Break Your Goals Down Into Steps
One tip to do this is to break your goals down into smaller tasks. Want to lose weight? Don’t set the goal of reaching ‘5 stone in 1 year’ because it’s just too distant and too out of your control. Instead, set the goal of exercising 4 times a week for one year.
The weight will take care of itself but the goal you have is much easier to control and much more instantly rewarding – remember what we said about getting that constant dose of dopamine as you get rewarded for hard work? Break your goals down into smaller steps and it will be much easier to use the CBT techniques we discussed earlier to stay focused on them.
Training Your Concentration Thanks
to something called ‘brain plasticity’ – which we touched on earlier – the brain is able to adapt its shape and size depending on how we use it. If you spend lots of time playing the cello for instance, then the area of your brain in the motor cortex responsible for fine finger control will grow over time. New connections will form between neurons and the connections you already have will become thicker.
Likewise, if you spend lots of time concentrating, guess what happens? You train your concentration and that gets bigger too. Very possibly, this would result in an increased size for your anterior cingulate cortex, which would also result in better motivation. Conversely though, if you are constantly switching between tasks and you never concentrate for more than a couple of minutes, your ability to concentrate will atrophy.
This is one of the biggest dangers of the technological world we live in – if you are constantly using your phone or going from one social media site to another, then you’ll find your ability to concentrate wanes. Don’t worry if you’re not a master of concentration just yet. The key thing is that you keep at it – in which case you’ll get better as your brain develops.
Practice concentrating at every opportunity and engage in tasks that require focus. If you do this enough, you’ll eventually develop the necessary areas of your brain and you’ll become masterful at it.
Mindfulness
We discussed mindfulness as a part of CBT used to identify the contents of your thoughts. Actually though, mindfulness can also be a more general term that describes a type of meditation where you become more mindful of your own body, mind and environment.
Studies show that practicing mindfulness or any kind of meditation, can help you to be more present in the moment and to have a better long-term focus. If you want to step-up your mental game, then give it a go! Why not try the Headspace app?
Break Your Goals Down Into Steps
One tip to do this is to break your goals down into smaller tasks. Want to lose weight? Don’t set the goal of reaching ‘5 stone in 1 year’ because it’s just too distant and too out of your control. Instead, set the goal of exercising 4 times a week for one year.
The weight will take care of itself but the goal you have is much easier to control and much more instantly rewarding – remember what we said about getting that constant dose of dopamine as you get rewarded for hard work? Break your goals down into smaller steps and it will be much easier to use the CBT techniques we discussed earlier to stay focused on them.
Training Your Concentration Thanks
to something called ‘brain plasticity’ – which we touched on earlier – the brain is able to adapt its shape and size depending on how we use it. If you spend lots of time playing the cello for instance, then the area of your brain in the motor cortex responsible for fine finger control will grow over time. New connections will form between neurons and the connections you already have will become thicker.
Likewise, if you spend lots of time concentrating, guess what happens? You train your concentration and that gets bigger too. Very possibly, this would result in an increased size for your anterior cingulate cortex, which would also result in better motivation. Conversely though, if you are constantly switching between tasks and you never concentrate for more than a couple of minutes, your ability to concentrate will atrophy.
This is one of the biggest dangers of the technological world we live in – if you are constantly using your phone or going from one social media site to another, then you’ll find your ability to concentrate wanes. Don’t worry if you’re not a master of concentration just yet. The key thing is that you keep at it – in which case you’ll get better as your brain develops.
Practice concentrating at every opportunity and engage in tasks that require focus. If you do this enough, you’ll eventually develop the necessary areas of your brain and you’ll become masterful at it.
Mindfulness
We discussed mindfulness as a part of CBT used to identify the contents of your thoughts. Actually though, mindfulness can also be a more general term that describes a type of meditation where you become more mindful of your own body, mind and environment.
Studies show that practicing mindfulness or any kind of meditation, can help you to be more present in the moment and to have a better long-term focus. If you want to step-up your mental game, then give it a go! Why not try the Headspace app?
The weight will take care of itself but the goal you have is much easier to control and much more instantly rewarding – remember what we said about getting that constant dose of dopamine as you get rewarded for hard work? Break your goals down into smaller steps and it will be much easier to use the CBT techniques we discussed earlier to stay focused on them.
Training Your Concentration Thanks
to something called ‘brain plasticity’ – which we touched on earlier – the brain is able to adapt its shape and size depending on how we use it. If you spend lots of time playing the cello for instance, then the area of your brain in the motor cortex responsible for fine finger control will grow over time. New connections will form between neurons and the connections you already have will become thicker.
Likewise, if you spend lots of time concentrating, guess what happens? You train your concentration and that gets bigger too. Very possibly, this would result in an increased size for your anterior cingulate cortex, which would also result in better motivation. Conversely though, if you are constantly switching between tasks and you never concentrate for more than a couple of minutes, your ability to concentrate will atrophy.
This is one of the biggest dangers of the technological world we live in – if you are constantly using your phone or going from one social media site to another, then you’ll find your ability to concentrate wanes. Don’t worry if you’re not a master of concentration just yet. The key thing is that you keep at it – in which case you’ll get better as your brain develops.
Practice concentrating at every opportunity and engage in tasks that require focus. If you do this enough, you’ll eventually develop the necessary areas of your brain and you’ll become masterful at it.
Mindfulness
We discussed mindfulness as a part of CBT used to identify the contents of your thoughts. Actually though, mindfulness can also be a more general term that describes a type of meditation where you become more mindful of your own body, mind and environment.
Studies show that practicing mindfulness or any kind of meditation, can help you to be more present in the moment and to have a better long-term focus. If you want to step-up your mental game, then give it a go! Why not try the Headspace app?
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