Talent Management magazine’s editor, Mike Prokopeak, wrote a compelling editorial in the May 2010 issue about how the difference between a baby’s brain and an adult’s brain and how, as we age, our thinking can become “stale” and we cease being able to see existing things in new ways.
He mentions Iconoclast, a book by an Emory University neuro-scientist that examines how successful, creative people overcome mental barriers and the natural roadblocks in the brain to see the world in new ways – and to capitalize on them. Examining the experiences of people like Walt Disney to McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc and glass artist Dale Chihuly, Iconoclast shows how they continued throughout their lives to challenge accepted ways of thinking and create new opportunities.
One of the book’s lessons: Just putting yourself into new or unfamiliar situations can kick-start the brain and open up new ways to think.
My mother’s packing right now to do just this. She’s leaving for England tomorrow, where she’ll meet six other people at the Penrith Train Station for an English Lake District Tour with the “corporate poet” David White. She’ll be trekking, listening to Whyte’s thought-provoking works, and contemplating “Setting Direction for a Future Life” (the theme of the tour).
Where Mom will be - the North Pennines in the UK
She plans on sharing her insights with us. Stay tuned.
Until then, what new or unfamiliar situations are you putting yourself in so that you expand your thinking?
No Responses Yet…