Say you find yourself working with peers who cling to obsolete turf. Or perhaps you’re stuck in a rut with a boring routine you feel helpless to change.
In both cases you’ve likely defaulted to operating from your brain’s basal ganglia. which can make every action you do part of the “stuck syndrome.” What if you dared to risk the opposite of blaming others for change you crave from within the stuck syndrome?
Why stay stuck?
Once you stoke your brain to create new neuron pathways you are already soaring over daily potholes that once bored, frustrated, angered or stressed you.
It’s no surprise that static days follow dull daily routines where the brain takes on cortisol to fuel more status quo tedium. Yet fewer people risk new adventures as the brain’s way to regenerate in a better place.
Move past stuck?
At the center of each rut you face, revs your brain’s basal ganglia to trap you in its mental storehouse. Feel trapped by poor habits, routines or annoying pot-holes you encounter?
Feel caught in a sea of cynicism or annoying put-downs that dominate your workplace.
To move past stuck is a bit like a tug-of-war where the basal ganglia tugs for tradition and familiar practices, while working memory pulls for innovation. Have you seen it?
From stuck to risk that liberates as Dr. ML King taught?
Risk-takers surf cutting edges of possibilities to override the brain’s basal ganglia default system. In surprisingly straightforward ways, risk-takers engage in mental fitness within their working memory . How so? They simply release innovation-building brain chemicals that fuel your brain increasingly with each risk you attempt. Did you know that risk can be taught and learned?
You use more working memory (which is like a mental scratch pad) to apply new facts, try new approaches, or do something different (regardless of how small) as a way to fuel change and roll a solution forward.
Rev up your gene pool?
Need tools? Check out your hidden or unused multiple intelligences and fire up power tools to override your basal ganglia’s ruts. As examples below illustrate, it’s simpler than you may think and it starts by exchanging one rigid routine for an innovative initiatives.
Which side of the chart below do you frequent most? Do you act more from basil ganglia – to the left? Or is your day fueled more by working memory risks to the right of the chart?
| Basil Ganglia Ruts | Working Memory Acts |
| 1 | Play familiar music or attend a familiar band’s concert | 1 | Select new music to enhance your work |
| 2 | Sit more than move | 2 | Park away from doors and climb stairs daily |
| 3 | Discuss work related problems | 3 | Propose change to solve one key problem |
| 4 | Read daily paper | 4 | Read an unfamiliar trade magazine |
| 5 | Dress in conventional ways | 5 | Wear new colors and styles for a different look |
| 6 | Take advantage of nature after work | 6 | Retrofit workspace as nature friendly |
| 7 | Enjoy lunch with good friends or family | 7 | Invite a person of another culture to lunch |
| 8 | Lead with your strengths at work | 8 | Develop a weaker intelligence as you solve workplace problems |
It’s quite phenomenal if you think about an average brain’s ability to rebound from ruts, and reboot for rejuvenation.
Bigger as better?
No question, the working memory‘s capacity is tiny, and it holds fewer details than you can count on one hand. Check out this video to see why your brain wobbles and sticks at times!
An amazing engine for change, your working memory displaces current facts with newer details as fast as doughnuts disappear in Monday morning staff rooms. It’s a terribly uncomfortable place for traditionalists, that yet it keeps one alert with new and unfamiliar facts that will grow your competence to use details that constantly change you for growth.
Interestingly, it was discovered recently that working memory, small as it is, can literally expand with use. Consider the following facts about basal ganglia and working memory, before you chart new neuron pathways beyond their reach – toward success today.
Compare the basal ganglia‘s much larger capacity and see how easily it stores lifetime habits, regular routines, and experiences that last a lifetime there. You likely see why basal ganglia workers remain quite comfortable in this seemingly secure place.
Ready for a new pathway?
Can you also see how new neuron pathways help to bridge the difference between mental rejuvenation and stubborn ruts? Or how a few brain facts about working memory that overrides basal ganglia ruts, can add mind-bending solutions to your day? Worth a try to shift right of the rut?
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Created by Ellen Weber, Brain Based Tasks for Growth Mindset