The Hindu Business Line : Keep the neurons up and working

A COMMON myth is that if you are old you cannot depend on your memory. Neuroscientists have discovered that you can shatter that myth if you keep the neurons up there busy and connected. Allen D. Bragdon's book Brain Building Games offers 176 performance tips to achieve `a better brain in 3 months'. "No matter what your age, these exercises can shape up your brain's circuits so they will be there for you whenever you need them to perform," assures the back cover. Read on:

For years, scientists thought blood flow to the brain was constant, but recent studies prove that blood flow increases when you think. To think, the brain has to create energy. Scan studies have shown that blood flow increases more in the left brain for analogies and more in the right brain for tests that require spatial reasoning.

Men tend to seek seclusion on arriving home from work and prefer to be left alone. If men have been under stress all day at work, they are more likely to provoke conflict within the family. In contrast, women under work-related stress, upon returning home, are more likely to cope by concentrating on their children.

Long-term stress can harm a part of the brain called the hippocampus. This contains receptors for the stress hormone cortisol and repeated increases of cortisol can impair declarative memory. The hippocampus can withstand short-term stress, but if stress is long-term, results are more negative.

The hippocampus in people with recurrent depressive illness becomes 10-12 per cent smaller in volume.

In school, the subjects that make girls happy usually make boys miserable. Girls tend to do better and be happier in subjects such as English, writing and foreign languages. The biggest challenge for girls in school tends to be mathematics, with geometry being more difficult than algebra. Boys can do well in math, especially if math is made more spatial.

Working memory uses two tools to hold information in mind while working additional parts of a problem: the phonological loop (hearing words for data with mind's ear); and the visuospatial scratch-pad (seeing info with mind's eye). If a person cannot "see, hear, and hold" the first part of a word active in memory for further processing, the end of the word will often be misspelled.

Remember to read the book.

Crorepathi sapna

AUTHOR of the `chicken soup' series, Mark Victor Hansen has written a story, to `transform your life and make you rich,' titled The One Minute Millionaire. As the back cover puts it, it is an inspiring lesson in creating true wealth — even if you want to simply beat credit-card debt. Excerpts:

A dream + a team + a theme = millionaire streams. Dream — build the millionaire mindset that has self-confidence and burning desire. Team — attract mentors and partners to help make your dream a reality. Theme — select and apply one or more of the basic millionaire models for making money fast.

Four characteristics of people who are expressing their genius: Passion — they love what they do; if they were not getting paid, they would do it for free. Talent — they are good at what they do; call it talent, ability or genius. Values — doing what they do is extremely important to them.

Destiny — they have a sense that they are doing what they were born to do, making their own unique contribution; it is almost a spiritual thing; it is their destiny.

In business world, there are five kinds of leverage. OPM is other people's money. OPE is other people's experience. OPI is other people's ideas. OPT is other people's time. And OPW is other people's work. Millionaires are masters at using all five kinds of leverage.

To be a millionaire is to be a student of what motivates people — learning to discern the wants behind the behaviours of the masses. Motivational speaker Zig Ziglar says: "You can have everything you want if you help enough other people get what they want."

Begin to work on the dream... of becoming a millionaire.

Seven-day Sunday

YOU carry work home and sleep in office. And the sad truth is that you are not alone. But Ricardo Semler has found the elusive balance between work and personal life and is revealing the secrets in The Seven-Day Weekend. Read on:

A source of stress and disappointment is the expectation that the workplace is an extended family. People want their jobs to provide a sense of belonging, to feel they are taken care of, to bond with colleagues.

But they are looking for characteristics the company cannot supply. They should keep the company role in perspective. The fact is, you don't have to like people to work with them.

Mergers are about growth and profit. But many times they are also a solution for bad management. Companies with mistakes to cover up are the first ones in search of a merger. Companies that are doing beautifully are usually only interested in acquisitions.

The only source of power in an organisation is information; and withholding, filtering or retaining information only serves those who want to accumulate power through hoarding. Once an e-mail is not circulated, or if it is edited, then illegitimate pockets of power are created.

Some people are privy to information that others do not have. Remove those pockets, and a company removes a source of dissatisfaction, bickering, and political feuding.

If someone is going through a phase in which they would rather work less — and lower their pay accordingly — the company would do its best to adapt. Both men and women could reduce their work hours and pay to address childcare or parenting needs, for study or simply for a need to step away for a period of time.

It is arrogant of executives to believe that the company will do better if they are involved. Thinking you can do something better than anyone else is irresponsible. The company will be weaker if I think only I can make decisions, for example, and customers or partners believe they need me more than anyone else.

A book that can help you find time to see the sunset, after a complete day's work.

(Books courtesy: Fountainhead, Chennai. E-mail: fhbooks@satyam.net.in)

Tailpiece

"How does one speed-read and yet understand the book's contents?"

"To solve that problem, there is a book, which I speed-read and so missed the point it was making."

hindubusinessline@hotmail.com

D. Murali

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Keep the neurons up and working