Whole Brain New Year Resolutions

Ever played with styrofoam gliders when you were young? I remember that when I was 10, I had a Stuka dive-bomber, a Brewster Buffalo and a P-51 Mustang (my favourite!). Assembling them was simple enough, and once the plastic nose with the propeller blade was attached, the glider is airborne. Slicing through the air, the glider cuts a sleek silhouette, and as it encounters mounting resistance, it loses speed and momentum, and quickly it hits the ground in less than 4 seconds flat after take-off.

Sound like what happens to New Year Resolutions? New Year's eve and THE LIST is out:

• No more showing up late for work
  
• No more smoking
• No more snacking in between meals
  
• No more procrastination
  
• No more delays in taking out the trash etc

By the 3rd or 4th day of the New Year, the list finds its way into the litter bin in the study. 2007 perhaps....Familiar right? Been there, done that too from over here. Over here, we are human too.

Keeping resolutions is problematic because of the approach we take. Knowing WHY we need to break a bad habit is NOT sufficient enough. Consider the fact that anyone with half an education recognises the hazards of smoking:

• Smoking is a primary cause of lung cancer
• Passive smoking affects non-smokers' health
• Smoking is an expensive habit; smokers generally pay higher insurance premiums

Yet, one only needs to look around to see that smokers are still around.

Over here at Trailblazer Trainers, we use the Whole Brain Thinking approach, pioneered by Ned Herrmann. Creator of the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument, Ned recognised 4 different thinking styles or what he called 'brain dominance', in the wake of neuroscientific research in the 1960s. These styles are:

• Rational thinking (What Ned called the L1 -Left1 style)
  
• Organised thinking (the L2- Left 2 style)
  
• Emotional/Interpersonal thinking (the R2-the Right 2 style)
  
• Holistic/Imaginative thinking (the R1- the Right 1 style)
  

The HBDI(and the other thinking preference instruments which we use: the Emergenetics and the Neethling Brain Instruments suite) measures the degree in which individuals prefer to use these styles. One result of using these instruments is that people begin to utilise their less-preferred thinking styles, so that they can better analyse situations and create solutions to these situations with a Whole Brain approach.

Rational thinking allows us to know WHY we need to keep a New Year resolution. However, we have a higher chance of success, if we use the other Thinking Styles to help us. Using the Holistic/Imaginative thinking style, we can VISUALISE the desired goal, when we finally achieve the New Year resolution. Essentially, this thinking style offers us the 'WHAT IF' (Athletes use visualisation techniques as part of their psychological preparations for competitions)

So in the case of our smoker friend, he can visualise several possibilities: that he finds that he is generally healthier, that more of his non-smoking friends connect with him more often, that he is able to afford that hi-fi set he has his eye on finally because of the savings from not smoking. Using Holistic/Imaginative thinking style, he can also brainstorm various ways he can take to get to his desired goal eg. to check himself into an addiction clinic or to go 'cold-turkey' himself.

Our smoker friend can then use Organised thinking style to help chart out HOW he wants to get there. This style helps him map out the structure of his habit-kicking venture. If he is checking himself into a clinic, then he will first have to find out the cost, duration etc, and then work out things at work.

Finally, he can use the Emotional/Interpersonal thinking style to think about WHO will benefit from his success and also WHOM he can call on to help him remain focused on keeping the New Year resolution. Even Roger Bannister called on 2 pacers: Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway to help him in running the mile in under 4-minutes, back in 1954. By sharing with them our New Year resolutions, people around us are a powerful force to help us succeed in keeping our New Year resolutions.

With that, New Year greetings from all of us at Trailblazer Trainers.

Noel Tan
Resident Philosopher