To achieve success in terms of our mind, brain and intelligence, we seek productivity and try to become good decision-makers in our lifetime period. So the question is, what would a gym for the brain look like?
It’s quite reasonable that we need to find analogies to communicate and transfer the important ideas to build connection altogether. This becomes much more important for an entrepreneur to seize opportunities and build motivation in business life. The other question is, why do we include sports in our lives in the first place? To explain this in a neuroscientific way, sport is a required activity also for the brain; a gym for the mind and a gamification method for training. Thing is, – besides health and physical activity – it’s functional. Managing your mental fitness and psychological reserve that you have are very prominent to be successful for the entrepreneurs. To be mentally available and gain the importance of the openness, we need to train our minds to be fit, productive and consequently; it will become more complimentary to be happy and responsive.
Strength training and building endurance are also the types of mental fitness methods. Learning and memories are the foundation of the core identity of the mind and our psychology. Problem solving is a complex yet essential task for an entrepreneur and it is definitely related with cardio. Emotion and perception fits with analogy and balance. Emotions are not our problems, on the contrary it helps build analogy and the ability of empathy that is well needed in starting a venture and building your own business. In perception, we perceive what we see in the world and that becomes our reference. Role of sleep is the third phase in mental fitness, it is well told as a nutrition and a physical sport.
If we had a gym for the mind, we had a sleep, emotion, perception area along with learning and memory areas. We would have strength training, imagination, problem solving and critical thinking areas. If we work on these areas and feed ourselves, our mind will become stronger, when compared to someone who’s in the beginning of his/her entrepreneurial area. The analogy for the endurance training would be around resilience on the uncertainty tolerance and this keeps that motivation alive. Minds have games and there are ways for us to get that exercise, when it comes to mental fitness, being an entrepreneur is like a marathon or a sprint.
Let’s keep it optimistic to reduce stress and anxiety with our behaviors and go to gym for the sake of our minds this time!
What Would a Gym for the Mind Look Like?
We imagine what a gym for the mind would look like and discover some analogies between mental & physical growth. Such as;
- Learning, Memory Emotion, Perception
- Sleep, Problem-solving, Critical Thinking
- Resilience, Uncertainty Tolerance, Motivation
Learning & Memory | Cardio Training
Here we will discover the analogy of cardio training to that of improving learning & memory and talk about core ideas to help you train.
Emotion & Perception | Core & Balance
Here we will discover the analogy of Core & Balance to that of Emotion & Perception and talk about core ideas to help you train.
Sleep | Rest & Recovery
Here we will discover the analogy of Sleep to that of Rest & Recovery and talk about core ideas to help you train.
Problem Solving & Critical Thinking | Strength Training
Here we’ll discover the analogy of strength training to that of improving Problem Solving & Critical Thinking and talk about core ideas to help you train.
Psychological Resilience | Endurance Training
Here we will discover the analogy of endurance training to that of improving Psychological Resilience and talk about core ideas to help you train.
Balancing Short vs. Long Term Reward
Staying in the moment is great, but you have to plan the future. How do you reach a balance?
Entrepreneur's Dilemma
Entrepreneurs need to believe 110% that what they’re working on will be successful. At the same time, they recognise that it may fail, and they may need to start again.
Emotional Debugging Checklist
There is no way to “cancel” your emotions. They’re central to the way your brain functions and is embedded even more deeply than thought. Learn the only real way to manage them!
The Renaissance of The Mind and Mental Health
Ozan Dagdeviren is joined by 3 guests from Doolally App team. They experienced the challenges of mental well-being in their own unique ways & emerged with a renewed understanding of how important looking after our mind is.
The Need for Downtime, FOMO, Dopamine Hijacking Apps
Second part of our conversation with James, Ed, and Nick who are building a community of people mindful of mental health and well-being.
Risk is Like Salt
This episode is about risk, learning and the challenges of the entrepreneur. Risk is like salt, too little means you wouldn’t be able to survive, too much would kill you. But how can you calculate how much risk is the moderate amount?
When to Trust Intuition - and When not to
When should you trust your intuition and when should you ignore it?
There is actually a very clear test you can self-administer whether to trust your intuition or not. This episode is about that.
The 'Three Lists' Method
Celebrate Your Growth and Successes
The mind of the entrepreneur can easily wander off to negative thoughts – a natural part of learning from mistakes and being so open to failure. However, dealing with failure and unresolved problems actually sap your energy. This is why you have to celebrate your wins & successes, here is a quick exercise for you to get started!
Push Yourself, Don't Punish Yourself
Here is a mental exercise to make sure you’re not punishing yourself but pushing yourself in the right direction. There is no relation between how difficult you make a life for yourself and how successful you are. Learn more!
My Revelation Ignore Contextual Advice for Your Well Being
Ignore advice that is not a good fit to your temporal and geographical context. We imagine in images. Make sure the images you have about your future are well thought out and manifestation of who you are.
When to go all in?
Life is not chess, but maybe its more like poker. There is a good deal of chance involved in how much success, wealth and influence you acquire. Thus, all decisions are bets in some way. Which means, you’ll want to keep betting & protect your right to stay within the game. Sometimes, you feel you have to go all-in. When is it the right time to do? How would you decide?
Why Entrepreneurs Need Mindfulness Skills?
You might be an entrepreneur in a modern & technological world, but your brain and biology belong to a more ancient era. We’re wired to recognize false positives rather than false negatives. Survival. Thus, your brain will constantly remind you about the things that can and do go wrong. Your brain is your best friend but also your worst enemy.
Give with a Sense of Purpose
What is YOUR “something bigger”? It is not bad to serve your own needs. But when it is the only thing you serve, you start losing control. Dream big, it is OK. What is the version of yourself that has the biggest positive impact on the world? What plans does that person have that you don’t?
Aspire, Don't Compare
“Social comparison constitutes a big chunk of our happiness.” Sonja Lyubomirsky. We compare it in two directions. Upward comparison. Downward comparison. One makes us feel good in the short term but unproductive. The other might be productive but can also be tough to handle mentally. How do we balance that out?
5 Big Mental Health Mistakes in Startups
You made your startup your entire identity. You neglected friends, family, social life, hobbies, physical health. You compared yourself to rockstar CEOs (which are PR anyways) You thought you could get by with 5 hours of sleep. You thought this was a one-round fight.
Resilience as an Entrepreneur:
Story of moving from Japan to USA
22. episodes of Mental Fitness Podcast’s guest is Natsune. She is from Japan and shared with us a story of moving from Japan to the USA.
Also, check out Natsune’s website!
The Biggest Personality Qualities of Successful Entrepreneurs
How you deal with what you don’t know is 50% of the battle. Can you make the right decisions even when you don’t know all the answers? Can you manage your emotional world against your not knowing?
The Biggest Personality Qualities of Successful Entrepreneurs Part II
- The Biggest Personality Qualities of Successful Entrepreneurs
- Rapid Learning
- Building Partnerships
- Enjoying The Struggle
- Balancing the Focus over Long and Short Term
