Conversations With Your Employees; Are You Asking The Right Questions?

Updated 31st July 2023

It may seem obvious, but an employees well-being and happiness plays an important role in the performance of an organisation.

Obvious, but is it being taken seriously enough, I ask?

The results of numerous studies shows that there is a relationship between employee happiness and workplace engagement. Happy and engaged workers are a lot more likely to have positive relationships with their managers, and are better able to handle new challenges and changes. They also feel valued by their employer, and as a result can deal with stress more effectively and overall are more satisfied with their lives (Krueger & Killham, 2005).

Throughout the past week, I found myself in various situations, from collaborating with groups in organisations, to engaging in heartfelt conversations with friends about their struggles in different relationships outside of work. These experiences served as poignant reminders of the challenges many of us face when attempting to have honest conversations that foster positive and flourishing relationships. It became evident that avoiding these crucial conversations can lead to a great deal of unhappiness and stress, underscoring the importance of addressing our communication barriers head-on.

Some of us skirt around the issue that we should be discussing, others ‘tell’ people what to do, and hence miss an opportunity to let the individual take real ownership of the solution. Sometimes people avoid having the conversation at all, and we’ve all seen examples of what happens then, at work and at home…

The thing is, we don’t have to be perfect communicators. We just need to listen, ask questions to understand, stop making assumptions and stop planning ahead in the conversations i.e. be present with and to the person in front of us and to the conversation that is actually happening.

I love the simplicity of the message in this TED talk, well worth a watch!:

“When You’re Smiling, The Whole World Smiles With You”

Updated July 31st 2023

Louis Armstong sang “When your smiling, the whole world smiles with you”.
I know a lot of people who are feeling very, very stressed right now. Whether it be from pressure at work, home or just that start-of-the-year feeling, and the expectations that come with this time of year, or a culmination of all of these things.

No matter the source of your stress, remember that you are not alone in experiencing these feelings. I vividly recall a recently challenging day I had in Belgium which took place shortly after the devastating Paris Attacks. Despite my father’s pleas to stay, I found myself going anyway, lugging two massive suitcases for the third time in as many weeks. Exhausted and burdened by my father’s concerns, I realised that I was yet again myself working tirelessly on what was meant to be a day off. Passing most responsibilities to my team, I had anticipated being able to take the time off. To add to the strain, I received a distressing call from a client, marking a significant turning point in a longstanding relationship – and not for the better.

I believe a series of events similar to this served as the catalyst for my recent venture into writing a book centered around the themes of ‘happiness, contentedness, stress management, and choice’. Throughout the process of writing this book, I delved into extensive research, seeking to understand the effects that maintaining a positive outlook, embracing gratitude, and choosing to smile can have on improving our well-being. It became evident that these simple actions have the power to transform our lives through changing our general outlook from negative to positive.

Many years ago, a feedback loop between the expression of and experience of emotions was suggested by the likes of Charles Darwin and by Dr. William James. There is now an accumulation of evidence illustrating how facial-muscular action can affect our mood and perception. For example, Michael Lewis, a psychologist at Cardiff University found “Facial muscles do not just express emotions but they are also involved in the experience or feeling of emotions: Smiling while reading a cartoon, for example, increases amusement.

Another study by Lewis & Bowler (2009) involved people who had undergone Botox injections and thus paralysed their ‘Frown’ muscles. They found that when people couldn’t make negative facial expressions, they found it harder to sustain negative moods. The absence of negative feedback from a person’s face muscles results in people feeling happier! On top of this, according to a rake of research (Wood et al, 2009 etc) grateful people experience positive emotions more frequently.

On the stressful day I spent in Belgium, I practiced smiling and gratefulness endlessly; after the call with my client; on a packed bus with cranky passengers (rush hour and me carrying large suitcases didn’t make them my best friends); a bus driver who was not prepared to wait while I lifted the suitcases off, and snarled at me for leaving the bus at the front door instead of the back door; the complete absence of any taxis, trains or buses for the final leg of my trip; with an aching back, and aching feet. I kept smiling and telling myself how grateful I am that although I am in pain with freezing hands, and have experienced a lot of negative people today, I am so lucky I get to put my head down in a clean hotel bed tonight, whilst so many others around the world have a cement slab, a park bench, or worse, are living in a war zone.

And you know what, other than the bus driver, I definitely got a lot of smiles back that day, because although I felt frustrated and cranky, I just kept treating other people as I would wish to be treated; with a smile and in gratitude!

🙂

Remind Yourself To Be ‘Mindful’ Today!

Updated July 31st 2023

We received a great testimonial during the week from one of our regular newsletter readers about the effects that following the Mindful exercises in our 7-Steps to Learning & Habit Change series had on them.

It’s great to receive positive feedback from our readers. We write these for you guys to read on the move, when you’re in a hurry, on public transport, in a shopping queue or just taking five and looking for a bite sized read. We aim to deliver a short, direct message in each blog, so receiving engagement and feedback from our readers makes it all worthwhile.

If you’ve been inspired by anything we’ve written, reach out and let us know. Like or share our posts, it would be really appreciated. We would like to take this opportunity to wish all Adaptas friends, readers, supporters and colleagues a Safe and Peaceful Holiday break. Here’s that testimonial:

“The Adaptas blog I was most struck by this year, was from your 7-Steps to Learning & Habit Change series on Mindfulness. I would like to remind everyone of the benefits of Mindfulness heading into this Christmas period. In your blog, you spoke of the difficulty in learning this habit. Of being mindful in every moment, ‘when having conversations or drinking a juice.’ You are spot on about this. Since reading your blog in August, I set about intending to master this and practise mindfulness in my every step. You were so right….it’s not easy but I have to tell you, it is totally worth it. I have learned; It’s about giving, not receiving, it’s about being kind to yourself and to others. It’s about taking responsibility for getting to this point and believing that change is possible. Change is essential, in everything. Change is the ebb and flow of life.”

http://www.adaptastraining.com/mindfulness-foundations-for-the-7-steps-to-learning-and-habit-change#sthash.RwmNhGSo.dpuf

Anonymous

Listen To Your Gut And STOP Treating The Symptoms

Updated July 31st 2023

Today’s guest blogger is David Mullins, Head Women’s Tennis Coach at the University of Oklahoma (OU)

As an effective leader, would you treat the symptom of a problem within your organization or would you work hard to try and find the source of the problem in order to prevent further issues?

My guess is that you would do everything you could to get right to the source of the issue. So why do we generally take such a different approach when it comes to our health?

Most people spend the majority of their time treating the symptoms to their health woes rather than getting right to the source.

There is so much noise out there as to what you need to be doing in order to be healthy and happy. Few people know where to start, and just get overwhelmed and give up with all the different things they are supposed to be doing; lifting weights, yoga, cardio, meditation, sleep, relaxation, supplements etc. The list goes on and on, and there is much we can be doing to improve our health and performance but what is truly the foundation of it all?

In my experience, the first step we should all be taking to help ourselves perform at our best, is to get our nutrition working for us, not against us. At the source of it all is how our gut is handling the bacteria we are feeding it:

A healthy gut equals a healthy digestive system. Listen to your Gut.
A healthy digestive system equals better quality sleep and more energy.
More energy equals better relationships, exercise, and performance at work or play.
Better performance, relationships and exercise equals a healthy body and mind!

Everyone is on different points on the spectrum but understand that the fatigue you feel throughout the day or the terrible night of sleep you got is not because you haven’t exercised…it is most likely caused by the food you ate. We can go down the whole list of symptoms that most people are dealing with on a daily basis and source it directly back to what food and beverages they are consuming.

There is no end to the literature out there as to what we should be eating, how much of it and when, but who has time for that with our busy schedules? My advice would be to cut out a few key foods that are playing havoc on your digestive system. For the next week, notice the foods you ‘go to’ most and notice how they make you feel.

For now, start paying attention to how you feel after you eat. Tune in to our next blog to learn about the Four foods that have a negative impact on our digestive system.

During his 12 years of coaching at a number of different elite College Athletic Departments in the U.S.A, David has garnered numerous coaching awards and helped his programs breakthrough to new heights of athletic achievement. He is currently the Head Women’s Tennis coach at the University of Oklahoma (OU) where he helps develop players for the WTA tennis tour. He also received his Master’s in Education at OU and is currently working towards his Yoga Teaching Certification.

Before starting his coaching career David was a international professional tennis player earning an ATP world ranking in both singles and doubles play while representing the National Irish team in Davis Cup play.

For more health, fitness and relationship advice please follow David on Twitter @2KidsAndASpouse

Mindfulness- Living WITH The Speed of Life!

Updated July 31st 2024

We think, say, and hear all the time:

“I can’t believe it’s already Friday!”

“We’re already into August!“

“Another year has passed so quickly”

“Where has the time gone??”

Let’s face it: we live in a world where life is literally running away from us. Not because it doesn’t like us and wants to escape from us. It’s because of how our way of living has evolved over many years; we have been surviving – and I literally mean surviving – on this planet.

Having said that, I feel an urgent need to throw a crucial question into the air for everyone out there to catch: Does our fast-paced world represent the rock-solid, inevitable nature of our life? Or are we just “living too fast“?

We always have 3 ways to deal with a challenging situation:

1: We flee.

2: We fight.

3: We adapt.

No. 1 (We flee) is ESCAPING the speed of life: I deem this as something impossible, because we might eventually grind to a halt and stand still for the rest of our life.

No. 2 (We fight) is living AGAINST the speed of life: at first this sounds like a good idea to me, because momentarily we are drowning (or suffocating – picture whichever option you like better!) in the current world of immediacy, instantaneousness, and promptness – it’s now or never!

Turning this world into the promised land where ‘time“ is a foreign word, is something that many of us – be it tangibly or just subcutaneously – wish and strive for.

However, I have one little issue with this: the word “against“ embodies a fight, a struggle, resistance – basically a lot of “negative effort”. We have enough of this in our daily life already, don’t we? So we don’t want any more of this, do we?

This leaves us with the last option, No.3 (we adapt). In which we don’t deny or run away from time but instead focus on ADAPTING to the speed of life. Now what’s decisive here is that we need to understand that we have two possibilities, as well as the choice to pick one of them – just like a train track can go into different directions as its rails split into two at certain points.

The first sub-option is that we live AT the speed of life, which means that we imitate and take on all its characteristics – we basically become one with the speed of life, meaning that we will BE the speed of life!

Getting back to what I said earlier about our urge for being gratified either now or never: if we choose this option – most of the time we do it without conscious intent, (perhaps because someone out there e.g. friend, parent, media, has in fact told us to do so)- we perceive less of what is happening in the world – because all we focus on is instant gratification!

Something happens which inevitably out-smarts our vast skill-set and reduces the quality of our decision-making, as we don’t take the time to see the whole picture. This means that we have less control over what we do, and eventually we get frustrated because of where our (unconscious) decisions have lead.

If this scenario does not appeal to you, you can always opt for sub-option 2, which is living WITH the speed of life. What we need to understand here is that when we adapt to something, we have the choice of shaping what we take on, as we like, without becoming that thing itself. We can instead become our own version, living next to that thing, rather than taking on its characteristics. For example, say you don’t like your manager, who is a stressed and aggressive person. You can adapt to him/her rather, than becoming like him/her – easiest thing to do to deal with the situation would be to become stressed and aggressive towards your manager or others. But the healthier thing to do is to learn some techniques to deal with this type of personality, and hence keep yourself calm and content.

In other words: we can let the speed of life determine how we adapt to it, or we can determine it ourselves to eventually live WITH it.

The former (sub-option 1) is the far more convenient and satisfying “low-energy-cost“-version, which will – ironically enough – lead to a “quicker“ life and therefore frustration.

The latter (sub-option 2) requires us to consciously slow down, hold on, step back, and see the whole picture.

The key is that only achieving a state of mindfulness will allow us to perceive the huge amount of options that are available to us – including living a “slower“, “longer“, and therefore a happier life.

I know why I thoroughly enjoyed writing this blog.

Written by our Guest Blogger Oliver Sifkovits (Msc, CSCS)

Oliver Sifkovits (Msc, CSCS) is a Performance Enhancement Specialist, Personal Trainer, as well as 4th belt holder in Capoeira. He has provided Strength and Conditioning service to athletes from various sports, levels, and age groups, including footballers from Hertha BSC Academy, World Cruiserweight Boxing Champion Pablo Hernandez, as well as multiple Austrian Racketlon Champion Michael Dickert. His approach is designed around improving body-mind-spirit performance and health in individuals.

Mindfulness- Foundations For The 7-Steps to Learning and Habit Change

Updated July 31st 2024

Are you living presently?
Or are you living focused on the next meeting, the next meal, the next email that needs to be responded to, and the next one and the next one? Are you living in the past, regretting what you have done or not done, or feeling angry at how you were treated by someone or how you didn’t make it to the gym, or ate that second croissant!

You are probably already well aware that mindfulness, one of the oldest practices in human history, has become one the newest ‘breakthroughs’ in managing thoughts and mental wellbeing in the workplace.

I started attempting to focus on living presently, using mindfulness and meditation a few years ago, (see more on this in this Irish Indo article) when approximately 20 years after being introduced to meditation and mindfulness, I finally was adult enough to start giving it a real go. The impetus was the realization that if I didn’t focus on the NOW, that life would pass me by and I’d have missed out on just experiencing rather then thinking about what was coming next.

This mindfulness lark is no easy habit to adopt! It involves being present in the here and now; when you’re eating, when you’re walking, when you’re speaking, basically in every moment. Personally, I find it challenging, as I often need to remind myself to focus entirely on the conversation at hand or savor the taste of a drink, deliberately experiencing every detail. In reality, like many others, I catch myself mindlessly juggling multiple activities throughout the day: hastily gobbling lunch between client sessions and meetings, and rushing around in a perpetual state of urgency. It’s a journey to break free from this habit and genuinely embrace mindfulness.

If it is so difficult to be mindful/ present in this moment, then why bother?

Well, there is empirical evidence that mindfulness:

reduces the physiological and psychological effects of stress
correlates with emotional intelligence
improves well-being and happiness
improves attention and emotional regulation

(see Keng, Smosku & Robins, 2011 for an extensive review of the empirical studies on the effect of mindfulness on psychological health)

Personally speaking, when I am being mindful, I feel more tuned in to the people I am with, the conversations we are having and the accompanying sensory information in the environment. I feel more grateful (which is in itself associated with reduced depression, more positive relationships, greater competence, resilience, self-acceptance, less stress, better sleep and much more!) and life feels much richer and more enjoyable.

Research also shows that people who focus on being mindful rather than focusing on the end goal or the future are more successful (e.g. Fishbach & Choi, 2012). Yes goals can help spark our initial interest, but then we must consistently focus and on the process rather than being overly focused on the end goal. It is much better for the outcome if we focus on the experience rather than the benefits. As Dr. Christian Jarrett (author of ‘Great Myths of The Brain’) said at the Learning Technologies Conference in Olympia, London I attended this week “Once you are doing it (e.g. exercise, work-based project), let your long-term future-based mission fade into the background.”

Living more mindfully is a must if you want to learn more effectively and change habits. As I mentioned earlier, it necessitates a shift in focus. Have you given it a try yet?

Exercise: Boost Your Brain’s Performance- Foundations for 7-Steps to Learning & Habit Change

Updated July 31st 2024

What do you start your morning with?
Written by our Guest Blogger Oliver Sifkovits (Msc, CSCS)

I start each morning with a 40-minute workout. Far away from the inconvenience of having to wake up early, putting on training gear, and dragging myself out into nature, it has become an essential part of my lifestyle. I want to be as productive as possible each day, and starting it with exercise is in my experience one of the best ways to achieve this.

“Mens sana in corpore sano”

….meaning if we look after the health of our body, the health of our mind will also improve.

In other words: put your trainers on, get active and boost your brain performance!

Indeed, research has shown that aerobically trained subjects improved executive task performance such as planning, task setting, reasoning, and focusing on goals after a 6-month intervention, which included moderate intensity endurance exercise (comparable to a long-distance run where you would just be struggling to speak with someone easily) performed for 40 minutes 3 times per week (Shay & Roth, 1992). This is supported by another study showing a strong relationship between aerobic fitness levels and performance in executive functioning tasks after 3 months of exercise (Smith et al., 2010).

Every day our minds are challenged in having to filter information which they deem important for their own survival. We are faced with all sorts of distractions. They test our ability to pay attention for long periods of time, to the limit. Exercise helps us to focus on what really matters to us by improving sustained attention (Colcombe et al., 2003) as well as information processing speed (Smith et al., 2010).

With high demands placed on our ability to focus comes the challenge to store information in the human „hardware“. As we know, from the blog a few months ago about one of the 7 steps to learning and habit Change (www.adaptastraining.com/4-memory), recalling what we learn during the day at a later stage is essential for continuous progress, since it allows us to put one „knowledge brick“ on the other to create a „building of sophistication“.

Who would have thought that exercise can be the cement holding the bricks together? In a 3-month aerobic exercise intervention, subjects showed high increases in celebral blood volume and thus memory in the dentate gyrus, an area of the brain which is responsible for short-term memory (Colcombe et al., 2009).

I always say that becoming successful is easier than remaining successful, and this is no different with storing and recalling information. Having a well-functioning short-term memory gets you to a certain point – the next step is having the ability to store information long-term. A crucial role is played in long-term memory by the hippocampus.

Additionally, did you know that the size of the hippocampus reduces with age? (and hence memory loss!). Research demonstrates that long-term (1 year) aerobic exercise increases hippocampus size (Erickson et al., 2010), and blood flow in this area (Chapman et al., 2013), as well as a significant decline in its mass reduction by an equivalent of 1-2 years (Erickson et al., 2010).

Are you looking to rocket your mental performance now and in the long-term? If the answer is yes, working out at moderate intensity for 40 minutes 3 times per week is a minimum requirement for you.

Commit to it. There is no single reason not to do it.
Be patient. Good things take time.
You will reap the benefits.
You will be grateful to yourself for having made the commitment!

Self Limiting Beliefs – Foundations for 7-Steps to Learning & Habit Change

Updated July 31st 2024

Our 3^rd Foundation block for the 7-Step to Learning & Habit Change is brought to you by our guest blogger Camille Donegan. Our Beliefs, the beliefs we hold about ourselves, can be one of the biggest blocks to us making change and to having the happiness and success in our lives that we deserve. Camille tells us her story, can you identify with it? This blog also relates back to Step Number 7, our piece entitled ‘Two-Way Street, Positive or Negative thoughts.

The World Is Your Oyster – guest blogger Camille Donegan
Optimists; you may see them as unrealistic, happy-clappy people who don’t live in the real world? So why would you want to be one? Well research shows that optimists have better health and more successful careers, plus a tight correlation has been found between pessimism and symptoms of depression.

I should probably hold up my hands at this point and confess … I AM A TOTAL OPTIMIST. When something ‘challenging’ happens to me in my life, I automatically look to see what learnings I can get from it. It doesn’t mean I don’t have fears, doubts, limiting beliefs and even some worries, it just means I don’t let them hold me back.

My dad wrote me a poem and when he passed away I included it in his memorial mass booklet. In it, he said that the world was my oyster and all I had to do was prise it open and suck out its sweet delights! How right he was! Even though I’ve been an optimist as long as I can remember, it’s been a fairly recent realisation for me that the only thing that holds us back in this life – is ourselves. Our own blocks, our own insecurities, our own doubts, and our limiting beliefs. Any of us can achieve anything – I truly believe that. For instance, I am currently working on getting my house overlooking the sea, plus the hot man and the gorgeous dog to go with it!

Knowing you can achieve anything (and being an optimist) doesn’t stop the voice of the inner critic though! Last week a colleague of mine announced that the next day he was going to present me as the CEO for a product we are working on to a Venture Capital Group he was pitching to. Right on cue, my limiting beliefs kicked in: “I can’t do that! I don’t know enough! I’m not smart enough! I’m not financial-savvy enough!”.

We all have a voice in our head, an inner narrator. For pessimists, this voice is predominantly negatively focused while optimists are able to over-ride the negative ‘stories’ or ‘self-talk’ quite quickly, and replace them with positives. Yet, we all have or have had some limiting beliefs regardless of how positively or negatively focused we are.

Over the next while, I invite you to start paying more attention to your inner voice. When you hear negative comments from your inner narrator, try to adapt it into self-talk which will empower and challenge you.

Once you start to become more aware of your negative self-talk, particularly reoccurring limiting beliefs, such as ‘I’m not good enough’ you can start to address them. Try ‘going vertical’ with them. Question them. Interrogate them. Ask yourself, do I believe these negative thoughts or limiting beliefs? If the answer is ‘Yes’, think “what evidence exists that this thought might not be true”. Then, think “what might be a better, healthier version of this thought”? Consciously choose to replace the negative thought or limiting belief with the new, more positive version.

That’s what I did for my big meeting…I created more empowering beliefs. I questioned each of the limiting beliefs and blocks that came up until I had dispelled most of them.

Granted, I did hit the books, and spent a lot of the night before the meeting researching. But all the reading and researching in the world would not have made me feel confident, had I not done the work on my beliefs!

Good news is in that meeting, I felt confident, informed and actually pretty relaxed.

I still need to work on my finance skills! But that’s a job for another day.

Camille Donegan is a Freelance Theatre Producer and Owner of Alive-O Productions, and a Technology Consultant. She is constantly self-developing, exploring philosophies and methodologies to enhance her experiences.

Sleep: Energy That Lasts All Day Long- Foundations for 7-Steps to Learning & Habit Change

Updated July 31st 2024

Recently I have been experiencing something great; energy that lasts all day long without any daytime slumps!

What is the difference? A combination of good nutrition, exercise a few times per week and sleep.

However, I had the experience recently of feeling like I couldn’t string a full sentence together, to the point where I had to put an end to a phone conversation half way through. And all because, I hadn’t slept due to a lovely bout of food poisoning.

As we saw in recent blogs, courtesy of Oliver Sifkovits, focusing on what we eat can make all the difference to how we perform. Sleep is another physiological lever that can contribute to, and detract from how we perform.

There is a compelling body of evidence that ties our performance, be it professional or personal, to adequate levels of sleep. Chronic sleep loss negatively affects focus, memory and cognition, impacting productivity and relationships, and overall well-being.

Not getting the correct amount of sleep is linked to heart disease, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, depression, and psychosis. It also causes unethical behavior (see Shane O’Mara).

How many times have you taken dodgy short-cuts when you are tired? The brain of the sleep-deprived person has to work harder than that of non-sleep-deprived person to accomplish any given task. Imagine what information your brain is excluding paying attention to when it is tired and the decisions it is having you make?!

Research shows that young adults (under 30 years) perform poorer than their older counterparts (50-60 years) following periods of sleep deprivation – whilst at the same time more confidently and inaccurately overestimating their abilities. Where does this show up in organisations and decisions being made?

Furthermore, we are less adept at reading social cues and responding appropriately inter-personally when affected by sleep loss. Our ability to accurately detect emotions tied to threat (angry faces) and reward (happy faces), becomes blunted, when sleep deprived. Also, sleep-deprived people fail to recall pleasant memories, yet recall gloomy memories just fine, and so sleep affects our positivity and happiness.

Additionally, recent neuro-scientific research points to the role of sleep in memory consolidation. Studies have shown that hippocampal neurons activated during learning tasks are reactivated during slow wave sleep, reinforcing the neural network and consolidating the learning. In a study requiring participants to learn routes through unfamiliar streets, performance, as measured by error rates in the task, was significantly lower for those who had benefited from sleep. Other studies focusing on sleep loss provide clear evidence for lower academic performance caused by reductions in both declarative and procedural memory, suggesting that the prefrontal cortex is highly sensitive to sleep deprivation. So, regular good quality sleep is a precursor for memory and learning.

Studies of sleep distinguish between acute sleep deprivation, defined as short bouts (24- 72 hours) of complete sleep loss, and chronic partial sleep restriction, defined as continued periods of less than normal quantity of sleep (for example 3-5 hours sleep when the individual’s ‘normal’ pattern is 7-8 hours). Performance in cognitive tasks shows a consistent deterioration in both acute and chronic forms of sleep deprivation. However recovery from chronic partial sleep loss is slower.

According to renowned sleep researcher Daniel Kripke, consistently getting between 6.5 and 7.5 hours of sleep per night not only contributes to longevity but also enhances happiness and productivity. Deviating from this optimal range can lead to various unnoticed issues, affecting our overall well-being. It is imperative that we pay closer attention to our sleep habits and consider whether they are supporting or hindering our learning, habit formation, and overall performance and happiness.

Eating Yourself Smart: Part 2 – Foundations for 7-Steps to Learning and Habit Change

Updated July 28th 2023

Give me the spark to speak with others!
As mentioned in Part 1 of the ‘Eating Yourself Smart’ blogs, communication in the form of messages is required for a city to survive and grow. These messages are represented by so called neurotransmitters in the brain – they contain the information which determines what will happen next in the body. Someone has to produce those messages – and that’s what amino acids do. Since we all create messages to communicate with others, we can all deem ourselves as amino acids in this fictive world.
For example, there are people with the name ‘pyroglutamate’, and they produce messages titled ‘acetylcholine’. These messages contain the information for the brain to become mentally sharper, concentrate for longer, increase its speed of reflexes, and improve its memory skills (Holford, 2009).

Another amino acid of high relevance for boosting your intelligence is tyrosine. It is the substance that produces dopamine (Holford, 2009) – a neurotransmitter that can be described as the “learning amplifier molecule”. In other words: eating sufficient amounts of poultry, fish, beans and/or peanuts will strengthen neural pathways in your brain and will thus enhance learning.

We are all aware of the importance of having leaders in an organisation – people who initiate processes. Vitamins, minerals, and trace elements are no different – they spark metabolic reactions in the brain. In a study with 615 school children, non-verbal IQ scores increased by an average of 4.5 points after taking a multivitamin and mineral complex – including Vitamin C, Zinc, folic acid, and several B-Vitamins – for 3 months (Schoenthaler et al, 1991). Some of the subjects even improved their scores by an impressive 20 points! These results are supported by a further study with 60 schoolchildren showing similar improvements in IQ-scores (Benton & Roberts, 1988).

One important thing I would like to point out is the deceptive character of the term “recommended daily allowance” (RDA), which describes the “daily dietary intake level of a nutrient considered sufficient by the Food and Nutrition Board to meet the requirements of 97.5% of healthy individuals in each life-stage and sex group” (U.S. National Academy of Sciences: Institute of Medicine, Food and Nutrition Board; 2001).

In a study carried out with 200 school children, only the group which supplemented 20mg of zinc each day over 3 months significantly improved memory functioning and the ability to pay attention for long periods of time. In contrast to this, the group taking 10mg a day did not show any significant changes in the tested parameters (Penland, 2005). Compare this to the RDA for a child aged 9-13, the value is 8mg for both males and females (U.S. National Academy of Sciences: Institute of Medicine, Food and Nutrition Board; 2001). This example clearly shows that the daily intake of the vital substance zinc needs to be higher than the one commonly suggested in order make you smarter. Furthermore, the studies above demonstrate that you can’t start early enough with your attempt to become Jane super-brain or Bart super-smart one day.

Isn’t it ironic that we take our car to a service on a regular basis for it to work perfectly, yet we don’t pay the same amount of attention to our body and brain? Isn’t our brain controlling our behaviour like puppet players controlling their toys? And is “We are what we continuously do” in fact also applicable to our eating habits? If you have answered all of these questions with a “yes”, you have just made the first step towards more effective learning and outsmarting the best of the rest.

Oliver Sifkovits (Msc, CSCS) is a Performance Enhancement Specialist, Personal Trainer, as well as 4^th belt holder in Capoeira. He has provided Strength and Conditioning service to athletes from various sports, levels, and age groups, including footballers from Hertha BSC Academy, World Cruiserweight Boxing Champion Pablo Hernandez, as well as multiple Austrian Racketlon Champion Michael Dickert. His approach is designed around improving body-mind-spirit performance and health in individuals.

Lasting Habit Change; Take 7-Steps to get there!

Updated July 28th 2023

In recent months, our blogs have been considering the 7-STEPS to learning and habit change. We now know there are 7 Steps or facets that need to be considered and applied in learning to make it addictive, to enable people to learn and for neural changes to take place in the brain to have lasting impact.
These are:

Imagine ‘Why?’
Motivation
Fun
Memory
Repetition
Feedback
Two-Way Street

Let’s take an example of when the 7 facets that are necessary for learning and brain change are not fully utilised (using a simple example that many of us will be able to identify with).

Visualise this; Liz wants to lose weight. She is aware she has put on weight, as she is not fitting into her clothes comfortably anymore and is feeling lethargic. Liz has booked a holiday leaving in 3 months and wishes to fit into the clothes and swimwear she wore two years ago on holiday. Since that holiday, she has put on approximately two stone, from not exercising and eating on the go (IMAGINE & MOTIVATION INTACT).

She commits to a gym membership and starts to go 3-4 times per week. She is measured and given an exercise regime. 1 month later her gym visits have dropped to 2 times per week as she has noticed no difference and the scales says she has put on weight. In reality she has strengthened up (muscle is heavier than fat but she doesn’t realise this). (REPETITION SUBOPTIMAL)

Also her gym visits have dropped to twice per week because she didn’t identify something that could be fun (she detests running on a treadmill, but she loves dancing), that might have been more fun for her as a mode of exercise (NO FUN).

Also, she did not ask the gym instructor to keep her motivated by agreeing to check in weekly to look at measurements, and track progress (FEEDBACK SUBOPTIMAL).

Liz is eventually going to the gym only once per week, as she can’t see any real time benefit of the exercise and is feeling more tired than before because she didn’t listen to, or implement the gym instructor’s advice on eating more vegetables, cutting out bread, drinking more water etc,. Additionally, she is not getting feedback from people around her telling her she is looking well. (REPETITION SUBOPTIMAL)

This regime is not hard and fastened as the right thing to do according to her mind and brain!

While running the 8th mile on the treadmill, Liz keeps thinking, ‘I don’t want to look awful on the beach’ instead of visualising herself ‘I am looking fantastic in my bikini’ (TWO-WAY STREET NOT INTACT).

Liz eventually stops going to gym (‘Falls off wagon’, and doesn’t get back on because she has no support and encouragement and does not have enough self-discipline) (MEMORY & FEEDBACK SUBOPTIMAL).

Liz goes on her holiday. Every day, she gets annoyed with herself that she didn’t keep up the exercise, and she feeds herself with more negative language (TWO-WAY STREET NOT INTACT).

Hopefully you can now see the 7 Steps coming to life.

There are 5 ingredients that create a foundation for these 7 Steps and depending on if they are in place will either support or hinder these 7 steps.

We are going to take you through these 5 ingredients in upcoming blogs so that you can actively apply and turn yourself and your learners into real addicts! Between now and our next installment, it’s time for you to reflect on what you eat, how much exercise you do, and how much sleep and relaxation you do or don’t get.

The Adaptas 7-Steps to Learning: #7 Two-Way Street, Positive or Negative thoughts, you choose!

Updated July 28th 2023

Mindset is a two-way street
Did you wake up today feeling good about yourself, looking forward to the day and life in general? Or did you wake up thinking ‘here we go again’, ‘I hate the traffic’ ‘I hate my boss’ etc?

How you feel about yourself and your life, whether you are negative, unhappy, de-motivated or on the other hand positive, happy, motivated has an impact on your ability to learn and change habits.

When we feel good; thinking, making decisions and taking action in pursuing goals require less effort.

If you have read step no.4 ‘Memory’ in our series of 7 Steps to Learning blogs, you will know how important memory is for creating habit change.

When we feel positive we are more likely to be able to pull on good memories. When we feel negative, things couldn’t get much worse for our memory; Not only are we more likely to access more negative memories, but these negative memories get in the way of accessing positive memories which in turn can interfere with getting that dopamine flowing!

Brain plasticity is a two-way street. We can drive brain change positively or negatively.

If you have read Maureen Gaffney’s book ‘Flourish’ you will have come across the 5:1 ratio. We need 5 positives for every 1 negative in our thoughts, experiences, and feelings in order to thrive and flourish in life. As Maureen says, “If the balance remains at 3:1, three positives to one negative, you have achieved the minimum platform needed just to stay well and manage your life in an average way. If the ratio falls below 3:1, and stays down, however, you are tipped into a downward spiral from which it is hard to escape. This is when someone becomes depressed; when a relationship enters a new, destructive state; or when a team or an organisation becomes dysfunctional.”

Unwanted bad habits continue because the brain has hard-wired itself through years of repeated behaviour. We must literally tell our brain what we really want, and not what we don’t want! As discussed in earlier blogs; to create change, we must literally rewire the brain!

It’s up to you which way you want to wire it, towards the negative or towards the positive; towards the ‘I can’t do’ vs. ‘I can do’, towards the “I am a victim of circumstances’ vs. ‘I am the master of my own universe’.

In every moment of every day, we have a choice. We often just don’t realise it, because our unconscious and our older parts of our brains exert so much control over how we behave.

Consider, in this moment, consciously, what do you have to be grateful for? Are you healthy? Do you have a job? Do you ever get to go out for dinner or to go on holidays? If you have any or all of these, you have more than many hundreds of thousands of people around the world and more than many in your own village, town, and city.

Research in Positive Psychology repeatedly finds that those who remind themselves every day what they are grateful for are happier and more positive. So if you are going to do nothing else to support your mission of making some changes, start by doing this. I personally list off three things in my head, that I am grateful for every morning, as soon as I wake up. It’s a nice and ultimately powerful way to start the day. Do it every morning for a few weeks and smile at the same time (even if it pains you to do so) and let us know what positive changes you have seen in your life.

This brings us to the end of our 7 Steps to Learning blogs. However, as the great Mel Blanc wrote in his account of the making of Bugs Bunny, ‘That’s Not All Folks!’. There are 5 ingredients necessary to support these 7 steps. If you are looking to create real and lasting change, keep posted for more….

Seasons Greetings to you all and we look forward to an amazing 2015 helping you put these 7 Steps into practice. Happy Holidays from all at Adaptas.

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