UPWIRE #188 - Nerve

The brain loves big, complicated, later and never.  Exceptional leaders and teams choose the exact opposite: breakthroughs and rules that are small, simple, now and next. In this UPWIRE, we'll look at how the smallest change can make the biggest difference in your life and work.

The brain is hard-wired to be stuck in a defensive "me-first" mode.  It despises criticism and over emphasizes every perceived slight, ultimately leading to artificial roadblocks to your (and your team's) success. In this podcast, we'll look at how you can UPWIRE your brain to move beyond this default flaw-finding "me-first" operating system, and create a culture of growth for yourself and others.

The brain is hard-wired to shrink, not soar. But inside each of us is a quiet lifelong beckoning call which will awaken the courage to face uncertainty, grow and achieve the "impossible." In this episode of UPWIRE, we'll learn how to develop and deploy our inner NERVE to face change, loss and growing pains without collapsing or running away.

By hard-wired human nature, the brain seeks to be out of touch.  Instead of engaging with and achieving your best possible future, the brain much prefers the comfort of mindless repetition, distraction, and awaiting the return of the "good old days." When you are out of touch for as little as a few days or a week, it's not a neutral state.  You are already losing clients or customers who yearn for more meaningful connection with you. In this episode of UPWIRE, we'll take a look at simple strategies for staying in touch with life's larger opportunities by mastering brief and frequent connections.

The brain is largely a forgetting machine, and in today's fast-paced world, it's primed to forget what matters most faster than ever! In this episode of UPWIRE, we'll take a look at how you can structure your schedule to make sure the goals and individuals vital to helping you create your most amazing future receive at least a few moments of your best attention.

To the brain, momentum is not natural.  Instead, it prefers interruptions, distractions or anything gives the illusion of activity or movement: brain circuits which are firing frequently but not forwardly. In this podcast, we'll look at how to scale momentum and consciously align our brainpower with what matters most in our life and work.

The brain loves to keep hundreds of top priorities actively floating around.  The problem is the goal traffic jam which inevitably results, burning valuable mental energy and leading to reduced performance. In part two of this podcast, we'll learn how to set 1st Priorities for the brain, and how to create automatic drivers which will keep us focused on making progress on our top goals.

The brain is hard-wired to run from challenges (real or imaginary), while barely walking toward opportunities, no matter how amazing. In part one of this episode of UPWIRE, we'll learn how to implement automatic drivers which kick in at the start of every choice, action and interaction, and relentlessly and effectively prompt the brain to grow.

The brain gets hijacked by many forms of competition.  Fortunately, so does almost everyone else's brain. In this podcast, we'll look at how competition negatively impacts our growth, and learn some simple ways to UPWIRE our lives to move from simply competing to truly excelling.

By instinct, the brain waits for everyone else to change. If we want to UPWIRE our lives, we must lead by example, go first, test better ways forward-upward and not wait for others.  In this podcast, we'll look at some simple methods for hacking human nature which provide the catalyst that raises performance and drives new growth.