WHOLE BRAIN THINKING

WHY WHOLE BRAIN THINKING IS CRUCIAL TO FINDING YOUR LIFE PURPOSE

I recently attended a talk by a fellow professional in the banking industry who was describing her approach to finding out what her ideal thing to do for a living would be. She was very methodical and logical in her thinking and approach. I would have expected nothing less from a successful senior accomplished professional in her field.

She meticulously outlined the steps to narrow down the options that were possible choices open to one based on what they thought were good at, what they enjoyed doing and finally what options were open to them in their current field of possibilities i.e. their environment – work and social. Once a list of all plausible options was created she then recommended that each option be tried and tested to see what works and fits.

During my own search for my ideal thing to do for a living, my life’s purpose, I adopted a similar logical methodical approach. At that time, being in the corporate world myself, my approach reflected the same stellar advise I would give to my clients on how to solve a problem using my analytical intelligence and operational number crunching skills of deduction. Narrow down the plausible options and go from there.

To be thorough in my approach, I even engaged the help of a top notch executive coach specialising in assisting senior professionals in my field. This involved advanced psychometric tests and a thorough analysis of the market to come up with a list of the options open to me taking into account all the factors that came up on my psyche tests.

After years of trial and error, having dabbled in various businesses from real estate finance, angel investing to build a portfolio of businesses, film financing, online marketing and e-commerce to charitable pursuits, I remained none the wiser. Frustrated and dissatisfied with all the plausible options on my list and having exhausted the possibilities I could think of in my environment, work and social, I turned to the alternative holistic methods of finding my life’s purpose.

These methods seemed rather alien to me at that time. I was brought up and trained to think in a very logical and rational manner hence the alternative holistic methods seemed too out there for my left brain to comprehend. Out of desperation I decided to try them out as I had nothing to lose at that point. Most alternative methods centered around the concept that I was born to accomplish a unique mission on this planet which I was pre-destined for since conception.

So off I went on my quest to find my life’s purpose, my very own unique soul mission on this planet. I tried many methods including human design, hand print analysis and various journaling and meditation processes to uncover my true life’s purpose. But the question, what I was born to do, still eluded me. However, despite my initial dubiousness, I did find that the alternative holistic methods did shed some light on what my life purpose was. Intuitively I connected with the information I uncovered but it was all so vague lacking specificity. Nonetheless, I was a little more clearer than I first started in my search for my purpose.

What I did discover at the end of it all is that whole brain thinking played a crucial part in me eventually uncovering my life’s purpose. For those of you curious about what I found my life purpose to be please read my blog: https://intuitivelifedirection.com/2016/03/16/discoveringmylifepurpose/

What is whole brain thinking: Whole brain thinking means engaging both the left and the right hemispheres of your brain in reaching a decision, conclusion or view point. The left and right hemispheres of the brain are connected by the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum is a thick band of nerve fibers that divides the cerebral cortex lobes into left and right hemispheres allows for communication between both hemispheres.

The left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for:

a) Analytical intelligence, which includes critical thinking – how you frame a problem and how you evaluate an idea; and

b) Operational intelligence, which involves planning and organizing – how you turn an idea into action.

The right hemisphere of the brain is responsible for:

a) Creative intelligence, which includes using your intuition, imagination and visual thinking – how you envision possibilities; and

b) Relational intelligence, which includes how you collaborate and co-create with others and how your ideas connect.

In recent decades, particularly in the corporate and business world, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on left brain thinking whilst right brain thinking has taken a back seat. This has lead to a culture of people staying trapped in linear, dull, logical left brain thinking never activating the creative right side of the brain hence they tend to lose their love of life and can feel stifled in their work.

It is crucial for the two brain processes to work together simultaneously for strategic innovation and transformation to occur, on both a professional and personal level, in order to achieve the desired result of living a life worth living. This is what Oliver Wendell Holmes meant when he said “most people go to their graves with their music still in them”.

In order to achieve whole brain thinking, we simply have to get our left brain to command our right brain to get engaged and come alive. When you get to whole brain thinking, you get “peak” experiences according to psychologist Abraham Maslow.

My initial approach to finding my life’s purpose was based on my left brain thinking which is what I was trained to do instinctively given my education and corporate background. I was logical and methodical in my approach and listed all my logical plausible options and went through my list painstakingly trying out a range of options without finding any real joy or fulfillment in my life.

I now realise that I was rather narrow in my focus. I had been in an environment that was dull for a long time. I was stressed, burnt out and had forgotten how to connect to my passions to work out what I truly enjoyed. My life’s purpose hence was not visible to me in my field of possibilities, I could not see it in my then current environment, work or social.

There are certain vision blinders that are in usually play in these situations hence using left brain thinking alone does not yield the desired result of finding true fulfillment in one’s work. For example. one vision blinder in play could be escape fantasy. When you are tired and burnt out and then you go about trying to narrow down, with your left brain thinking, what you would ideally enjoy doing for a living you will keep visioning rest and relaxation. My vision at that time was to rest on the beach and do nothing at all for a living. Not helpful when you are trying to uncover your life purpose work to make a living out of.

On the other hand when I deployed my right brain thinking by trying out the alternative holistic methods I ended up with rather vague and non-specific information which was difficult for me to trust and do anything with. The human design and hand analysis readings, visioning and journaling made me feel elated momentarily but I had no idea what to do with the information I had received and how to put it all together in order to make a real living doing what I loved.

I finally put the pieces together and worked out that I had to deploy both hemispheres of my brain in order to discover my life’s purpose and meaning for true fulfillment in my life. I had to use my intuition and creativity to think outside the box to be able to connect to my true heart’s desires and work out what I loved and cared about. I then had to use my analytical and operational thinking to reveal, through critical self-questioning and self-analysis, my natural tendencies and talents in order to work out how to monetise my natural talents to create a sound business model.

The Result: Eventually I created my own unique business model designed around my unique innate talents that I could monetise all whilst pursuing a cause that I felt passionately driven to achieve which was indeed my life purpose.

For information on the workshops I teach to uncover and unleash your Life’s Purpose using whole brain thinking processes, please visit: https://intuitivelifedirection.com/services/workshops/.

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