Lawsagna

Orientation Series: 21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner

Step 20:  Learning to learn

What distinguishes best lawyers, doctors, architects, etc. from the rest of the crowd?  What do they know or do that others don't?  One possibility is that they are very proficient in using certain meta-skills that can be applied to multiple tasks and contexts and supercharge whatever these experts do.  Effective learners invest time and effort in developing the skills that help them learn and perform to their best potential.  What could those meta-skills be and how can we develop them?  Here is what I've brainstormed so far:

Extracting only relevant information. Being able to zero in on the essential elements saves time and brain power.   

       What to do: 

1. Learn the basics well.  Applying meta-skills takes up working memory, which is very limited.  When you have to think about the basic content and try to use your meta-skill, your working memory gets overloaded.  You have to know the foundations well in order to filter any additional information.
2. Clarify and simplify.  If you have clutter on your desk and somebody leaves an important piece of paper there for you, you may not see it.  But if you have a clean and well-organized desk, anything new will jump out at you.  The same applies to your head.
3. Practice "selective ignorance."   In this day and age, we consume much more information than we really need.  It's not always better to read and learn more.  Making sure you pick the best in the ocean of information is important, so become selective.  Each piece of information you consume should have a purpose and application.
4. Learn to prioritize.  Prioritizing forces you to make decisions about the relative importance of things.  The ability to see the essential will strengthen with this practice.
5. Use effective reading strategies that allow you to get to the important information quickly.

Recognizing patterns easily.  If we can connect pieces of information into a pattern, we are able to use our previous knowledge and experience more effectively.  Once something falls into a familiar pattern, we know what to do because we encountered a similar situation before and we can draw from the past experience. 

       What to do: 

1. Compare and contrast things.  You will teach yourself to notice important differences and similarities. 
2. Reflect on your past experiences.  As you do so, look for patterns in actions and outcomes. 

Memorizing. Working with our memory means being selective about what we need to memorize and why.  It is also about choosing the right strategy to retain information. 

        What to do:

1. Learn how memory works. 
2. Find memorizing strategies that work best for you.
3. Ask yourself why you need to remember something.
4. Choose the appropriate strategy and give your full attention to the material you need to memorize.

Analyzing and comprehending information.  We constantly rearrange our knowledge base to integrate new information.  How do we know that we truly comprehended something?  It fits into our big picture of how things work. 

        What to do:

1. Summarize and synthesize what you have learned.  Make sure you know how the concepts fit together.
2. Ask questions.  Questions help to reveal blind spots in your knowledge, challenge assumptions, expand your thinking.  Opt for open-ended questions, which start with what, who, how, why, when, where.
3. Teach what you have learned to others.  It will help you master the subject matter. 

Occasionally, we analyze something incorrectly, hence the next point…

Verifying and testing the knowledge.  Effective learners are able to test and adjust their mental maps continuously.  They are not afraid to put themselves out there because that is how they receive feedback and make improvements.   

       What to do:

1. In the ideal world, you encounter a problem and ask yourself what you need to know to solve it.  Then, you go and learn what you need in the easiest and fastest way.  It is called "just-in-time" learning.  It ensures that your learning is relevant and valuable.  You apply it right away and gain competence in the process.  In the "learning-in-advance" scenario, look for opportunities to practice what you have learned.  If it is a skill, try transferring it to a different context and use it there. 
2. Learn collaboratively.  Share your ideas with others.  Talk through your thought process. 
3. Capture your ideas in writing.  Writing makes things clearer.  If somebody reads it, you may get feedback as well. 
4. Be adventurous and get out of your comfort zone.      

Reviewing. Assessing past actions is a crucial step if we want to achieve mastery.  We need to figure out what worked and what didn’t and adjust the behavior.

        What to do: 

1. Develop a habit of looking back at your actions and evaluating how well they served you.  Did you get the outcome you wanted?  Can you think of a better and faster way to achieve the same result? What would you do differently in the future?
2. Always search for ways to simplify, speed up and improve the process.
3. Ask people for feedback and once you’ve received it, consider it carefully.

Self-monitoring. Here, we have to assume the roles of the doer and observer at the same time.  We assess the performance in the moment, react, predict, and make adjustments as we go.  Such self-regulation offers a big learning advantage because we are attuned to instant feedback and can correct our course of actions accordingly.

        What to do: 

1. Practice mindfulness.   
2. Think about your thinking.
3. Pause and reflect on what you are doing.  Eventually, you will be able to monitor yourself without having to stop what you are doing.  It will be like a second layer of awareness that will allow you to stay attuned to the relevant clues in the context and adjust your actions as needed.

Maintaining the right attitude. Cognitive skills are important but they are not everything.  Emotional intelligence is needed as we navigate through our lives.  Think about how much information is encoded in people’s emotions and attitudes.  We have to be "emotion detectors" to succeed.  Read my earlier post on "How to develop your emotional intelligence" for more tips and resources. 

How do you develop your meta-skills?

Orientation Series:  21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner:
Step 1:  Setting your learning objectives
Step 2:  Taking an inventory of your skills
Step 3:  Taking an Inventory of Your Learning Tools
Step 4:  Finding opportunities for cognitive apprenticeship
Step 5:   Determining the "IIQ" of what you read
Step 6:  Choosing helpful books for law students
Step 7:  “The Three 'P's of Performance” in Action
Step 8:  Tapping into your social networks
Step 9:  Identifying your learning barriers
Step 10:  Finding your sources of motivation
Step 11:  Managing your energy
Step 12:  Focusing on how you think
Step 13:  Mastering informal learning and professional development
Step 14:  Asking Good Questions
Step 15:  Condensing your knowledge
Step 16:  Memorizing
Step 17:  Becoming a reflective learner
Step 18:  Establishing rhythms, rituals, and routines
Step 19:  Learning holistically

Shorten your learning curve!

What I learned in my first week of the raw food diet

It's been about a week and a half now since I started my 30-day raw food program.  I view it as a learning experience.  Instead of focusing on limitations, temptations and frustrations, I choose to think of this experience in terms of explorations, discoveries and learning opportunities.  I believe that the mindset is really important when it comes to any kind of change, and sometimes, being able to adjust your perspective on things can do wonders for you.  I want to share some of my observations so far in the hope that it may help you maintain the positive attitude when you want to adopt a new behavior.  Here are a few things I learned:

Creativity.  When I started the program, the little voice of self-doubt tried to plant some limiting concepts in my head.  For example, I feared that avoiding cooked foods meant my choices were very limited.  It took some critical thinking to get rid of this notion.  I looked at my regular diet and realized that the bulk of it consisted of the same cooked foods, such as rice, pasta, fish, chicken, turkey, etc. in various combinations.  There was no reason I couldn’t combine raw foods in the same way creating varied menus.  I decided to focus on creativity when it came to menu planning.  I learned to make tasty green smoothies that combined fruit and vegetables for optimum taste and nutrition.  The celery, cucumber and romaine lettuce mix tasting like mango and bananas is easier to enjoy, and I don't have to eat salads every day.

Discovery. For each food item I had to give up, I decided to come up with a new item that I could try.   My additions include persimmons, papaya, agave nectar, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, and the list will continue to grow.  My trips to the grocery store are like mini-explorations now that I hunt for vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds that I have not tried for a while (or at all).

Balance between planning and flexibility. I need to plan for the upcoming weeks so that I have enough food around to keep me on the program.  At the same time, I realized I liked it better when I didn't have each day's menu planned.  I now go day by day and eat what my body wants at the moment.  I listen to my body more and learn to recognize its messages.

Re-assessment. When you do the same thing the same way over and over again, you don't feel the need to stop and ask if what you do still makes sense or whether there is a better approach.  A change forces you to take a second look at your habits and routines.  My raw food program made me realize that I unnecessarily overcooked many fruits and vegetables, depleting them of their nutrients.  For example, from now on, when I need to cook broccoli, I will boil water, take it off the heat, and then add the broccoli.  There is no need to boil it even for a few minutes.  Hot water will break it down a bit, but it will still be full of flavor, and crunch, and all those things that are good for you.  Also, now when I cook my baby's oatmeal, I add frozen blueberries after I take it off the heat.  They will thaw and cool the oatmeal faster.  Simple things like these, I would not have noticed without my raw diet. 

The benefit of firm boundaries.  I still have cupcakes and cookies in the house as the rest of my household is not ready for the raw diet yet.  However, making a firm decision not to eat them took away the doubts, hesitations, and all of that back-and-forth dialogue and guilt trip that I would have otherwise had in my head:  "I really shouldn't eat…or maybe, just one...I hate my sweet tooth…will it help if I eat just one…was it that good?"  Firm boundaries stop unproductive thoughts.

Support.  Identifying and using your sources of support is very important.  Internet and Web 2.0 offer great opportunities in this regard.  I visited raw food blogs and websites for tips and recipes, watched motivational interviews on YouTube, wrote about my experiment publicly – all of which strengthened my commitment.  It is good to have those resources lined up before the going gets tougher.

We can all learn from our challenges.  Take time to think about what you are learning and how it can help you in the future.  What did you learn from your challenges?

Shorten your learning curve!

Orientation Series: 21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner

Step 19:  Learning holistically

When we think of learning, we often focus on cognitive functions and memory.  But learning doesn’t happen just in our heads.  I think there's a benefit in looking at learning from the holistic perspective that involves body, mind, and spirit (I am talking about human spirit here).  If the learning is powerful, what we learn becomes integrated into our belief system and behavior.  Learning has the potential to change not just what we know, but who we are.  How can we experience holistic learning?  Here’re a few suggestions:   

• Let your heart and passion drive your learning.  We are so conditioned to follow somebody else’s curriculum from school to college to corporate training, we come to believe that there is no learning without a syllabus.  Try setting your own learning agenda and let your curiosity guide you.  Learn something not because you have to, but because you want to.      
• Develop your intuition.  Intuition is a powerful blend of experience, awareness and inner wisdom.  It offers you a shortcut to knowledge that you may not gain through logical reasoning.  For more information on how to develop intution, check out the intuition resources at the Institute of HeartMath.
• Engage your multiple intelligences when you learn.  You can find tips on how to do it in my post "8 times smarter:  learning with multiple intelligences."  Think about how you can use various senses in learning.
• Be emotionally engaged.  Feeling inspired requires consistent work.  Create your own learning “bliss bank” and fill it with words, images, articles, and other things and activities that motivate you.  When you need an emotional uplift, go to your “bliss bank.”    
• Experiment with your learning environment.  Pay attention to how the physical space and tools you use to learn make you feel.  Escape into nature to see how fresh air and movement influence your thinking and memory.  For example, you can experiment with the "memory palace" technique as you walk along a familiar route. 
• Approach learning as play.  Our fear of failure and self-limiting constraints often prevent us from entertaining our best ideas.  Play is less threatening and can help us unleash the creative potential inside.  Next time you need to solve a problem, first create a list of bad ideas.  Get this fear of "looking stupid" out of your system.  You may be surprised how this simple technique can lead you to some great solutions.
• Consider the moral and ethical implication of what you are learning.  Will the use of your new knowledge be congruent with your values and beliefs?  Are you a better person because of this recently acquired skill?  Focus on developing skills that help your life mission. 

Do you have any suggestions for how we can learn better holistically?

Orientation Series:  21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner:
Step 1:  Setting your learning objectives
Step 2:  Taking an inventory of your skills
Step 3:  Taking an Inventory of Your Learning Tools
Step 4:  Finding opportunities for cognitive apprenticeship
Step 5:   Determining the "IIQ" of what you read
Step 6:  Choosing helpful books for law students
Step 7:  “The Three 'P's of Performance” in Action
Step 8:  Tapping into your social networks
Step 9:  Identifying your learning barriers
Step 10:  Finding your sources of motivation
Step 11:  Managing your energy
Step 12:  Focusing on how you think
Step 13:  Mastering informal learning and professional development
Step 14:  Asking Good Questions
Step 15:  Condensing your knowledge
Step 16:  Memorizing
Step 17:  Becoming a reflective learner
Step 18:  Establishing rhythms, rituals, and routines

Shorten your learning curve!

 

Mind on a Diet

"If we want to simplify and deepen our lives, we must simplify and deepen our minds. When we become more centered, clear, spacious, caring, and open, there is suddenly much more room in our frenetic lives for both others and ourselves."
—Lama Surya Das

This is the season when many people talk about losing a few pounds here and there.  As you decide what to feed your body, take time to think about what you feed your mind.  Here are a few things to consider.

1. Avoid empty information calories.  Just like junk food is harmful to our bodies, junk information dulls our minds.  (Here's the link to the post about my "Information Impact Quotient" approach).
2. Look for fresh ideas that forge new pathways in the brain.  Try new approached to old problems.  Evaluate situations from different perspectives.
3. Appreciate diversity.  Develop a curious mind that wants to wander and explore.
4. Make healthy thought choices.  Ban toxic thoughts.  Cherish positive, invigorating ideas.
5. Look beyond the packaging to discover the essence of things.
6. Don't feed on spoiled leftovers.  Let go of the notions that don't work for you anymore.  Release the attachments.
7. Be mindful as you consume information.  Slow down.  Take time to reflect on the meaning and usefulness of what you read and hear and integrate it into your existing knowledge base.

Shorten your learning curve!

   

Cognitive Fitness

From "Cognitive Fitness" by Roderick Gilkey and Clint Kilts, Harvard Business Review (need subscription, you can preview the summary of the article on the order page):

…advances in neuroscience suggest that there is no reason why your brain at 60 can’t be as competent as it was at 25. That would not have been news to thinkers such as Socrates, Copernicus, and Galileo, who were all still at the peak of their intellectual powers in their sixties and seventies. Nor would it surprise business leaders such as Alan Greenspan, Warren Buffett, and Sumner Redstone. These icons and others like them have intuitively understood that the brain’s alertness is the result of what we call cognitive fitness—a state of optimized ability to reason, remember, learn, plan, and adapt that is enhanced by certain attitudes, lifestyle choices, and exercises. The more cognitively fit you are, the better you will be able to make decisions, solve problems, and deal with stress and change. Cognitive fitness will allow you to be more open to new ideas and alternative perspectives. It will give you the capacity to change your behaviors and forecast their outcomes in order to realize your goals. You can become the kind of person your company values most. Perhaps more important, you can delay senescence for years and even enjoy a second career.

The article goes on to suggest steps you can take to stay cognitively fit and discusses some implications of the brain research to learning.  For example, the study of mirror neurons, which "aid the speed and accuracy of our perception by mentally simulating objects and actions in our environment," helps us understand how we can learn better through observation and indirect experience. 

The authors encourage play at work because play "engages the prefrontal cortex…nourishing our highest-level cognitive functions – those related to incentive and reward processing, goal and skill representation, mental imagery, self-knowledge, and memory, just to name a few."  They suggest playing games, such as bridge, chess, sudoku, solving challenging crossword puzzles, doing improvisation, reading funny books.

Searching for patterns is another way to maintain your cognitive fitness:  "First and foremost, challenge your existing mind-set, enlarge it, and make it more complex."  The authors encourage executives to "[l]isten to different viewpoints, read new kinds of articles and books, and visit places with a focused set of learning objectives."

Those who seek novelty and innovation through continuous learning benefit from neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to change and enhance its performance.  The article suggests learning a new language, musical instrument, or new technology.

Achieve sustainable personal efficiency!

Deepak Chopra on: Releasing Emotion Toxins (Video)

"How do you release emotional toxins? Deepak details the seven steps to releasing emotional toxicity, which include: 1. Take responsibility for your emotions. 2. Witness the emotions in your body. 3. Define it: is it anger, fear? 4. Express it: write down what is happening. 5. Share it with a loved one. 6. Do a ritual to release it: write it down and burn it. 7.  Bring it to a closure: go out and celebrate."

What’s your theme?

I am trying something new this year.  I actually have a theme for 2008.  My theme is learning to get out of my comfort zone.  Here are my reasons for creating a new year’s theme:

Focus.  Maintaining just one theme throughout the year will help me stay focused and hopefully, make better progress.

Layered goal structure.  I’ve found that I accomplish more if I have just one goal in front of me.  At the same time, I want to have a big picture to know where I am heading and a clear set of actions to follow.  My optimal structure has three layers:  the theme, the goals to support my theme, and the steps to accomplish my goals.   

Momentum.  Working under a unifying theme builds momentum for growth and development, which is more difficult to achieve if you try to work on a list of unrelated things. 

Process.  My theme is process-oriented.  It is about how I do things, as opposed to what I do.  It allows me to apply my theme across the board, to a variety of projects.  No matter what I do, I can ask myself how I can get out of my comfort zone to build a new mindset and new skills.

Am I missing any important component in my approach?  Do you have a theme for 2008?

 Claim your best life now!

   

My wellness mindset newsletter

I have some exciting updates to share with you.  I’ve been busy cooking up a few new things for 2008.  One of them is the launch of my weekly wellness mindset newsletter “Well-Aware.”  I publish this newsletter for my coaching clients and other busy professionals who want to create a healthier lifestyle by building a wellness mindset.  The focus is on effective thinking.  Some of the topics I’ll be exploring are:

• How to develop a mindset for health and well-being.
• How to overcome limiting patterns of thinking and behavior.
• How to maintain a positive mental attitude.
• How to generate more “A-ha” moments and better insights.
• How to listen to your body and your intuition.
• How to discover your unique sources of wellness and vitality.
• How to limit negative thoughts.
• How to get yourself unstuck and moving in a powerful new direction.
• How to use your mind for effective self-regulation.
• How to persevere and reach your wellness goals.
• How to leverage the power of proven methods for managing stress.
• How to use mindfulness to change unhealthy patterns in your life.
• How to figure out and focus on what’s important to you.

If you’d like to subscribe, just complete the form in the right-hand column of this blog (under my picture) or on my Buddy-in-Law coaching page. 

I also plan to focus more on the issue of wellness in the legal profession this year.  It pains me to see that so many talented and highly motivated people, who are very good at serving their clients, have trouble making decisions when it comes to their own life and well-being.  I know the traditional law firm culture often makes it difficult for lawyers to take care of their own needs.  But the bottom line is that the change starts with individuals, and we all need to stay well in order to work and live well.

I’d love to hear what your biggest challenges are when it comes to wellness.

Claim your best life now!

 

Orientation Series: 21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner

Step 18:  Establishing rhythms, rituals, and routines

As you set a direction for your learning with the help of learning goals, you also want to consider establishing rhythms, rituals, and routines to support your learning process. 

Rhythms

Most things we do in life have a rhythm.  Our hearts pump blood through our bodies rhythmically.  We breathe, walk, talk in a rhythmic fashion.  Learning has its rhythm too.  If you were to design your ideal day, what kind of rhythm would it have?   The following questions may help you discover your natural rhythm:

• What kind of flow does your typical day have?  Do you feel rushed all the time?  Are you exhausted by the end of the day?  How often do you feel bored?  Does time fly by or does it drag?
• What times of the day are you at your best?  When is it easier for you to stay focused? 
• When is your energy at its lowest?  When do you usually feel like you need to take a nap?
• Do you first complete the easy tasks or the difficult ones?  Why?
• Do you like to work on one project for a long time period or do you switch between projects and tasks to get more variety into your day?
• How often do you take breaks when you work or study?  If you are not sure, try 50-minute work sessions with 10-minute breaks and see how it works for you. 

Rituals

A ritual is a set of actions that has a special symbolic meaning.  I am talking here mostly about personal rituals that you can devise and perform just for yourself.  Rituals may not be directly related to learning but they can help it by giving a signal to your brain to prepare for something, shift focus, or recharge, depending on the meaning and purpose of your ritual.  For instance, you may have a ritual to start your day on a good note.  Here are some examples of rituals and their possible purposes:

• Reading an inspirational story or listening to a motivational podcast in the morning to get yourself excited about the day.
• Meditating for 15 minutes to quiet your mind before a challenging task.
• Taking a brisk walk when you feel stuck and want to recharge.
• Doing a visualization exercise to calm your mind before an exam. 

Rituals can give you a sense of security and control in a challenging situation.  If you have a recurrent challenge in your day, try devising a ritual for it. 

Routines

It is not just kids and dogs who need routines.  Adults can benefit from them too.  Well thought out routines can give a healthy rhythm to your day, support its natural flow and give you enough energy for all the things you need to do and learn.  Once you determine your natural energy peaks and lows throughout the day, start grouping and ordering your tasks and activities around those time periods.  It may require some experimenting before you come up with your optimal day structure.  For example, my productivity increased when I stopped checking my email the first thing after I turned on my computer in the morning.  Instead, I now prefer to do some writing or research for a few hours before I open my inbox.   As you create your routines, consider the following questions:

• What tasks should you be doing when your energy is high? 
• Which activities do you reserve for your low points?
• If you like variety, how can you break up your projects to stay motivated and efficient at the same time?
• How should you order your learning activities to process information faster and remember and use it better?
• How can you ensure uninterrupted time for the tasks that require concentration?
• How well is your work or study schedule coordinated with the rest of your daily routines?
• How can you safeguard your well-being and meet the essential needs for a healthy diet, sleep, and exercise?  Too often, people sacrifice those needs only to discover too late that their immune system is compromised, they feel run down, or they are just simply unhappy.

Once you’ve planned your day, make sure you protect your routines.  It may require setting some boundaries with people and making a few unpopular decisions, but ultimately, you may discover that you are more productive, energized and enthusiastic about your life.  And learning to live well is no small accomplishment! 

What would your ideal day look like?

Orientation Series:  21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner:
Step 1:  Setting your learning objectives
Step 2:  Taking an inventory of your skills
Step 3:  Taking an Inventory of Your Learning Tools
Step 4:  Finding opportunities for cognitive apprenticeship
Step 5:   Determining the "IIQ" of what you read
Step 6:  Choosing helpful books for law students
Step 7:  “The Three 'P's of Performance” in Action
Step 8:  Tapping into your social networks
Step 9:  Identifying your learning barriers
Step 10:  Finding your sources of motivation
Step 11:  Managing your energy
Step 12:  Focusing on how you think
Step 13:  Mastering informal learning and professional development
Step 14:  Asking Good Questions
Step 15:  Condensing your knowledge
Step 16:  Memorizing
Step 17:  Becoming a reflective learner

 Claim your best life now!

 

How attitudes towards intelligence affect the ability to learn

How we think about our intelligence influences our success as learners.  In her article “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids” in the current issue of Scientific American Mind, Carol S. Dweck, Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and the author of “Mindset:  The New Psychology of Success,” describes two kinds of attitude towards intelligence that affect kids’ performance in school:  the “growth mind-set” and the “fixed mind-set.”  People with the “growth mind-set” believe that their intelligence can be developed through learning and hard work, while those with the “fixed mind-set” believe that their intelligence is static and cannot be improved.  A recent study has found that children with the “growth mind-set” perform better in school, show greater persistence when they face challenges, and are more enthusiastic about learning.  In contrast, kids with the “fixed mind-set” are more concerned about “looking smart” than learning, get discouraged with they encounter a problem, and avoid challenges.  These differences are also reflected in the workplace where people with the “growth mind-set” are more likely to mentor others and to welcome feedback because they see it as a tool for improvement.  Those who believe that their intelligence is fixed are likely to ignore their own shortfalls and shun criticism. 

How do you develop the “growth mind-set”?  The article suggests praising kids for their effort and hard work instead of their intelligence.  Students also benefit from learning about the brain and its ability to change and grow new connections.

Understanding your personal energy patterns

If you are like many overworked and overwhelmed people I know, you probably experience the lack of energy more often that you’d like.  I want to offer you an exercise to help you understand your energy flow better.  Here’s what you do:

1. Take a piece of paper and divide it into two columns.  In the left side column, write down ten things that drain you energy.  Think of tasks that leave you exhausted, people that seem to zap your energy, habits that add to your fatigue. 
2. Now, in the right side column, write down ten things that increase your energy.  Think about activities that energize you, people that inspire you and propel you to action, daily routines that help you maintain your health and sanity. 
3. Once you are done with your lists, draw a bucket that represents your typical 24-hour day.  Now fill your bucket with the things from your lists, estimating the percentage of the bucket those things tend to occupy.
4. Take a close look at your full bucket.  Are you happy with the distribution of energy-producing v. energy-draining activities?  If yes, congratulate yourself on the ability to balance your energy well.  If you see room for improvement, ask yourself what you would need to re-balance your bucket.

Claim your best life now!

What would it take to bring more energy and well-being into your life?  To adopt a healthier lifestyle? To nurture your Self?  Let’s explore it together.  Don’t give in to churn and burn.  Email me at support@buddy-in-law.com to sign up for a free coaching session. 

Do you have a dreamboard?

Last weekend, my family was busy creating dreamboards.  It turned out to be a very enjoyable exercise.  It is something you may consider doing with your family around the holidays.  A dreamboard is a collection of images that represent something you want to attain in your life.  You can clip inspirational pictures from magazines, add text or anything else you like and then attach everything to a poster board.  You want to choose a spot for your dreamboard where you can see it often.  The idea is to look at it, internalize it, and start manifesting your desires.  Here are my observations so far:

I am not very crafty, so I was surprised to see how engaging it was to search for images, clip and arrange them on the board.  I felt a bit like a kid at play.  Not something we do often as adults.    

It was easier to evoke emotions with images than with thoughts alone.  The exercise created a nice union of reasoning and feeling, which left me more inspired and determined to pursue my dreams.

Finding the right pictures took longer in the beginning, but as time progressed, good images began jumping out at me.  I think this was the result of letting my imagination run free. 

Occasionally, an image would catch my eye, but I wasn’t sure why I wanted it on my dreamboard.  The reason usually revealed itself if I looked at the image long enough.  To me, this just shows that we are not always conscious of what we really want, but we can get at it by noticing our emotions and listening to our intuition.  The process of creating a dreamboard increases self-awareness. 

I am not sure if I should ascribe any meaning to the actual positioning of the elements on my board.  It is something I still ponder. 

We actually talked about our dreamboards and the images we chose.  There was power in voicing and sharing our dreams.

I like looking at my dreamboard every day.  It definitely gives me more motivation to act on the things that matter to me.  I also like the fact that I can see all my dreams at the same time in one place, while I can only think of one or maybe two at a time. 

Dreaming doesn’t stop.  I will continue to add more images to my dreamboard. 

Do you have a dreamboard?  What does it do for you?

How to maintain a positive outlook when you are stressed

Is the stress of approaching finals getting to you?  If so, Law School Academic Support Blog has some advice on how to maintain a positive outlook in this challenging time and help others do the same. 

Are you too busy to even consider any positive changes?  In his article “Let Your Subconscious Mind Go to Work for You,” David J. Pollay describes an exercise you can do every morning to harness the power of your subconscious.  It won’t take a lot of time, and the results may be well worth it.

What do you do to manage your stress?

Time to let your monsters out

We all have them.  Hidden in our own haunted houses, they wait for the right moment  to pounce and send chills down our spines.  Do you deny the light of day to any of your fears, negative habits or concerns?  Halloween is a perfect time to acknowledge their existence and have a little fun with it.  Here’s what you do.  Let’s say, one of your haunted house inhabitants is procrastination.  Pick a monster toy for it.  For example, rubber worms in green oozing slime can be a nice representation of being stuck.  Get all your monsters and gremlins out of your haunted house and line them up in a place where you can see them.  Let them hang out there even after Halloween is over as a reminder of who is in charge.  Monsters tend to have less control over you when you see them.  Whenever you feel their creepy presence, just take a look at their toy representative and have a laugh.  They are really not that scary in the daylight.

Happy Halloween!

If you want to change, pay attention

You have probably heard the saying:  “If you don’t like the results, do something differently.”   It turns out that what exactly you do differently may be of less importance, at least, according to an interesting study done by Professor Ben Fletcher, Head of School of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, UK.  55 participants were asked to try out new behaviors from 15 contrastive pairs, such as reactive/proactive or introverted/extroverted.  They were also asked to complete an activity that would be unusual for them twice a week.  The surprising result was that the subjects lost an average of 11 pounds over a four-week period and many went on to lose more.  The explanation was that people who tried out new behaviors were more conscious of their daily activities, they paid attention to what they were doing, and that, in turn, led to better food choices. 

It can be a fun exercise to act like a different person for a while.  What new behavior would you like to try out this week?

Blog Action Day: Learning about the Environment

The 15th of October is Blog Action Day.  Thousands of bloggers put their thinking energy into one issue today – the environment.  They write about it in their own ways, weaving the topic into the themes of their blogs.  So, how are we learning about the environment? 

Some learning we do by choice, other comes to us the hard way.  Learning about the global warming and its effects is an example of the latter.  You may have heard about the four stages of learning:

1. Unconscious Incompetence.  We don’t even know what we don’t know.
2. Conscious Incompetence.  We are aware of what we don’t know.  We know what we need to learn.
3. Conscious Competence. We have learned enough to be able to act in accordance with our knowledge, but we still have to think about it.
4. Unconscious Competence.  The new behavior becomes natural, we don’t have to think about it any more. 

The events of this year shifted many of us into the conscious competence stage.  We know what we should and shouldn’t do to make a difference.  We know enough about the issues to start acting accordingly.  Sustainable living takes planning, adjustment, and concentration.  There is still a lot we need to learn as individuals, families, communities.  Any change is hard, and it takes effort.  It is easier to leave the computer on because that’s how we have always left it.  It is easier to toss a can into the trash rather that look for a recycling bin.  It is easier not to think about those habitual actions.  After all, they are part of our unconscious competence.  And we have to replace them with the skills that we are still learning, and it is a challenge.  Practice is really the only way.  “Think and do,” “think and do” will eventually evolve into “do and do,” and think about something else.   That’s when the environmental consciousness will become part of us, so much so that the new practices will be automatic, just like brushing our teeth in the morning.  But even then, we will still be learning about exciting discoveries and new better ways to do things, and we will continue trading our unconscious behavior for the conscious again.   It is a never-ending process, but hopefully, the one that leads to a better life on this one beautiful planet.

Small steps to a better life

Good changes come in small packages.  We don’t have to spend a lot of time and turn our life upside down to improve it.  Small things often have a big positive impact, and they are easier to stick to.  The challenge is to choose actionable steps or short routines that you can easily weave into the fabric of your day to brighten it up.  They may not solve your problems, but they can make you feel better about yourself and serve as a reminder to take care of your mind, body and spirit.  You can start with just one such life booster and then introduce more at a pace that is comfortable to you.  Here are a few things that I enjoy and you can try too:

• Start your day by stretching for a few minutes.  I like the Sun Salutation sequence. 
• Play your favorite tune as you are getting dressed in the morning, or better yet, sing it.  How about “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” from “Oklahoma” – seems appropriate:

Oh what a beautiful morning,
Oh what a beautiful day,
I've got a wonderful feeling,
Everything's going my way.

Or choose whatever you like.

• Set times throughout the day to do some deep breathing.  Most of us are shallow breathers.  Deep breathing brings more oxygen to your body and calms you down.
• Choose to add a healthy fruit or vegetable to your daily diet.  Blueberries-brainberries are my choice. 
• Meditate.  It is an amazing practice.  A 15-minute meditation session can bring more insights for me than a full day of hard thinking.   
• Say affirmations or The Serenity Prayer, or simply read poetry.
• Make an effort to connect to your friends or loved ones daily in an easy but meaningful way.  It can be a kind word, a phone call, a short email, a kiss, a note, a home-cooked meal – whatever works in your circumstances.  Send your loving energy with it.
• Take a different perspective on something that tends to bother you or drain your energy.  Adopt a new more productive way to think about it and reinforce this new thinking with repetition. 
• Keep a gratitude journal where you write down all the things you are grateful for.   

Your list may be very different.  The idea is to find something that makes your life better.  What is that one little step you can take today?  Let’s hear from you.

Don't let negativity bring you down

Easier said than done, but read the article "Beware of Garbage Trucks™" by David J. Pollay.  Perhaps, you can also benefit from the lesson he learned "in the back of a New York City taxi cab."

More on energy management

As synchronicity would have it, after I wrote my post on energy management, we received the October issue of the Harvard Business Review with an article on this topic.  In “Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time,” Tony Schwartz, the president and founder of the Energy Project, describes some specific rituals that can help busy executives to gain more energy.  You can also take a short questionnaire “Are You Headed for an Energy Crisis?” to evaluate your energy needs.

Orientation Series: 21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner

Step 11:  Managing your energy

Energy is powerful.  Energy is also subtle.   We feel it, but we can’t always measure it easily.  We talk a lot about time management, and not enough about energy management.  You already know that your body needs a good diet, enough sleep and regular exercise to stay energetic.  What may not be so obvious is that our energy levels also correlate with what we do and how we feel about what we do.  Have you noticed how time flies when we engage in something that energizes us, and crawls when we do a task that drains us? Paying attention to the changes in your energy patterns throughout the day is a first step towards bringing more energy into your life.   

If you spend too much energy on things that you don’t enjoy, you are in danger of depleting your energy bank.   Can you identify five routine tasks that drain you most?  Is there a way to delegate them or eliminate them from your days completely?  If this is not possible, it helps to remember that energy comes with meaning, love, and purpose, so look for those qualities in what you do.  For example, I don’t like cleaning, but I can overcome the resentment if I think of it as creating and controlling my physical environment.  Such focus gives more meaning to a mundane task. 

While this type of reframing can work for some activities, use it only as the last resort because you are better off giving your energy to something that you truly love.   You can think of it as opening a channel:  when good energy flows form you, the Universe gives back, so you will replenish your energy fast. 

Energy needs to move.  You can’t conserve it by keeping it to yourself because it will dissipate, and you will feel lethargic without having done anything.  If you ever spent hours on the couch watching TV, you know what I mean. 

How do you make sure that your learning brings energy into your life?  Learning should be a source of joy and inspiration for you.  You have to find meaning and purpose in what you learn.  And finally, you must have a way to share the results of your learning with others and do it with love. 

Do you feel energized when you learn? 

Orientation Series:  21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner:
Step 1:  Setting your learning objectives
Step 2:  Taking an inventory of your skills
Step 3:  Taking an Inventory of Your Learning Tools
Step 4:  Finding opportunities for cognitive apprenticeship
Step 5:   Determining the "IIQ" of what you read
Step 6:  Choosing helpful books for law students
Step 7:  “The Three 'P's of Performance” in Action
Step 8:  Tapping into your social networks
Step 9:  Identifying your learning barriers
Step 10:  Finding your sources of motivation

 

Foster your creativity

Many law students and lawyers have a creative bend, and it turns out, there are lots of good reasons to continue fostering your creativity.  Online Guide to Mediation offers an insightful review of the Boston Globe article "Art for our sake: School arts classes matter more than ever - but not for the reasons you think".   The article reports on a recent study indicating that art teaches a “specific set of thinking skills,” or what the researchers call the “studio habits of mind”: 

One of these habits was persistence: Students worked on projects over sustained periods of time and were expected to find meaningful problems and persevere through frustration. Another was expression: Students were urged to move beyond technical skill to create works rich in emotion, atmosphere, and their own personal voice or vision. A third was making clear connections between schoolwork and the world outside the classroom….

Each of these habits clearly has a role in life and learning, but we were particularly struck by the potentially broad value of four other kinds of thinking being taught in the art classes we documented: observing, envisioning, innovating through exploration, and reflective self-evaluation.

Art teaches us to look beyond our own expectations, which may cause inaccurate perceptions:

Seeing clearly by looking past one's preconceptions is central to a variety of professions, from medicine to law.

And for some, creativity can bring a big pay-off literally.   Just read the story of Scott Jordan, a lawyer-turned-entrepreneur who invented the Technology Enabled Clothing, designed to keep your favorite gadgets hidden but easily accessible when you need them.

Three kinds of empathy

If you are in the serving profession, you have probably wondered more than once how much you should be involved in your clients’ stories.  It can be challenging to find that perfect place where you can be caring and compassionate without jeopardizing the effectiveness of your service and your own emotional balance.  In his blog, Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, reports on his conversation with Paul Ekman, an expert in understanding facial expressions and emotions, about three kinds of empathy:  cognitive, emotional and compassionate. 

According to Paul Ekman’s classification, “cognitive empathy” is “simply knowing how the other person feels and what they might be thinking. Sometimes called perspective-taking, this kind of empathy can help in, say, a negotiation or in motivating people.”

“Emotional empathy” is described as a state “when you feel physically along with the other person, as though their emotions were contagious.” 

Finally, with “compassionate empathy,” “we not only understand a person’s predicament and feel with them, but are spontaneously moved to help, if needed.”

Paul Ekman believes that the three kinds of empathy are learnable, like other emotional intelligence skills. 

You can read Daniel Goleman’s post about the benefits and downsides of each kind of empathy here.

Dealing with rejections

Learning how to handle rejections is not something we look forward to, but it is something we must master as a prerequisite for our lesson in success.  Maybe, you didn’t get the job you wanted, the firm didn’t extend you an offer after your summer internship, or you didn’t close the deal with the coveted client.  You are certainly disappointed, perhaps, angry and resentful.  How do you move beyond these negative feelings towards a more productive and brighter future? 

You’ve probably heard a lot:  “Don’t take rejections personally.”  And you understand it to be true when you think rationally, but even our rationality is bounded, and so the rejection hurts nonetheless.  Take time to experience your feelings of hurt, anger, or self-doubt.  As many of you know, I am a big fan of yoga and meditation, and I think these practices offer a safe environment to explore your negative emotions without acting on them.  Experts suggest taking a pause in your activities when you realize that feelings overwhelm you.   Whether you decide to sit in meditation or do yoga, focus on what’s going on inside you as you breathe in and out.  Psychologists believe that labeling emotions actually helps neutralize them, so go ahead and name what you are feeling and notice any tightness or other sensations in your body.  Now, visualize a place or a person that would invoke a sense of love, peace, safety, gratitude in you.  Pretend you are in that place or with that person, and you breathe in the energy of love and acceptance and breathe out the resentment and anger.  Try this exercise and see if it helps you shift your mood.         

Once you’ve achieved a calmer state of mind, focus on what you can learn from the situation.  Whenever you can, get some feedback from a representative of the employer or another insider you trust, but do it in a tactful and professional way.  You may find out that the rejection has nothing to do with you and is a result of bad economy, changed plans or other factors outside your control.  Sometimes, rejections mean that you and your potential employer are not a good match.  Think of why it may be the case.  Examine your own work style and values and think which work environment is the best fit for you.  Rejections can truly be blessings in disguise even if we may not see them that way for a while.  On the other hand, if you discover that you lack certain qualities that are important to employers, treat it as an opportunity to improve and grow professionally.  This is your early wake-up call.  Make a plan for how you can develop those desirable characteristics.  No matter what your particular situation is, you can always learn something about yourself and other people that can help you become a better lawyer and a better person. 

Whatever you do, don’t burn bridges.  You don’t want to do anything on the spur of the moment that can tarnish your reputation.  Don’t start any communication when you feel upset.  Don’t disparage the firm or the people who work there.  The same people can move to a different place of employment, you may have to meet them in court or at the negotiation table later.  In addition, as salespeople would tell you a “no” doesn’t really mean that.  You may get an eventual “yes,” and it may turn out to be a bigger and better “yes.”  The lesson is to foster good relationships, which can bring you more opportunities. 

Want Happy News?

Positive Psychology News Daily can be your source of happy reading:

"Positive Psychology News Daily provides the latest news about happiness, the 'science of happiness,' and Positive Psychology.  Our goal is to be your fun, collaborative place for a research-based daily boost of happiness."

For example, the article "Using Your Strengths in the Job Search" by Senia Maymin encourages you to explore the relationship between your strengths and your job.   

"To what extent would you personally agree with this statement:  ‘At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?’   When Gallup asked this question, it found that only 20 percent of those surveyed said they strongly agreed with this phrase. Are you in that 20 percent, or is it maybe time for you to re-craft your job to match what you do best?"

She proceeds to discuss a job search trap that many job candidates fall into.  They often build their job interviews around the skills they demonstrated at their previous jobs.  But this strategy is going to get you more of the same type of work.  If you want a job that uses a different set of strengths, you need to know how to incorporate what excites you into your job search process.  The article has some suggestions for you. 

While we are on the subject of happiness, check out the happiness carnival at Think Happy Thoughts.

"The Naked Brain: How the Emerging Neurosociety is Changing How We Live, Work, and Love"

If you are interested in the works of your brain, listen to this podcast in which Deborah Harper interviews Dr. Richard Restak, MD, author of The Naked Brain: How the Emerging Neurosociety is Changing How We Live, Work, and Love.    The focus of the book and the interview is social neuroscience.  Should employers screen job candidates with MRIs?  Can neuromarketers really manipulate us into buying more?  How can one create false memories?  Dr. Restak explains how new research can help us understand our own behavior.

Take the Six Seconds emotional intelligence test SEI-360 free of charge

Six Seconds is a not-for-profit organization that offers information, tools, and services related to emotional intelligence:

“Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize, understand, and manage feelings. It is the key competency for personal effectiveness, essential to communication, self-direction, problem-solving, and leadership.”

During the month of July, you can participate in the free trial of the Six Seconds emotional intelligence assessment SEI-360.  The SEI-360 is an online test that measures how you use your emotional intelligence in your daily life and how other people, who you choose to give you feedback, perceive your emotional intelligence skills.

It sounds like a great way to learn more about yourself.  Hurry up because the test is available free of charge as a research version only till the end of July.

Stephanie West Allen and Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz give us Brain on Purpose

Stephanie West Allen of Idealawg and Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz have teamed up to launch a new exciting blog – Brain on Purpose.  It explores the implications of neuroscience for the field of conflict resolution.  It’s a must read for anybody who deals with conflicts as part of their professional life.  And who doesn’t?  The recent post "There's a great future in [neuroplasticity]. Think about it. Will you think about it?" makes you ponder how much control you have in shaping your own brain.  Our brains develop new connections with every choice we make.  If you let others make those choices for you, you may end up with a brain shaped by your clients, co-workers, relatives, friends, even strangers in a grocery store.  It makes me wonder about the challenges the legal profession faces when it comes to the brain neuroplasticity.  How do you stay compassionate and empathetic without letting your clients’ problems get to you?  Can you use combative trial tactics without harming your own brain and the brains of others who come in contact with you?  Do you feel more responsibility now that you know that your actions may affect somebody else’s brain?  When does the adversarial turn into adversity? 

Want to know what happens to your brain in law school?  Read “Law Students: Create A Well-rounded Life” by Stephanie West Allen and Jeffrey M. Schwartz in The Complete Lawyer.

Let’s begin! (Part II)

“There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other.”
J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

You’ve probably heard the saying “to begin is half the work.”  It is also the hard part of the work.  Have you had trouble starting a thing or two?  What is a good way to begin something?   In Let’s begin (Part I), I gave some tips on how to get yourself ready to cross the start line.  Today, I want to talk about the importance of finding common ground as the first step in many initiatives.  What we have in common with one another can be used as glue to make all the pieces of our project stick together.  How so?  Let’s look at some of the contexts where you can use common ground as your beginning point.    

1. Whenever you need to make a speech or a presentation, it’s a good idea to begin by sharing something that your audience can agree with.  If you establish a point of agreement with your audience from the start, your listeners are going to be more willing to accept what you have to say later.   To learn how to do that, listen to The Engaging Brand podcast Powerful Presenting Pt 1 and Pt 2.   
2. When we meet a person for the first time, it’s only natural that we look for commonalities in our backgrounds or interests to establish rapport.  Remember that next time you are at a networking function.  You conversations will be more fulfilling if you take a genuine interest in the other person.   
3. When mediators work to resolve a conflict between parties, they often try to have them agree on something as the first step of the mediation process.  Even if the point of agreement is really small, its psychological benefit can be great.  Sometimes, a small object that has sentimental value for both parties, such as the kids’ pictures, can do the trick.  Next time you see a conflict brewing, try to agree before you disagree. 
4. When you work as a team, you need to start with a common agenda and common goals.  It applies to meetings, collaborative projects, study groups.  It ensures that all the members of your team are moving in the same direction. 
5. When you write to persuade, inform or entertain, it’s a good idea to consider what characteristics your readers share and what you can do as a writer to address their concerns, interests and desires.  You can apply the same principle when you launch a new product or service. 
6. Whenever we encounter a new situation, we look for a familiar pattern in it.  That’s how our brain processes the information.  To understand the new piece, we need to find a link or an association to something we already know.  If you train yourself to be better at pattern recognition, you will learn more and remember longer.  So next time you need to learn something new, compare it first to what you already know and see how you can transfer your existing knowledge or skill set to the new context.

Can you think of any other situations when finding common ground is a good way to begin?