For many business owners, it is a huge challenge to maintain a sense of clarity, focus and energy towards business success, especially when you are constantly pushed for time.
Time, or more accurately, lack of it, is a huge stressor for entrepreneurs, and a ‘fear of not having enough time’ constantly comes up in the work we do with our clients.
So how can we gain the clarity we need to be more productive and focused in the limited amount of time that we do have? The answer to business success may lie not just in our business marketing, but more in the way we use (or don’t use) our brains. If you are constantly asking yourself how you can ‘save time’ or ‘get more done in the time you have available, then read on!
Laziness and your brain
Have you developed a lazy brain, without even knowing it?
No matter how hard we delude ourselves, we cannot create more time in our day, it is simply not possible! 24 hours is 24 hours, after all. However, we can improve the way we use our time.
Are you currently using the time you have to it’s full potential? Are you as productive and focused as you could be? We’re guessing that only superheroes have the clarity, focus and energy she needs to achieve her full potential 100% of the time. For the rest of us, there’s probably plenty of room for improvement.
Is it because we have allowed parts of our brain to become lazy through lack of use? This is due to a number of environmental factors, including what we are rewarded for, particularly in ‘developed’ country societies which have been dominated by left-hemisphere directed thinking and attitudes.
This idea makes a lot of sense and has huge implications for increasing productivity and affecting your business success. After all, how much more might we be able to achieve if we were to wake up our under-utilised ‘right’ brains?
What can we do to ‘wake up’ those parts of the brain that we are not using to their full potential?
Left side or right side of the brain?
A great place to start is to figure out whether you are more of a ‘right’ or ‘left’ brain thinker. If you’re not sure, take a look through this list and get a sense of which hemisphere you tend to spend the most time in.
Those who are strong ‘right brain’ thinkers have a tendency to struggle with bringing order and focus into their daily lives, regularly heading off track chasing new ideas and struggling with implementation.
The more ‘left’ brained among us tend to be great at writing lists and creating order out of the chaos created by their right brain business partners (in our case!), however may struggle to achieve the innovation and creativity so easily accessed by their right brain oriented business owners.
Left side is all about logic and order, and the right side is the creative pursuits. Being a good accountant would be a left brain pursuit. Learning to become a good stock photographer would be a right side of the brain issue.
Let’s be clear, it’s not that one way of ‘being’ or ‘doing’ is better than the other.
Instead, it’s about creating a balance between the two that empowers us to reach our full potential as entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, right hemisphere directed thinking and attitudes have traditionally been viewed as ‘soft’ and not necessary in the world of successful business.
However a shift is happening. Leaders with vision are increasingly recognising the power of a more balanced approach and forging a new path, a path that acknowledges that current and future business success is going to be deeply influenced by the strengthening of right hemisphere directed thinking.
It is possible to achieve more, in less time, when you use your brain to its full potential.
In our own experience as users and facilitators of ‘whole person’ approaches, or ways of working that tap into both the left and right brain, we have found this statement to be true.
