Right Brain Exercises: Can Futurethink Impact Our Careers?

"The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." -- Albert Einstein

7-23-12 - Sandra H. Rodman
Right Brain Aerobics - @SHRodman

Right Brain Exercises in Futurethink -- Futurethink and Our Careers

1. An interesting research article recently suggested that "Our Brains Shrinking. Are We Getting Dumber?"  Whatever the reason,  greater awareness and brain exercises, stretching our minds to consider the future, may be imperative in future careers.

First, read this article from the NY Times series, "Your Brain on Computers" -- "Attached to Technology and Paying a Mental Price"  -- suggests that our all-day focus on our small screen mobile communication may be affecting relationships, thinking, distracted, unfocused minds.

For future careers/training, we need to take this future trend into account.  How can we exercise those creative brain centers and mental focus to reverse effects? Will there be new career fields and opportunities for reinventing technology and how we use it -- which are "coming soon"?

Right brain thinkers will anticipate this. Right Brain Aerobics, for example, was designed for right brain exercise to assist in expanding creative-innovative-intuitive-focused mind for out-of-the-box thinking. Can we be smarter about how we use technology and perhaps create more "right brain" technology?

Here are more readings/film links/exercises to put "futurethink" and right brain thinking in general into Career context:

2. Consider this: A report of the IEEE (Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers), Procedings of 7th Int'l. Conference on Information Visualization, 2003:  "Creative Performance: Does the Computer Regard Artistic Development," T. Kipp.  Among the groups studied, the research concluded that artistic traits such as visual memory, perception, and critical eye for detail declined 80% as compared to research studies conducted in 1944." And:  "We presented scientific research in the field of cognition and brain science, suggesting dominant use of technology...retards intellectual and perceptional-motor skills."

Exercise: Write out 5 things you can do in your industry or company or department -- to reverse this -- ensure that we have 80% increase in creativity skills over the next 70 years...

Time to increase awareness of the impact of our use of technology -- and right brain exercise -- in every career?! With strong activation of the right brain skills/acumen (big picture thinking, pattern recognition, the "ah hah" brain, insight, longer-range collaborative thinking more adaptable to change, as well as more creative and innovative, "out of the box") - we can integrate with left brain for whole brain thinking at higher intelligence levels.

3. For fun and to spark your right brain for innovative ideas about how we might transform our future for better outcomes with greater awareness -- watch the film: "Idiocracy."  A man goes to sleep cryogenically for 500 years and discovers that he's the smartest person on planet Earth. Ooops.

Or watch Pixar's Oscar Winning "Wall-E" animated film is a powerful, prophetic take on waking up -- to create more workable new technology and new inventions than can sustain, not threaten, ecospheres, our intelligence and health -- and all life systems.

Exercise: Having watched either film:  Write down key new innovative steps we can take -- and that you could be part of -- to shift society and technology use toward new sustainable and creative global outcomes.

4. For inspiration and right brain "ah hah" moments, watch the documentary:  "I AM: The Shift Is about to Hit the Fan" -- from Hollywood director Tom Shadyack (an hour on the Oprah Show was dedicated to this uplifting film and the realizations of a successful film director -- "Ace Ventura" et al -- about the new opportunities before us with different life choices.)  A visual spark for higher intelligence creative imagination about our long-view "opportunities."  We have many!  Let us "turn on" not "turn off" -- higher right brain / whole brain intelligence.


5. Ask and Write -- tap your Inner Genius: Write down the question: Where would you begin, if you were tasked with reinventing our use of technology or alternative technology -- or humanology -- for a better society? A better future 1000 years hence? Begin to develop a mind for "FutureThink." Write the answer as if you were an expert with Right Brain, FutureThink Mind...

If we never ask ourselves these kinds of questions, then we never get answers to these kinds of questions!  Writing down the question and then attempting to answer it for real -- is a mega right brain stretch and a little time travel -- for the sake of future generations...

Bon voyage...

Sandra H. Rodman

Right Brain Aerobics -- @SHRodman Twitter -- Linked In -- Classes
Email Sandra Rodman - 425-214-292

(c) 2012, S.H. Rodman.  Photo Credits: iStock Photos.