Decision Making - Keeping Your Cool - Re:Speed Secrets of a Racing Prodigy

I love speed racing (to watch, not participate in, although it was a childhood wish of mine to be a race car driver...ah yes...while most little girls were wishing for ballerina slippers I was wishing for race car helmets but that's all for another day...) where was I? Oh yes, that's one of the things that drew me to the article in the WSJ "Speed Secrets of a Racing Prodigy" about Lewis Hamilton. The article describes his racing with F1 which is Europe's Nascar but with some grueling differences.

What I found fascinating was the description of Hamilton's special skill and nerves of steel to "pass by braking - waiting longer than the other driver to hit the brake before entering a turn". The article by Darren Everson continues on to describe how he learned this special skill through preparation for it by working with Kerry Spackman, a neuroscientist employed by Hamilton's team. "Dr. Spackman tries to help drivers improve decision-making by getting them to feel a greater sense of calm." Fantastic!!! I'll say that again because the concept works in most areas of life.

"Dr. Spackman tries to help drivers improve decision-making by getting them to feel a greater sense of calm."

That's one of the goals of our coaching and one of the skills I work with clients on.
Hysteria, anxiety, stress levels, internal and interpersonal conflicts all impede our ability to make the best possible decisions at any given time.

Yes, there are people who make decisions best when under pressure but even under those circumstances they need (or have already) developed a way of maintaining internal calm that allows them to make the best decisions.

There are many ways and techniques of developing a greater sense of calmness when making decisions. Different people respond in different ways, but the goal remains the same. To stay as calm as possible in order to make the best decision possible.

Quick Tip: I worked with one client who just froze when he had to make on-the-spot decisions which was a BIG problem since his work involved many on-the-spot decisions which were crucial to his work. We worked together using a number of techniques but the one that he enjoyed the most and that worked for him was the old egg-timer technique.

I used one of those old-fangled egg-timers and set it in minute and then second increments. He was given a "problem" and had to come up with the answer/solution in the alloted time. At first even the simplest problems were impossible since it was the pressure that caused him to freeze. Eventually the time constraint wasn't a problem an he enjoyed beating the clock to come up with more and more complicated solutions.

Whatever works!

Enjoy the day your way,
RK
Rebecca Kiki Weingarten M.Sc.Ed, MFA (APA)
Daily Life Consulting

I Find the Confusion Confusing

Two issues that have been on my mind lately and manifest themselves in odd ways in people's lives, work lives and family lives.

Women, Men and Work. Two interesting articles address the topic. The Wall Street Journal article Top Executives Value Advice From a Spouse; Some Won't Ask for It by Carol Hymowitz discusses different partnership styles among executive couples. The New York Times Op-Ed When Women Rule by Nicholas D. Kristof discusses women leaders and the difficulties they face.

What's the big deal? Why is the issue of women in the workplace, in positions of power, decision makers and leaders such an issue? Why the talk? Debate? The best person for the job should do the job, regardless of gender, race or religion.

I was lucky enough to be raised in a family that was gender-blind when it came to accomplishments and abilities. I didn't even realize I might be subject to "ist" discrimination until grad school when a professor gave us an eye-opening assignment. It never dawned on me that being female might be cause for discrimination in the workplace. Needless to say I've gotten quite an education on that topic...

When I work with clients who have daughters they talk about how they want them to succeed, to be all they can be, to achieve and do great things. Why doesn't this show up in more actions regarding the world and the world of work?

The other issue that has come up often during the last few weeks is Heath Ledger, Depression with a capital "D" and depression with a small "d" as described in a terrific article in Scientific American Mind The Medicated Americans. Celebrities have been coming out of the woodwork and going into rehab in the last few weeks. People have been talking about the kinds of prescription medications they're on and how they've become a bit anxious about overmedicating. People seem more comfortable talking about meds then about getting other kinds of help.

Then there's the very disturbing (yet not surprising to me) research about young children suffering from post 9/11 trauma and PTSD. I hate to be right sometimes and this is one of those times, but after 9/11 when I was working on a joint NYC/NYS citywide Youth Programs initiative this was a major area of concern for me. I asked, suggested, encouraged anyone and everyone to get these children help. I won't even begin to discuss the "they're just children" and denial of the extent of the problem responses that I got - that was when people even wanted to discuss it. Or the shortsightedness about how long the effects of trauma of that sort can last. Last week friends and colleagues were sending me the articles "hey- isn't this what you were talking about way back when??...I remember you saying...." I wish I would have been wrong about this one.

I don't usually discuss issues of this kind here but there are times I just can't let things pass. Silence can be seen as agreement as the old saying goes.

For some odd reason many people walk around thinking that a state of constant happiness and excitement is the norm and any deviation from those feeling states is abnormal. In adults and children. So people run around trying to be happy all the time and quite frankly many of them talk to me about how exhausting that can be. People talk about their original attitudes If you don't deal with something it goes away. People are people, kids are kids, they won't remember, what do they know? They'll get over it. Best case scenario, great. But - what if? Are you willing to take that chance for yourself and the people you care about?

When working with clients one of the areas we work on is becoming able to handle the not-so-much-fun-exciting-terrific times that are an inevitable part of daily life, and live in general. Again, clients with children find that educating their children to be prepared to deal with setbacks enables them to be the best people they can be.

So be brave about what's bugging you. What gives you pause. What keeps you up at night. About the future you want for yourself and those you care about. Next, do something about it in a healthy, productive and constructive way.

Enjoy the day your way,
RK

Reading the Mind Of the Body Politic - WSJ and The Neuroethics Society

Here it comes...Big Brother is so here and it should scare everyone. Really everyone. As soon as people start using information about how brains work to predict how one might behave, we're all in big trouble. Individually and collectively, no matter what group, race, country, denomination you belong to.

Reading the Mind Of the Body Politic ran in the Wall Street Journal last week and I've been so bothered by it I couldn't let it pass without comment. A description of the article reads "A wave of research suggests political decisions often occur at the subliminal level. Alexandra Alter reports on how neuromarketers and political strategists are focusing on an uncharted electoral frontier--the brain."

Neuromarketers? Did you catch that phrase? I've known this was coming for a while now but it's scarier to read about it in the Wall Street Journal then to discuss it, and possible solutions for it, with colleagues who study the brain and mind.

The article begins with "during last Sunday's Republican presidential debate in Miami, Mitt Romney declared he was the only candidate who had stopped talking about universal health care and "actually got the job done." Across the country, in San Francisco, five volunteers watched the debate while wearing electrode-studded headsets that track electrical activity in the brain.

When Mr. Romney said the words "got the job done," there was a pronounced shift in activity in their prefrontal lobes. "They liked what they were hearing," said Brad Feldman, an analyst with EmSense Corp., the company that conducted the test."

They might very well have liked what they were hearing. The analysts at EmSense may have gotten that right. But what will they DO with their feelings? With their thoughts? With their reactions?

I love all the new technology that is uncovering the workings of the brain. I love it, I study it and it informs the work that I do. Really, I love it, love it, love it. I've met neuroscientists who are doing the most fantastic work on the brain from monitoring how people react while watching movies to the biochemistry and psychobiology of PTSD and offspring of people who have suffered from PTSD. Great stuff - really - I can't get enough of it. But when people start using the information to predict and say with certainty what an individual, or groups of individuals will actually do - we're getting into dangerous territory.

Imagine if every one of your nasty thoughts and feelings was registered. Every time you thought about what you'd like to do to so-and-so and the revenge you were going to take on such-and-thus. Imagine if you were judged by your thoughts - some of which you weren't even aware of...ok - you can stop now. Way too scary.

Enter a newly founded group called The Neuroethics Society (of which I'm a member). The society was founded in May of 2006 and is "an interdisciplinary group of scholars, scientists and clinicians who share an interest in the social, legal, ethical and policy implications of advances in neuroscience".

Check it out and keep posted about the work that they're doing for all of us. (Martha Farah was quoted in the WSJ article.) We must all of us start paying attention NOW to make sure that the advances in neuroscience are used in responsible ways socially, legally, ethically, and politically.

Whew! Exhausted from that little stint on the soapbox but I just couldn't let the article pass without comment. Now....if only you could have all read my mind about what I thought of it I wouldn't have had to write it down here...but then you might have heard some of the things I didn't want to say out loud, some of the personal thoughts that I didn't want to share....