an aversion to failing to achieve such higher outcomes, and that desire not to fall short is even stronger inside the brain and nervous system for igniting more of the necessary elevations in curiosity, learning, ingenuity, and growth.

What new multisensory visualizations and related brief stories about such expectations this month would strike the deepest chord in you?

The language we choose to use, and the feelings and images associated with it, grow us in unexpectedly powerful new ways.

Few of the “best” ever keep getting better. Their hard-wired brains settle in and repeat what got them here. That rut is never going to be enough to fend off the rising stars who are inspired to reach for what is possible—far beyond today’s norm or best.

On the intense journey to one of their many rugby world championships, the New Zealand All Blacks set themselves an internal challenge to embrace higher expectations: “To set higher records than we ever have before or that anyone else believes we can achieve.”

They posted their own ancient quote on the locker room wall:

Aim for the highest clouds, so that if you miss them, you will hit the peak of a higher mountain than ever before.

If you expect more from yourself and you let that expectation sink in and guide you, you can set records. How can you use opportunities today and tomorrow to personally elevate, visualize, feel, and embrace higher expectations in your life and work than you ever have before?

At key times across each busy year, we each need to re-evaluate and then purposefully elevate our energy and mindset—by sharpening focus and drive despite the neuroscience revelations that most people are unwittingly and unconsciously lowering theirs.

The gift in this is that it gives you a fresh chance to break away from the norm as you gauge where you really are today in your perspective, vision, and actions, versus where you want to be in all the key areas of your life and work.

Devote some brief but deep reflective time to honestly assess how you approach the challenges and opportunities of life and work. There are three possible mindsets that deeply affect those things.

 A “Fixed Mindset,” which is a mental vantage point or lens that limits you to polishing the past, resisting change, and clutching routines, and where possibility and achievement are immediately and automatically resisted or blocked.
Typical phrases used by those with a Fixed Mindset include “That’s just the way I am” and “That’s not how we do it [or have always done it] here…”
 A “Growth Mindset,” which is where you are instinctively curious and open to growth and change, especially incremental changes. The problem—according to Stanford scientist Carol Dweck, who pioneered this research—is that a surprising majority of the people who self-rate as having a growth mindset, don’t—in reality, they are fixed in their past-based attitudes, reactions, and approaches to life and work. (Dweck calls this a “False Growth Mindset”).
If you truly believe you have a growth mindset, list the specific array of improvements over the past days and weeks in your life and work that measurably confirm it.
 A “Leading-Edge Mindset” is exemplified by the disciplined daring and experiences of the highest tier of performers. It’s a mindset where you continually question yesterday’s assumptions, habits, attitudes, and routines, asking “What is truly possible?” and refusing to accept the norm or industry-best practices as “as good as it gets.” You seek out insights, discoveries, and data that enable you to learn, test, and tailor ever more of the right improvements and breakthroughs as you drive toward the outer edges of what is possible, even when others believe it’s “impossible.”

The reason a mindset is so powerful is that it is the lens through which you see yourself and the world around you, and a Leading-Edge Mindset becomes the instinctive way you learn to override your hard-wired brain’s clutching of comfort and routine and the past, and instead you elevate your ongoing vantage point and learn to embrace being constructively discontented and productively uncomfortable as you contrast what is common or normal versus what may be—and almost always is—possible.
More and more of today’s record-setting leaders, professionals, and teams are studying and adopting a Leading-Edge Mindset, and they strive day after day to keep making it more effective and successful in outcomes created, not just in effort expended or time spent.

You can choose your mindset. So be sure you and everyone on your team commits to live and lead from the leading edge. All day, every day. Doing that changes how you and they sense and seize more of the right opportunities. It ignites initiative and helps everyone provide more of the right encouragement, touch points, and nudges to those around them.
It becomes second nature—and creates a more open mind and discovery-oriented attitude about the things that matter most.

If you are not committed to continual constructive discomfort from
leading-edge learning and application, nothing can help you.

If you are committed to continual constructive discomfort from
leading-edge learning and application, nothing can stop you.

We are living in a comfort crisis. In so many ways, we are more comfortable in our lives and work than at any time in history. The hardwired brain loves the comfort-seeking and comfort-clutching attitudes and behaviors that fill up the lives of so many people. In most settings, the people around us, and all our competitors, are in his trap, too, so we hardly notice how much it is eroding our potential effectiveness.

There are evolutionary mind, heart, and body benefits of extending the edges of your comfort zones in how you live, lead, and learn. One of the most important choices and commitments you can make like the world’s best leaders and teams make every day is to embrace more of the discomfort of learning at the leading edge of record-setting possibilities and applying that learning. This uncomfortable approach to leadership and living can significantly improve your health and happiness and deepen and expand your understanding of what it means to be most human and alive. Here are several ways you can embrace more of the right discomfort:

Notice. Start observing how often your conscious and subconscious minds default toward mental and physical comfort. Doing what you usually do, in the way you usually do it. Sitting instead of standing. Sinking into your chair. Spacing out. Going on autopilot. Resisting new learning. Delaying fitness actions. “Polishing the past” instead of testing new ways forward. And so on. Make notes—what you discover and focus on drives growth!

Raise the resistance. As you know, muscles only grow from increased resistance and variation in angles of exercise. As leaders, to streamline and align how you think, move, plan, create, and set records, you must add more resistance. Seek new learning that stretches your mind and senses. Challenge yourself to learn at least three or four valuable new things each day and put them into practice. (Are you noticing how your brain is balking at even these relatively simple suggestions?) Carry a notepad and pen so that new and potentially challenging ideas don’t just slip away. Remember the research we mentioned on how “a pen in hand” making notes crushes the mediocre effectiveness of just thinking or typing at a keyboard.

Stand and move more than before. For over a decade, I have worked almost exclusively at a standup desk; using headphones and earphones; only sitting down at a conference table or desk to change things up, participate in a video conference, etc. I am sure you have seen the research on how deadly sitting (for too long) can be. Focus on this simple adjustment!

Left on autopilot, your brain will coax you into slumping and slouching, which cuts off up to a third of the blood and oxygen to your brain and senses. Along with standing and moving more, add some balanced load or resistance, such as wearing a light adjustable backpack with some weight in it. Another idea: Part of each day at my standing desk, when I am not having personal meetings with clients, I wear a GoRuck Weighted Training Vest: https://www.goruck.com/products/training-weight-vest; with 10 or 20 pound plates. Scientific studies now show that humans were designed to ruck, or carry weight, and this builds both brain and body fitness in ways almost no one embraces today—except Tier 1 leaders and teams.

Challenge your edges and step back more often to get ahead.” Test adding a mind-clearing, do-nothing “step backs,” of just a minute or two, every hour or two across the day to recharge your mind and body. When you can, step outside, into nature—which can multiply the positive benefits that almost everyone misses. Recent studies show this is vital for sustaining peak performance.
According to a summary of research on what is called the brain’s “default mode network,” here’s what I taught: “When we stop responding to external stimuli for just a few moments, our brains don’t do nothing, they do the most important things, helping us to have the resilience, fortitude, insight, and vision to guide us toward our most successful and satisfying lives.”

Our greatest strengths are born not from talent but from our willingness to embrace discomfort and challenge on the path to what is truly possible in life and work.

The immediate benefits and long-term return on these small, specific upgrades will pay off for you and your team many times over.

This is a month when the hard-wired brain, by habit, aims for Thanksgiving and coasts through too many days, as it unconsciously gets lost in the busyness and noise that precede the holidays beyond.

November presents the leadership challenge of inadvertently “going missing” and failing to see or capture the many previously unseen opportunities that the month can bring. The brain’s hard-wired habit of seeking comfort, not growth, is deeply grooved and lightning-fast. The hard-wired brain innately tends to get caught up in what matters least instead of focusing on what matters most. Today’s top leaders see this and commit to work around those traps—while their competitors are coasting or falling behind.

This will not happen in the best ways unless you choose to do it.

Start by vividly envisioning and feeling your five most important memories of significant turning points across your life. Take the time you need to really feel the significance of those occasions. Do not allow your thoughts to turn negative. Our brains are wired to think of at least two bad things for every good thing we remember. That’s one of the unfortunate ways that we are harmed by what neuroscientists call our negativity bias. Focus on the positive things that are stored more deeply in your brain.

Then jot notes as you ask yourself: For each of these five special memories—Who were the people who were there to mentor, encourage, or support you?

Pausing to feel authentic gratitude, even if only for a few seconds, expands the brain’s sense of abundance—helping us move past our typical hard-wired competitive mindset, which actually hinders performance more than it helps it. Research has shown that competitive thoughts and expressions undermine the brain’s performance powers – but thinking in those ways is so common that we fail to recognize how it is actually limiting us. Thinking about others who have helped you at crucial moments in your life demonstrates how often it is true that no one has to lose for you to win.

November is a month to purposefully get out of your own way, but few leaders ever see or do this. You can. While IQ tests cannot measure them, “cognitive flexibility” and “intellectual humility” are keys to learning and creativity. More than ever before, “fluid intelligence” wins the biggest of today’s opportunities—and tomorrow’s—while traditional “crystallized intelligence” (repeating and polishing the past) speeds your decline. Cognitive flexibility and intellectual humility enable you to learn from, and genuinely respect, diversity, and inclusion—one unique human being and team at a time. And it builds greater resilience and well-being as you move forward into a better future—better because you are making it so.