Inspiration

A New Year’s Tale

January 1, 2024

by Walter Oden

“George! George!  Get over here.  I want you to hear something!”  Silence was followed by another voice.

“What?”

“George, I need you to hear something right now!”

“Ok, ok. Give me a minute.”

Another round of silence filled the void.

“OK.  What do you need John?”

“Come over here and listen to this!”

Suddenly, the silence was replaced with the sound of a single acoustic guitar. 

“That is what you wanted me to hear?  Isn’t that a little rough?  I mean, it isn’t very good.  It sounds like a beginner?”

“George, it’s a kid learning how to play guitar.  Give him a break.  Don’t listen to the quality of play, listen to the notes and chord progressions.  Can you hear it?”

George leaned over and looked at the kid playing and saw it was a young man under a single lamp in his room.  He had a beginner chord book opened and  was struggling to transition between chords. 

“Hmm, I think I hear what you are talking about John .  Did he just accidently play a C Ad 9 instead of the G Major he was trying to play?”

“Exactly!  He doesn’t realize that accidental chord combinations are part of the process of songwriting!”

“Honestly John, you are one different animal.  George chuckled, “You always were by the way.  You could see and hear things we never could.”

“George, I always saw you the same way.  That’s why I called you over!”

“Ok John, what do you want to do with this?  Should we give him some inspiration?”

“Yes George!  He doesn’t know his potential.  He needs an injection of inspiration to stick with the guitar.  He has to push through the early years to be able to believe he can create.”

“John, are you ever going to rest?  It is not your job to police all up and coming world talent.”

“What else am I going to do?  Don’t you still pick up your guitar every day?”

“Yes John, I get it.”

Just then, a man with a southern accent entered the room.

“Boys!  I see you found one!  Are you going to give him inspiration?”

Both George and John’s faces lit up. 

“How are you Buddy! John and I haven’t seen you in so long!”

“Why have you been such a stranger Buddy?”, said George.

“Well, you know.  Time just flies by here.  The past, present and future all seem to be the same. It’s easy to lose track of time, but I am so glad to see you both.”

John smiled and said “I guess this must be pretty funny to you.  I think you were having the same conversation about our miserable instrument play.”

Buddy sat down and smiled.  “Yes, you guys were rough.  Yet, from up here I could see your potential.  You had each other which helped.  Although there was a risk that all that bickering was going to end your collaboration before it got really good!”

George laughed.  “That bickering wasn’t our fault.  It was Paul’s!”

They all busted out laughing.

Buddy stood up and said, “Well, let’s all send our inspiration to this young man.  Then, we can all watch what comes.”

Suddenly, a whole bunch of people started appearing in different corners of the room. 

Buddy Holly, John Lennon, and George Harrison all looked up.

Chuck Berry chimed “You boys ready to jam?”

Little Richard, Elvis Presley, and Roy Orbison all started smiling while instruments appeared in their hands.

Tom Petty and Prince just sat there observing in the corner.

A whole bunch of instruments started playing with what sounded like a sound check at the symphony.

Carl Perkins yelled over to Dennis Wilson “How’s the surf been? I still find it strange how only one beach boy actually surfed!” 

Another burst of laughter filled the room.

“Perfect break every day!”, then he laughed, and a drum set magically appeared.

Phil and Don Everly chirped “Are we going to play or what?”

John sat in front of a microphone and said,

“Ok, ok.  A one, two, three…four”

As the best out of this world jam session began, the sound suddenly was replaced by that little boy.

The same unclean acoustic chords got a little better.  He suddenly had an inspiration.  As he started playing a chord progression he realized that he was on to something.

He stopped, picked up his guitar and ran down the hall.

“Mom, mom!  Listen to this!!!”

Epilogue

Buddy Holly

If consciousness is eternal, so is time.  The past, present and future all exist simultaneously.

John Lennon

What is inspiration?  More importantly, where does it come from?  Is it a random brain event or something more cosmic?  Scientists debate the connection between conscientiousness and the quantum world.  Our cosmos is filled with over a trillion galaxies.  Each of those galaxies is equally filled with billions and billions of stars and planets.  This same cosmos has what we call black holes where nothing can escape their gravity. 

George Harrison

Human history is also connected with rich religious traditions.  Are we on the precipice  of finally merging historical religious beliefs and science?

Chuck Berry

Therefore, why not ask the question about inspiration?  Are world changing ideas things that already exist in the universe?  Could true inspiration just be information just waiting to be received by the correct conduit?

Carl Perkins

More importantly, how do these ideas become reality?  Humans that receive this inspiration are not always aware of the significance of their epiphany.  Inspiration is more than an idea.  It is a potential idea with a sprinkling of motivation, obsession, belief, and passion. 

Dennis Wilson

I often wonder how many great ideas are conceived and let go.  This is because the recipient of the inspiration may not believe it’s a good idea or it isn’t worth the time to pursue it.  They might not believe in their abilities to take a concept to completion.

Everly Brothers

Wouldn’t it be cool if another worldly consciousness has a role in really inspiring moments?  How would we know?  What would be the signs? 

I wish everyone an inspiring 2024!

See Global Copyright Notice covering all of odendevelopment.wordpress.com. All rights reserved to Walter Oden (2024)

The 1% Download

How to manage the emotional component of learning to motivate the work and minimize the quit

by Walter Oden

Introduction:

Coaching children is a blessing of my full-time job.  Coaching parents is also part of the job description.  Learning is more than a hobby of mine.  As a full-time professional coach, I must be obsessed with the process.  Over the years, I have discovered there is rarely an “always” in the process.  However, there are some patterns.

The Talent Code

The science of teaching the long-term process has been well chronicled in groundbreaking books like The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle.

Through Daniel’s research, we were blessed to learn about Myelin, Deep Practice, Highly Talented Pockets and Chunking. The details matter.  Yet, no matter how much valuable material a book like this contains, the public just can’t help themselves.  What do people remember the most? 10 years, 10,000 hours.

Daniel gave us the perspective of a reporter and researcher.  This article is from the perspective of a teacher and coach.  My goals are very different than just applying science. It’s one thing to go to work every day.  It’s another to go to work with a positive outlook on the process.

I do not want to reinvent science.  I want an easier to digest version to use with our students.  We also need to consider another equally important concept.  The “Emotional Component” of learning.

The Emotional Component

As coaches, nothing is more exciting than working with students with great attitudes.  Enter the other end of the continuum; A talented student with a bad attitude.  In reality, we can’t teach the love.  Our hope is to help students get to a skill level where a discipline is fun.

For instance, I teach tennis.  A talented tennis professional knows how to make tennis fun even in the early stages.  Ultimately, the sport of tennis becomes fun when a certain skill level is reached.

During the early days of tennis, skill development can vary greatly student to student.  Overall,  a student’s attitude towards learning these skills is directly related to many factors.  For instance, how do they feel about the subject matter? How familiar is the student with what is being taught?  This can matter when new topics or skills create stress due to lack of experiential reference points.

You also have external forces like parents and peers impacting the student.  Their familiarity, experience and attitude can vary greatly as well.

Finally, the expectation of results (from all parties) can impact the student’s attitude.  How does this student deal with error rate?

All these components wrap up into a category we will call the emotional component of learning.  This article homes in on how to support and coach the emotional component to maximize long period learning.

I have a case of Whiplash

A movie that seriously impacted me as a coach was the academy award nominated Whiplash.  If you haven’t seen the movie, do it.  Click the link to the left to get a sense of what this movie is all about.  Profanity warning! Whether it is music, sports, parenting, teaching, or management we have all seen this style of coaching.

J.K. Simmons plays a jazz teacher/conductor at a small college.  Miles Teller plays a young jazz drummer with aspirations of excelling like his idol Buddy Rich.  What transpires will hold you breathless.  In essence, there is a coaching style that seeks out “the one”.  If you are not “the one” you are emotionally expendable.

Most will agree this is not the best approach to coaching.

Error Rate

I  love writing about the concept of error rate.  How do your students deal with error rate when learning a “hard” or “long period” skill?  Some skills are by definition “long period” meaning that the sheer number of repetitions needed to gain familiarity will take years (not weeks).

 

Everyone is different.  Some people can handle the error rate, some can’t.  High level academic performers may have problems dealing with error rate in sports.  Why? They  are used to regular gratification through grades on tests. This problem is magnified when a student has done something a certain way for a long time.  Unlearning or changing a technique gets even harder when a student is competing regularly.  Let’s define “competing” as anything that has a score, a winner, a loser or grade attached to it.

Sell it

Therefore, “selling” the long-term process is part of the emotional equation.  Yes, part of our job as coaches is to sell the end game.  In fact, it is a major part of our work.  Students (and parents) can get hyper focused on performance results as a measure of success.  This type of student needs something they can grasp on to during the periods of high failure rate. High failure rates are a FACT during the early stages of long period skill development.  The goal is to help prevent their head from melting while making the necessary errors in the early learning process.

 Simplify 

I was presenting at a USPTA World Conference on Tennis and made a statement.  “My goal is to take complicated science and make it simple to apply”.  That presentation was about brain science.

Simplicity is essential if “science” is going to make an impact on students.  It better be simple, or you will lose them.  That means students (and parents) may not need all the scientific details.  Sometimes it is not the “idea” that matters, but how it makes the student “feel”.  How they feel will impact their practice mentality and their ability to stay focused on the future.  Academic principles don’t motivate all students.

Albert

What do people remember Albert Einstein for most?  Was it for his General Theory of Relativity? Was it his hair?  His hatred of shoes and socks? Maybe. Most people remember E=MC²

Out of the clutter, find simplicity  – Albert Einstein

E = MC².  That simple formula created more buzz than the theory itself.  The common man may not understand the complexities of warped space-time or gravitational waves.  Yet, this formula changed the world.  Everyone knows it.  It may have also spawned a surge in young people pursuing careers in physics.  Students are starved for simple concepts.

The Concept

We have all been there.  Been notified of a new Windows 10 update?  Had a bad WiFi location and tried to download an app?  Maybe it is a YouTube upload and it’s a big file.  It is one of the most annoying tech realities.  You start a download and see the dreaded 1% complete.

Most of the time, we just put our phone down and walk away for a while.  Then, we check on it periodically to see how far its gotten.  We get motivated when 1% has moved to 3%.  As long as we see it moving, we don’t panic.  We know it’s working, even if it is slow.  In fact, we are more motivated to walk away and simply let it finish.

The Human Brain

This is exactly how the human brain learns.  It is a slow download.  Then again, everything can download if you are willing to wait.  The human brain is like unlimited cloud storage with a really slow WiFi connection.  It can be both annoying and stressful.  Sometimes, during slow sections of a download, we may question whether things are really downloading at all?

You ever get to a point in a major update (like the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update) where it stalls at a number like 47%?  You start to question whether something happened.  Did the progress stop because of a flaw in the connection?  Is there simply a problem with the install?  This is how students (young and old) may feel during the learning phase!  Parents are also subject to this “learning lag” phenomena.

This is where our job as a coach becomes so important.

Patience 

If we are not patient, we often sabotage the download by rebooting the device or exiting out of the process prematurely.  We can equate this to periods of “quit”.

Therein lies our secret to this concept.  Think of learning “hard things” like the 1 % download.  Tennis is a hard, long period skill.  Playing an instrument is in this realm as well.  Learning a sport and playing an instrument are “large downloads”.  Be patient.  It doesn’t have to happen all at once.  Accept progress that is small. In fact, you may not even notice the progress.  Yet, the download is happening.

Your brain is powerful, but it can’t bite off everything all at once.

The tub is filling, but is it draining?

Another good analogy to emphasize (and sell) this concept is a fast filling tub of water.  A full tub is a metaphor for a lot of information we are trying to put into our brain.  There is only so much water that can go down the drain.  The drain represents maximum input rate our brain can handle.  That is your brain processing hard data.  Be patient.  The tub will drain.  In fact, even a slow drain goes down eventually.  Be careful, overfilling a tub or glass of liquid only gets the floor wet.

How much water you add to the tub is directly related to how much it can hold.  This is where the concept of dosage becomes important.

Dosage

Would you ever get a prescription for a medication and ignore the directions?  I know, just open the bottle and take all the pills!

That’s why it is important to sometimes cutoff new skill drills with a time limit.  The emotional component is directly related to dosage! One example from tennis is  introducing young players to continental grip skills.  Once we get to a certain amount of time, we should stop.  It can be counter productive to keep coaching a skill to get a performance breakthrough in a single teaching session.  Again, dosage impacts the emotional component of skill development.

We can agree that some students can take higher dosages than others.  We will address that later in the article.

How to use dosage in teaching

Here is how I use dosage in a one hour lesson.  I predetermine the topics and approximate time I want to spend on a topic.  When the allotted time on a topic ends, simply tell the student “dosage”.  This message goes well with the 1% download concept.  You ever see a kid hit their phone screen repeatedly if it’s not loading?  You can only get so much data in.  Put it down and let it download.

Danger Will Robinson!

As was noted earlier, we all learn differently.  I am constantly reminded of an unintentional emotional story I heard once from the great American tennis player Eliot Teltscher.  There really isn’t a nicer guy in the world of tennis.  I was attending the National Competition Training Center Seminar in Key Biscayne.  Eliot was recently hired by the USTA to head up High Performance Coaching.  During a round table discussion on junior tennis, the panel was asked “what motivated you to excel?”.

We heard lots of stock answers until Eliot responded.  “My fear of my dad”.  He went on to say that “my fear of my dad probably forced me to practice harder and get to the level I became.  Unfortunately, it didn’t do much for my long-term relationship with my dad”.

We have heard this story from Andre Agassi as well in his book.  This emotional component is a very real pitfall applying science and research literally.  Let’s agree the math on being world-class (10 years, 10,000 hours) is a fact.  This math fails when we try to factor in things like mental health and relationships with people driving the work.

Dosage has to be different to different students.  One size does not fit all.  A 1% download at a slower pace may be the perfect pace for maximizing skill and positive long-term emotional development.  Others can take more push.

Progressive muscle overload 

We are likely all aware of the concept of in strength training.  In short, it is a method of training which puts muscles in a state that pushes them beyond their normal breaking point.  Some research shows this may increase performance gains over traditional training.  You must be careful not to injure the athlete, so there is a lot of skill that goes into this accelerated style of training.  If we think of the brain as a muscle (neuroplasticity) it might work as well.

Capacity Training

Dr. Jim Loehr wrote many books making reference to developing a capacity for stress.   His key to success included adding just enough stress to improve the student’s tolerance for stress.  The magic is in the dosage!  The point of this section is to point out that “overfilling the tub” at times is completely reasonable if it is part of a bigger plan.  Getting the athlete used to having “too much information” could be an argument for better dealing with stress.

However, this may not be the best approach when learning a NEW or LONG PERIOD skill.  Could it be better to control the dosage and calmly preach the 1% download?  The answer depends on the student.

Almost done?

Another strange premise is when you have almost reached 100% of the download, but don’t notice.  Imagine a long staircase where the last step is so high, you can’t see over the top to the finish line.  Students in this mode of thinking may quit right before they are there!

This is like the 87% complete with a lag.  The student is stuck at 87% and thinks they have failed and it will never finish (or get better).  Remember, I talked about certain parts of a download that take extra-long?  It is important as a coach to be aware of this process and make the student know “you are close”.

I often see a student that is very close to mastering a skill in a private lesson, but won’t work on it in a group clinic.  This just stalls the download.  It is these moments that are critical to “push through” the lag.  It is even worse when the students are competing.  They will almost never work on a new skill while trying to win (nor should they).

This is why the 1% download concept is so important.  You don’t need a fast download if the student understands the concept and the end game.  A student can move the needle 1% during the week, but doesn’t have to move it every day during the week.

Partial Download

Apps don’t work unless they are fully downloaded and installed.  This is not true with learning.  It is way more like a low resolution picture becomes higher resolution as the download becomes closer to 100%.  That means the skill is useable long before 100%

Slow download doesn’t mean no download 

Milestones are both useful and dangerous.  They can be a powerful motivation tool when you are exceeding accepted milestones.  They can choke confidence and belief systems when you lag behind the norm.  Enter parent’s fear of their child being “behind” and you have a recipe for Armageddon.

This is another huge advantage of the 1% download concept.  Do you really care how long it takes to get to 100%?  I am specifically talking about students that are lagging in specific areas of academics or sports.  The answer is maybe.  School forces these timelines, so we might not have a choice.  Young tennis players are forced into timelines called “junior tennis”.  Yet, in the grand scheme of life most students and parents would agree that getting to the finish line matters more than the timeline!

If you have a seemingly slow learner, who cares!  As long as the download is progressing, you are headed in the right direction.  Don’t be influenced by other people’s download speeds.  If it looks like the download is progressing, continue to support it towards the 100% goal.

Moments of Suspect (The Shanks)

All apps crash.  It doesn’t mean it’s a bad app.  It doesn’t mean the app doesn’t work.  It just crashed.

I invented the term “moments of suspect” to comedically describe how a well-developed skill goes awry. Remember the scene in Tin Cup where Kevin Costner gets “The Shanks”?

This is caused by lots of things.  I could be you think you are at a 100% download, but might be in the 90% range.  Getting to 90% in the download process is often a time when you FEEL like you have mastered something.  Yet, moments of suspect might be the tell-tale sign you are still not there.

Moments of suspect are in every sport.  We have all seen Lebron have a bad day.  That doesn’t change the fact that he is one of the greatest of all time.  There is a natural ebb and flow of a skill.  It is a lot like a fully charged battery that loses charge without it being plugged in.

Usually, moments of suspect will pass unless you try to fix them right there.  Trying to fix the “Shanks” leads to the scene in Tin Cup.  Sometimes, just walk away from the skill and allow your system to reboot is all it takes.  Usually, your download will pick-up right where it left off.

Some Conclusions

There are no easy answers to being a teacher.  In a perfect world, all students would show up motivated to try hard no matter how they are doing or feeling.  I am convinced that you must have a feel for neuroscience to really maximize the learning of any student.  All students learn at different rates.  All students have different motivation levels.  Finally, different students have different emotional components to manage.

As teachers, we should be careful not to sell performance expectations. Stick to selling  learning expectations.  Remember, that 1% download is a big file.  It takes a while, but what an app!

Copyright Walter Oden, November 2017, all rights reserved.  Please see Global Copyright Notice on Home Page Sidebar

 

 

 

 

 

The Happiness Project – Part I

How to quantify and gain awareness of your personal happiness

by Walter Oden

Prelude: 

I am generally a very happy person.  Yet, I have had some really low times.  We all face challenges in our lives. These challenges test our outlook on life.  Sometimes lows overshadow the highs.  I have been waiting to post on this topic for some time now.  I never seemed to find the right time.  I decided I would publish at a time I was REALLY HAPPY.  I also think I was nervous.  We are always wary when sharing some deep feelings.  Every holiday weekend is a time of reflection.  This weekend was no exception.  I thought about my dad often.  Yet, I really did have a wonderful weekend with my family.  Alas, happiness has motivated me to write about happiness.

Introduction

I originally wrote this article on New Year’s Day of 2012.  I actually shared it with a couple of friends at that time.   My dad was approaching the end of his life.   I was in a pretty dark state.  He had reached Advanced Parkinson’s Disease at that point.

I recently saw a poll result on general “Happiness”.  The report indicated that the average happiness of people was dropping dramatically.  One theory was that we are becoming too “technology” focused.  My theory is that “pressure” was taking over our lives.

Why Happiness is Important

Ask any parent what they want for their children.  Most will answer “I want them to be happy”.  What about your own life?  How do you want to breathe your last breath?  We have all seen the quotes describing what we will be thinking when we get older. They all have the same theme.  You will never say “I wish I spent one more day at the office”.  End game happiness is the goal. If we can learn how to do it, we can teach our children.  Then we will fulfill our mission.

New Year’s Resolutions

I make the same New Year’s resolution each year; Focus on happy.  This may sound like a cliché.  On the other hand, who hasn’t become a big cliché?  I am considered to be a “Tweener” by many.  I am not talking about the tennis shot between the legs.  A “Tweener” is term used around social circles to describe a state in your life.  If you have  people OLDER and YOUNGER relying on you for their well being, you are a TWEENER.  You also understand the special pressure that goes with this label.

My History

I have a beautiful loving family and my health.  I have a job I value.  Yet, the years of pressure from my dad’s health, debt, the economy and shear work load has added up.  In fact, it has robbed me of pleasure over the years.  It has robbed me of enjoying what is really important.  I have even occasionally described myself as unhappy.

Being weighed down by negatives is probably what is called “clinical depression”.  Do you see problems as bigger than they really are? This kind of negative stress has a big impact.  It affects you, your family and everyone around you.

My dad’s illness first became prevalent about seven years ago.  The first “hit” was when he lost everything he owned.  That became the least of our issues.  We were fighting so hard for his well being.  We wanted any glimpse of hope.   He lost his fight during January of 2013.  During his decline, I felt helpless most of the time.  Stress + Helplessness + Money Woes + Responsibility and you get one giant ball of unhappy.

Yet, I am going to hypothesize a strange concept; Unhappiness is a mirage.

Why do the Project?

I would try to go see my dad in the nursing home for long visits about once per week.  On other days I would pop in and out.  I was always guilty I couldn’t be there more.  He told me on New Year’s 2012 how “unhappy” he was.   During our visits it was very hard to focus on any positives.  My dad had not come to terms with his plight.  He was also very aware of what is coming.  My dad had dementia that kept getting worse.  He was very scared.  If I tried to bring up the past, he resisted it.  This was his defense mechanism.  It was almost like if he remembered the past, he got more depressed.  He wished it was the past and it wasn’t.

A Call to Action

And now for another cliché.  How do we live in the “now”?  Do you have a habit of waiting for things to happen to you?.  Are you always looking for that change that will make you truly happy?  Could more money or a better house make you happy?  Maybe, but not necessarily.

Yet, if we don’t get to happy right now, we’ll miss it.  That is because happy isn’t a moment in time.  It is time itself.  Having “time” is what happy is.  My dad was out of time.  He didn’t have much happy left.  He missed the opportunity to embrace his time when he was happiest.

I don’t want to get to the end of my life and say “I guess what I used to have was happy”.  I missed it.  I don’t want to ignore what is happy.

The Concept

I was trying to conceptualize this plight in the last couple of years.  I wondered if happiness was simply a state of mind.  I wondered if it was a state of awareness.  Could I be happy and not see it?  It reminds me of the movie It’s a Wonderful Life.  You go through life and can’t realize how lucky you are to be you.

By the way, I included the imbedded link above to also answer a favorite trivia item of mine.  Ever wonder how the characters Ernie and Bert from Sesame Street were developed?

So I said to myself “I wonder if we can define happiness in something that is NOT SUBJECTIVE.  How could we create a definition of “Happiness” in terms of something that is totally OBJECTIVE.  Could I take a math approach to happiness?  How about an accounting approach to happiness?  Could I tally things and record them on a balance sheet?  Could I create the financial statements of life?

The project

I am about to show the reader why I quit being a CPA.  I have to explain some basic accounting to the reader.  It will take you about 3 seconds to pass out with boredom.  Please trudge through it, it matters.

Basic financial statements include a Balance Sheet and Income Statement.  The Balance Sheet lists all your Assets, Liabilities and Owner’s Equity (Sometimes called Retained Earnings).

The Income Statement (Sometimes called the P&L) is a picture of income and expenses during a given time period.  That period is usually a calendar year.

This concept has not changed in accounting in a hundred years.  Even Ebenezer Scrooge understood this.  Although, his accounting methodologies included slave labor that took food out of the mouth of Tiny Tim.

If you are still awake, you may be asking why do we need to know this material?  The answer is what I call the “Happiness Project”

Getting Started – Your Balance Sheet

We need to build financial statements to your life.  We will begin with a Balance Sheet. Start by listing all of your assets.  These are not just things you OWN!  These are things that are positive to your life.  Some examples include:

1) A wife that loves me

2) Three very different kids that love their dad.

3) Own a home

4) A job I like

Then you need to list your liabilities.  These are the things that are potentially negatives.

1) Debt

2) House has huge flaws that can only be fixed with lots of money

3) Job requires long hours that take away from my family

4) Father in nursing home with incurable disease.

5) Wavering belief in higher power/purpose

Finally, you need to list what positives or negative you NET after your years.  That is the statement of retained earnings

1) Fairly youthful looking from years on tennis courts

2) Home is worth more than I owe from years of paying mortgage

Your Current Year – The Income Statement

Now we need to build an Income Statement.  This will require daily recording of Income (Things that make you happy) and Expenses (Things that block your happiness).  You need to religiously record this data every day for 30 days.  Record everything that made you happy, especially the simple stuff.

Monday

Income

1) Kids came running to door yelling “daddy!” and attacked me .  They squeezed me dragged me inside.

2) Had more than (3)  beers in the fridge

3) Great dinner waiting on stove top

Expense

1) Got into a conflict with co- worker today

2) Cash flow went negative today

3) Leak in pipe in basement appeared today

Working list and results

It is impossible to create all these statements in one sitting.  Our subconscious does an incredible job blocking things out.  You may be adding to your balance sheet as you develop your income statement. That is totally fine.

Analysis of your statements

You can have a good year or bad year (income statement).  The key is to focus on the income.  Why?

This is YOUR HAPPINESS PROJECT summarized!

Take all the INCOME items you listed for 30 days.  Put them on a single sheet. That list is your roadmap to happiness. It’s kind of like how you value a business.  Sometimes, you just want to know how much revenue the business earns each year.

Happiness is a cumulative conglomeration of happy moments all rolled up into a single ball.

This project forces you to be aware of your happy moments.  Happiness does not guarantee a life devoid of unhappiness or negatives.  In fact, the key to this project is being able to accept negatives and SEPARATE them from the HAPPY.  Focusing on the happy, is merely a matter of getting organized.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

This movie starred Jim Carrey,  Kate Winslet & Kirsten Dunst.  It got mixed reviews.  I thought it was brilliant.  The premise was that we had invented a way of erasing memories.  In fact, you could erase any BAD memories and eliminate your sadness.  The movie created a hypothesis through its story.  A person’s happiness is eternally linked to all moments in your life.  Eliminate the unhappy and you risk eliminating the happy.

Life experience, much like our income statement, includes both Happy and Unhappy moments. Our project allows you to focus on the happy without ever “erasing” the lessons learned from the unhappy.

Conclusions & Part II

This project will NOT add happiness to your life.  This project will not eliminate sadness or disappointment.  The bigger plan is to make you aware of what you already have.  That happiness is a state of mind.  It is a state of awareness.  We can either choose to be happy or not be happy.  I am choosing happy.  We will explore methods for improving your financial statements of life in PART II.

My Dad in 1968

Copyright Walter Oden & “I Have an Idea” –  January 2012 – All rights reserved.  Please review the global copyright notice on the sidebar.

Fixed versus Growth Mindset – Missing Something?

by Walter Oden

How work ethic improves all psychology

Background:

One of my favorite movies of all time is Forrest Gump  The first time I saw this movie, I was so drawn into “rooting” for Forrest.  It seemed that with every turn, good fortune followed Forrest.  The movie implies that a “feather” touched Forrest when he was young and that provided him with the “luck” he needed to overcome his cognitive challenges.

I have a completely different take on the movie.  I have seen the movie over 10 times.  I now see Forrest as a very talented human being.  Forrest has a higher “work ethic” than all people around him.  In fact, he was physically and mentally more capable of sticking to a process than other more cognitively capable peers.  The ongoing “joke” in the movie was that Forrest just kept working and trying “not know any better”.  His hard work and determination ALONE resulted in success in spite of what he knew or believed!

What is this all about?

During the fall of 2013, I attended a presentation at Laurel School of Shaker Heights, Ohio by Dr. Lisa Damour.  She is a high profile school psychologist and specializes in learning styles.  She is a colleague of Stanford psychologist Dr. Carol Dweck.

In the last year, the theory of Fixed versus Growth Mindsets has been published and touted as a positive approach to teaching students to be their best.  Dr. Damour’s presentation was nice enough to summarize the theory as follows:

Fixed Mindset:  How you are born is what you believe is your final place in the world.  You are threatened by feedback.  You are also threatened by others that are doing better than you.

Growth Mindset:  Wherever you are born is the starting point of your journey.  Your end game is after all the work has been done.  You see feedback as a positive piece in the puzzle.  You also look to others doing better than you as a model for your work pathway.

The link below goes directly to a site that summarizes the theory:

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/01/29/carol-dweck-mindset/

A theory leap that “feels good”

The Growth Mindset Theory makes a Utopian leap in that it implies that by changing psychology from Fixed to Growth, a person will naturally be willing to work hard.  I think for some of the population this is potentially true.  Yet, that population was likely on the “bubble” as a hard worker.  I wish everyone was willing to work hard once they felt good about their prospects.  As we explore below, that situation may not fit the whole population.

The unpopular truth:

No one feels comfortable having the “Nurture versus Nature” discussion.  Yet, there are certain realities to genetics and traits.  Although no one has successfully isolated the “work gene”, I would argue it exists.  It doesn’t take a scientist to observe society and notice the difference between WORKERS and NON-WORKERS.  This trait is generally unrelated to socioeconomic conditions.  In fact, human resource studies have consistently shown that what a person is paid is unrelated to how good or bad an employee they are.  Yes, a good environment and solid upbringing helps.  Yet, we can all cite examples of people that are just darn “lazy” even if they are from solid families.  Therefore, we have to realistically rate people by their inclination to DO WORK.  This could be called a WORK INCLINATION CONTINUUM or WORK ETHIC INDEX.

I challenge you as a reader to rank your co-workers based on WORK ETHIC only.  How about the students we teach?

How to score WORK ETHIC

There are two ways of looking at this continuum.  First, how do you rate yourself?  Clearly, few people will rate themselves as LAZY.  On the other hand, you might rate yourself as a procrastinator.  Procrastination does not always equate with LOW WORK ETHIC.  It simply implies TIMING of WORK.  Yet, perpetual procrastinators will be addressed in our analysis later.

The most important observations would be how am I perceived by others?  Perception of others is an important aspect of reality.

The Work Ethic Index

A real work ethic index would be some combination a SELF rating and PERCEPTION of the PUBLIC rating.  The highest index would be someone with a LOW SELF RATING and HIGH RATING from OTHERS.  This person is always looking to work HARDER because they don’t believe they are working hard enough.

The worst rating would be where I rate myself as a HARD WORKER and others see me as a LAZY BUM!

Impact on Fixed versus Growth Mindset Theory

The “Mindset Theory” is a good one, but it may need to account for a WORK ETHIC INDEX to address certain realities.  In an effort to include it, I have created a matrix that may attempt to merge the theories.  The reason this matters is that addressing WORK ETHIC may be more important than addressing mindset!

You will note in my matrix below, you are much better off having a FIXED MINDSET and HIGH WORK ETHIC INDEX than both of the LOW WORK ETHIC INDEX quadrants.  Since I am a full time tennis professional, I make some professional tennis player references.

The Oden Mindset Matrix

Fixed Mindset/High Work Ethic Index (Upper Left Quadrant – RED)

These people just work hard.  They overcome any limitations created by their lack of belief.  Often, this person is very error averse and hates mistakes.  Yet, because of their HIGH WORK ETHIC marker, they address their belief limitations by simply “going to work every day”.  The results simply come as a result of work.

Tennis Athletes:  Chris Evert and Steffi Graf.  Steffi was well known for her love practice much more than competition!

Fixed Mindset/Low Work Ethic Index (Lower Left Quadrant – BLUE)

This person says “I can’t because of” a lot.  This person also claims to “try hard” with very little evidence of this reality.  It is generally “someone else’s fault” for their plight.

This person simply sees their situation as stuck and there is no use in trying.  Improvement is futile.  Pushing this person into the GROWTH mindset might help.  On the other hand, this plan will likely fail due to a lack of WORK ETHIC.

Growth Mindset/High Work Ethic Index (Upper Right Quadrant – GREEN)

This person is very END GAME oriented.  They see the “what if” and are willing to “get to work” to achieve this vision.  These people take mistakes in stride and see them as all a part of the “bigger picture”.  They will likely take losses and immediately get back to work!

Tennis Athletes:  Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova.  Listen to their post match interviews.  You will immediately hear their approach.  They are “learning” from their losses and have BIGGER goals to achieve!

Growth Mindset/Low Work Ethic Index (Lower Right Quadrant – YELLOW)

I like to call this quadrant the DREAMER.  They like to talk about all their big plans, with little evidence of action.  This person can have some great ideas and may appear to have a GOOD ATTITUDE.  On the other hand, without an injection of good old fashioned WORK, there will never be any movement.  This person is commonly called a PROCRASTINATOR!

Conclusions:

The Growth Mindset Theory is a really POSITIVE theory for learning.  I am very drawn and committed to positive coaching as a philosophy.  On the other hand, I have strong opinions on utilizing certain realities to improve results.  Sometimes the “truth” is more powerful than a “theory”.  As a final note, writing this article is an attempt to move myself out of the GROWTH MINDSET/LOW WORK ETHIC INDEX quadrant!  At least, that is how I rate myself. Thank your so much for your time and energy reading this!

Copyright Walter Oden and “I Have and Idea”, August 2013, All Rights Reserved.  Please see global copyright information on sidebar of this blog.

 

 

 

Autism, Spectrum Disorders, ADHD and Brain Theory – Part III

A condition or change in humanity?

 

By Walter Oden

Introduction:

In Part I and Part II of this series, we explored a hypothesis.  The premise was that ALL human beings fall on a BRAIN DOMINANCE SPECTRUM.  If you have been diagnosed ADD/ADHD or ASD, you might also be on this spectrum as a more severe Right Brainer.

Society both hails and discriminates against Right Brainers.  This final piece in the series will explore another hypothesis.  We will attempt to answer the “why”.  The most recent data says that 1 in 60 children born today will be on the Autism Spectrum.  I would suspect the data is more extreme for ADD/ADHD.  So what is happening?  Is it a result of long term environmental poisons?  Or could something else be in play?

Evolution of Man

I must disclose that my step father was a Cultural Anthropologist.  This career got me some great baby pictures in Kenya.  I spent one full year in Kenya.  I never met Simba the Lion.  Yet, being a toddler in Kenya changes you.  Evolution of man as a topic was bred into me.

I watched my dad make the argument for the evolution of man many times.  He was always struggling trying to get people to “perceive” long period changes in human beings.

The earth is estimated to be 4.5 Billion Years Old.  The earliest known fossils of modern man are from about 200,000 years ago.  Yet, Homo sapiens have decedents that may have stood up nearly 1,000,000 years ago.

Why do we care?

I would claim that modern man went through multiple evolutions since we became Homo Sapiens.  I am referring to evolution of our brain.  Early man needed a brain that was predator aware.  This same brain was focused on ONLY holistic things like FOOD, SHELTER and SURVIVAL.  Later man formed society.  This led to the creation of towns and cities.  This allowed man to start to focus on the details because his “holistic needs” were met.  Our brain evolved from holistic to detail oriented.  We started as RIGHT BRAINERS.  We evolved into LEFT BRAINERS.

2001 – A Space Odyssey

Arthur C Clarke changed the world with his books.  His books predicted a lot of world technology.  His most famous book was 2001 – A Space Odyssey.  Watching it today is a little difficult because we are all “special effect snobs”.

The thing that comes to mind is his metaphors for evolution.  Early in the movie, the apes were gathered and a Monolith appeared.  We later learn what it meant.  The Monolith was a marker for a change in evolution.

The Dawn of Man

The famous scene where the apes were fighting and one ape was able to use a bone as a weapon was a “tipping point”.

Famous Ape Fight Scene

Use of tools is always considered as a marker for man’s evolution from other animals.  Then, all at once he threw the bone up into the air in a celebratory rage.  As it rotated, it turned into a spaceship in a blink of an eye.  What was that scene trying to tell us?

Perception of Time

How we perceive time is relative to the observers of time.  We perceive time in batches of about 100 years.  That is because we tend to live no more than 100 years.  Our ability to perceive time periods longer than that is difficult.  In other words, we can read about events that occurred 1,000 years ago.  On the other hand, we can’t perceive that time period.

This perception of time is a paradox.  It is even more pronounced when talking about 1,000,000 years.  We know how to count to 1,000,000, but we still don’t get what 1,000,000 years ago really means.  That is what Arthur C. Clarke was saying.  One second we were apes banging on bones.  The next second, we are traversing space.

My Hypothesis

Is it possible that we are witnessing a change in the evolution of mankind?  What would that look like to us in the present day?  My contention is that a moment in time wouldn’t be observable except for one factor; the error rate.

I am fascinated with Linear Regression Models.  Those are the graphs where you plot a lot of data points.  Then, you draw a line to closely match all the data.

Imagine a linear regression graph with data points representing tendencies/traits of the human brain over time.  Then, add the line that most closely represents the scattering of all the data points.

Immediately, we would notice what we always notice on these types of graphs.  There are some data points that are WAY OFF the line.  In addition, at some point the data would have to start filling in points that ARE NOT WHERE THEY ARE PRESENTLY.  That means that some of the early data moving the linear regression would appear DIFFERENT from what is the current NORM.

What if humankind was going through a reemergence of RIGHT BRAIN dominance for its next role in the universe?  What if ASD’s and severe ADD’s were simply early data points on a longer period linear regression?

A possible explanation

One of my tennis students is named Justin Prindle.  He is a brilliant 8th grader that attends Solon Middle School.  Solon is a wonderful suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.  He and I have quite a few deep conversations.  He is a young theoretical physicist.  I am actually not kidding.  He has the sophistication of a college student majoring in Physics.  Justin is also a very talented tennis player.

I run a bus trip each year to the Western & Southern Financial Open in Mason, Ohio.  The trip from Cleveland is about 4.5 hours.  There is plenty of time to solve many of the world’s problems in the 9 hour round trip.  On the ride home I shared with Justin my theory connecting ASD’s and ADD’s to the Extreme Right Brain Spectrum.

His response to me was nothing short of miraculous.  He very simply put that if we wanted to start to solve BIGGER UNIVERSAL problems, we would need to stop worrying about each other.  In other words, our obsession with socializing and worrying about what other people think stalls our ability to create novel and new ideas.  He then went on to say that a typical person with ASD has a trait that is commonly described as anti-social.  If we all became anti-social, could we spend more time “thinking” and “solving” scientific unknowns?

By the way, Justin’s dream is to OWN a particle accelerator.  I also like to call him Sheldon.

Conclusion:

In my three part series, I have posed some theories.  They can be summarized as follows:

1) Traits common to Right Brain tendencies may intersect with traits common to ADD/ADHD and ASD individuals.

2) All human beings are on a brain hemisphere spectrum.  Some of those on the severe end of the spectrums may be diagnosed with “conditions” and or “disabilities”.

3) If there was an evolution in the human brain, we might only recognize the “error rate” or “new data” points.   That means that long period evolution can not be seen by the population that is evolving without a “monolith”.

4) As a species, we may need to have our entire population engage more right brain tendencies.  The human race has some gigantic planet scale problems.  These include hunger, disease, energy and climate.  We may need millions of right brain minds to creatively solve these problems.

5) Can we help those with extreme brain spectrum disorders today?  Perhaps with enough feedback from my readers, I will post a PART IV to this series and pose some ideas.

Thank you as always for your time!

Copyright Walter Oden & “I Have an Idea”

Original Copyright – September 2004

Publically presented on multiple occasions (Videotape record available)

Article prepared for “I Have an Idea” – April 17, 2014

Global Copyright Information on Sidebar

Autism, Spectrum Disorders, ADHD and Brain Theory – PART II

A possible connection with Brain Hemisphere Theory

by Walter Oden

Introduction:

In Part II of this series, I will pose a slow developing hypothesis.  I first want to talk about Attention Deficit Disorder.  You have no idea how hard it is for me to finish these kinds of articles!  In Cleveland, Ohio there is freeway know as 480.  That freeway travels over a large valley and town known as “Valley View”.  The bridge they built is hundreds of feet high over the valley.  I was driving on the bridge one day and looked up to see a billboard.  The billboard was an advertisement for a ADD/ADHD clinic!  Can you imagine the irony of all the people reading the billboard with ADD and then driving their car off the edge of the bridge?

The Set Up

In Part I of the series, I laid out a foundation for describing some brain science.  We learned specifically about Right Brain tendencies and traits.  I have struggled with ADD/ADHD my whole life.  On the other hand, things that have been a disadvantage as a child have become an ADVANTAGE as an adult.

Some Traits Considered Common to ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) & ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyper Activity Disorder) People

 Childhood ADD Traits

• Fidgeting & Squirming when seated
• Getting up frequently to walk or run around
• Running or climbing excessively when it’s inappropriate
• Difficulty in playing quietly or engaging in quiet time
• Always “on the go”
• Talking excessively
• Not paying attention or responding to details
• Sometimes poor grades in school

Adult ADD Traits

• Perpetually late
• Trouble with Deadlines
• Risky Driving
• Distraction
• Can’t Prioritize
• Trouble starting and completing tasks
• Emotional Outbursts
• Impulsive Behavior
• Blurting out
• Hyper-focus on things found interesting
• Brain Chemicals (Neurotransmitters) less active in parts of the brain that contribute to focus
• Relationship difficulties
• Financial Management Difficulties

The first connection

Notice the messaging in these traits?  Do you see the implication of negativity?  Yet, take a closer look.  You will see that each trait implies a lack or ORDER and PROCESS.  In fact, the implication is that the ADD/ADHD individual is either unable or unwilling to apply steps to complete a task.  Based on Part I, can you see that each trait could easily be explained by Right Brain versus Left Brain dominance?

Possible Discrimination

Who do you think created the lists above?  I would argue a LEFT BRAINED team of scientists.  Left Brainers are PROUD of their ability to organize steps in a process.  In fact, some of them tend to look those that can’t as “damaged” or “limited”.

We will now enter our biggest mystery; Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Common Traits in ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder)

ASD Traits as described by Autism Speaks

ASD Traits as described by CDC

• Insistence on sameness
• Resistance to change
• Difficulty in expressing needs
• Uses gestures or pointing
• Repeating words or phrases in place of normal, responsive language
• Preference to being alone
• Aloof manner
• Difficulty in mixing with others
• Not wanting to cuddle or be cuddled
• Little or no eye contact
• Less responsive to traditional teaching methods
• Sustained odd play
• Spinning objects
• Obsessive attachment to objects
• Apparent OVER or UNDER sensitivity to pain
• No real fears of danger
• Noticeable physical over activity or under activity
• Uneven fine & gross motor skills
• Non responsive to verbal cues
• Acts as if deaf, although has normal hearing
• Laughing and/or crying for no apparent reason
• Showing distress for reasons not apparent to others
• Tantrums

The Second Connection

It would be very difficult to make the jump from Right Brain traits to ASD traits without the intermediate step.  That step is the ADHD link.  Your prototypical Right Brainer has tendencies, but is capable of accessing and using their Left Brain.  ADHD individuals have a little less control and allow their Right Brain to “run more wild”.  Could ASD diagnosed people simply be a more extreme state of Right Brainism?  What would that look like in terms of brain lateralization theory?

My thought is that the Right Brain has completely taken over.  Now, access to the Left Brain is much more limited.  The highly emotional and disorganized Right Brain has free reign.  Imagine all the RIGHT BRAIN traits above at their most extreme!  In fact, imagine a person without the ability to do the opposite.  Could this be the answer?

A Metaphor

Remember the Angel and Devil in the movie Animal House?  Without listing dialogue, an Angel and Devil appeared and started a fight about a characters next move.  Could we replace the Angel and Devil with a Right Brain and Left Brain?

Angel & Devil Scene (Warning! For mature audiences only!)

I claim we fight that battle every day.  In a more common brain, there is regular consensus between the two hemispheres.  Decisions get filtered by other parts of the brain.  One such part of the brain in called the Prefrontal Cortex.  This is the part of the brain that helps with decisions.

Imagine a society without any law and order.  Now imagine a brain without any process or step oriented processing.  Could that be what happens when the Right Brain completely takes over?

The Blue Flag (Red Flags don’t apply here)

Based on my argument, I would like us to consider the following spectrum:

|——————|Left Brain |Right Brain|—-|ADD/ADHD Traits|—————| ASD Traits|

Could someone with an ASD diagnosis simply be the culmination of a RIGHT BRAIN and LEFT BRAIN not working together?  If the two hemispheres of the brain stop working together, who wins?  My opinion is the more primitive and emotional Right Brain takes over.  The “inmates taking over the prison”, without a plan, might be another metaphor.

Any Other Evidence – Bazinga!

Sheldon Cooper is the loveable theoretical physicist in the hit show The Big Bang Theory.  In that show, all of his friends are constantly dealing with “Sheldonisms”.  Sheldon is famous for knocking on a person’s door and saying their name 3 times.  He is obsessed with routines and consistencies.  Yet, he is considered one of the most brilliant minds in science.  Although not talked about much, Sheldon Cooper is definitely on the Autism Spectrum.  At the same time, he is the most loveable of all the characters.  We all root for Sheldon to develop.  My wife even thinks the series will end with he and Penny falling in love!

Sheldon has some extreme traits.  His mind for science is definitely in the realm of the Right Brain.  Yet, his obsession with details could be argued to be Left Brain traits.  Sheldon is obsessed with making the “right” decision.  He is driven by how his global choices impact the rest of his life.

Was Sheldon Cooper modeled after anyone?  I think he is a combination of Sir Issac Newton and Albert Einstein.  Both of these scientific legends had many traits that would be considered ASD.  Bill Gates has similarly been linked to ASD.  Why do we care?

The Rain Man – Don’t be confused by the details!

 There is a possibility to confuse and improperly catergorize traits.  Some traits may APPEAR to be Left Brain.  Rain Man (and even the Real Rain Man) had the ability to recall and see seemingly impossible details.  In fact, the volume of details made them seem “computer-like”.  But, with further analysis, they might be in fact Right Brain.

Rain Man Official Trailer

When Dustin Hoffman saw the toothpicks lying on the floor he said there were “246”….”

Dustin Hoffman in famous toothpick scene

Was that because he could “count” them?  One amazing trait of a severe Right Brainer is that they can SEE THE WHOLE picture before they see the details.  In that picture, they can see ALL THE DETAILS that make up the whole picture.  A traditional brain would have to painstakingly count each toothpick to get to the total.  Dustin Hoffman stared at the stack of toothpicks on the floor and knew how many were there.

The Real Rain Man – Kim Peek

 Have you ever seen the Real Rain Man do the perpetual calendar?  The Right Brain sees ALL CALENDERS in a giant picture.  Then, the internal vision of the RIGHT BRAIN moves down the catalogue and can pick out a detail from that picture.

Kim Peek had an amazing ability to read two pages simultaneously.  He used is right eye for the right page and his left eye for the left page.  That is very important when discussing brain lateralization.  Kim also had very specific damage to a large bundle of nerves that connect the right and left hemispheres of the brain.  That would mean that his hemispheres could work independently of each other.  On the other hand, it also meant that his two hemispheres didn’t work well together.

Brainman – Discovery Channel

The closest we have ever been to understanding the mind of someone with ASD was when the Discovery Science Channel profiled Daniel Tammet.

Daniel went on to be known as “Brainman”.  Daniel has computer like abilities.  He can learn huge sums of data and recall them with precision.  His most obvious ability is math.  He can complete long strings of multiplication and division in his head.

Daniel became very important to science because he exhibited many skills that were limited to ASD savants.  His early childhood had many of the same challenges of someone with ASD.  Yet, his social skills developed.  That meant you could ask Daniel exactly what he was thinking when he did a calculation.  The most telling trait was that he didn’t see numbers as strict numbers.  In fact, he saw all numbers (1 to 1,000) as distinct shapes.

Somehow, he could see how all these shapes interacted with each other to create an instant awareness of ALL numbers at the same time.

Daniel is considered the highest functioning autistic person ever studied.  If you watch the documentary, you can’t help to notice all his abilities stem from seeing “The Big Picture” in everything.  Daniel Tammet has superior Right Brain talent.

A New Diagnosis – Hyper Right Brain(HRB)  or Right Brain Spectrum (RBS)

I would like to propose a brand new diagnosis for parents.  Let’s assume children and adults have tendencies.  These tendencies include traits that either resembles RIGHT BRAIN TRAITS or LEFT BRAIN TRAITS.  That means the SPECTRUM is simply a Brain Dominance Spectrum.  Therefore, there are some of us that are too close to one extreme of the Spectrum.

Those too close to the LEFT BRAIN edge would appear to be severely OCD.  They would be paralyzed by the need to process everything in a specific order.  They would have a need to overly process everything.  The process would trump any bigger goals.

The severe RIGHT BRAINER might be diagnosed ADD or even ASD.  In that case, the Right Brain might simply NOT LET the Left Brain to operate.  The Right Brain is the loudest hemisphere in the room.  The Left Brain may be trying to talk, but is drowned out by all the noise.

Could ASD’s and ADD simply be a RIGHTBRAINISM?  If that is true, could we treat it differently?  Or do we already know about treatments?  More importantly, why are there so many cases of ASD’s?  The most recent data shows that 1 in 60 children are being born on the Autism Spectrum.  We will explore those questions in PART III of this series.

Copyright Walter Oden & “I Have an Idea”

Originally copyright – September 2004

Publicly presented on multiple occasions (Videotape record available)

Article prepared for “I Have and Idea” April 10, 2014

 

Autism, Spectrum Disorders, ADHD & Brain Theory – Part I

A Possible Connection with Brain Hemisphere Theory

by Walter Oden

Introduction:

April is National Autism Awareness Month.  I was in Panera and saw the display of puzzle pieces.  As a father of a daughter that has a long term educational “fight” ahead of her, I feel for EVERY parent that is dealing with a child with challenges.

I too have challenges.  I am the quintessential ADD personality type.  I probably used to be more ADHD.  Now that I am older, the hyper activity is less prevalent!

The premise of this article series is to have us consider a theory.  This theory has not been tested.  Nor does it provide solace for each and every family that works with a child every day.  This series of articles is simply a conglomeration of observations over the last decade.

Where it all started

In 2003, I was fortunate enough to compete and win the National Seminar Contest in the United States Professional Tennis Association.  The conference was held in Hollywood, Florida that year.  My presentation was called “Right Brain versus Left Brain Dominance and its Impact on Tennis and Humanity”.  I went on to present a developed concept in Palm Springs the following year.

At the end of my presentation, I put up some slides and noted a strange correlation.  This series of articles will focus on that correlation.

Some Background on Brain Lateralization

There is some recent contention whether or not there is really a RIGHT BRAIN versus LEFT BRAIN tendency.  One study in Utah argues that there is no difference between people and their brain function.

Utah Brain Study

Yet, much like the discovery of Dark Matter we need a lot more research to eliminate all the empirical and circumstantial data that says otherwise.

In addition, even if we try to separate personality traits from brain function, we would fail.  Where do personality differences begin?  Clearly, they stem from the brain.  In addition, we know for a fact that the RIGHT and LEFT brain are responsible for different functions.  So, until those conflicts can be worked out, I will present a brief summary of brain hemisphere differences.

A Summary

Early studies comparing hemispheric differences looked at patients with severe brain traumas.  Some studies looked at patients with separations between the two hemispheres.  Damage to the RIGHT or LEFT hemisphere of the brain exhibited pretty distinct differences in their post trauma abilities.  Those early studies prompted decades of research in brain lateralization.

In simple terms, the differences between the hemispheres might be summarized as follows:

LEFT BRAIN:  Responsible for Logic, Step Oriented Activities.  Organized language is often associated with the left brain.  Imagine someone using specific steps to achieve an end goal.

RIGHT BRAIN:  Responsible for things that are Holistic.  Feeling and Emotions are often connected with the Right Brain.  Imagine someone intuitively knowing the answer to a problem and then developing steps to prove their hypothesis.  The emotion of language could stem from the Right Brain.

Dominance and Implications:

My presentation at the World Conference on Tennis in 2004 was a theory of teaching tennis.  The premise included analyzing each individual student as either RIGHT BRAIN or LEFT BRAIN dominant.  You would then use that data to steer your teaching methodologies to maximize improvement.  I have presented on this topic many times.  Over the last 10 years, it has evolved.

My overall conclusion is that you can’t escape the premise of organizing people as either LEFT BRAIN or RIGHT BRAIN dominant.  Most of society has developed over the last 1,000 years because of our ability to use our LEFT BRAIN.  The ability to follow an organized process to create society has been critical.  Yet, some of our biggest discoveries were accomplished because of a tremendous access to the RIGHT BRAIN.  Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was a “belief” and “hypothesis” before it was proved.

Brain Access Theory

The perfect human brain uses both hemispheres seamlessly.  We need both hemispheres and both hemispheres need each other.  The key is to have ACCESS to your whole brain.  I see the two hemispheres like fraternal twins.  Fraternal twins shared a womb and have the same root DNA.  On the other hand, they can be completely different people.

The ultimate goal would be able to access correct parts of the brain to solve specific problems.  If I needed to follow and organized path to get a project done, it would be nice to have great Left Brain Access.  If I needed to visualize an unconceived solution to the universe, I would need the creative function of my Right Brain.  Then, there are the connections between the left and right hemispheres.  They need to share information to operate efficiently.  Current research is studying the neural pathways that connect the two hemispheres.

Some Possible Traits Common to Right Brain People

• Random
• Intuitive
• Holistic
• Synthesizing
• Subjective
• Looks at Wholes
• Uses feeling
• Big Picture Oriented
• Imagination Rules
• Symbols & Images
• Present & Future
• Philosophy & Religion
• Can “Get it” (meaning)
• Believing
• Appreciates
• Spatial Perception
• Fantasy Based
• Presents Possibilities
• Impetuous
• Risk Taking
• Identifies Patterns
• Assigns Value
• Follows
• Daydreams and Impulses
• Imagines
• Visual and Conceptual
• Negative Emotions
• Spontaneous
• Dreamy
• Suspicious
• Random

It’s all in the Messaging!

Listing the traits as I have above can be viewed a “strength” list.  In addition, the list is not great at describing the weight of each trait  It has become almost “cool” to be described as a “Right Brainer”.  Left brainers have lost favor in the public eye.  Who wants to be known as the model accountant or actuary?  It is much cooler to be the dreamer and idea person.

Part II

In Part II of my series, I will delve into the mysteries of ADD/ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Copyright Walter Oden & “I Have an Idea”

Originally copyright – September 2004

Publicly presented on multiple occasions (Videotape record available)

Article prepared for “I Have and Idea” April 10, 2014