“Settle Your Glitter” — Weird, smart stuff to try if you want an advantage.

Pause for better 1) performance 2) well-being 3) connection

Editor’s note: This is part of a series about our integral learning model, BuildU. BuildU’s purpose is to accelerate human potential. Read the first few BuildU posts #1, #2, #3, #4, #5 & #6.

We tend to call something “weird” if it’s new to us. When we first start experimenting with something new, we may get that familiar amydalic tingle of “uh-oh — this feels awkward & socially risky” to try. But that’s just tension. Good tension. Stretch zone tension. The tingle is a signal. It’s a signal that we’re learning something new, we’re accelerating our potential — we’re growing.

The evidence about personal growth is conclusive — at any age, neuroplasticity can be almost as fast and dramatic as it is for children if we are focused and intentional about the growth we want. “Focused and intentional” is the key phrase.

The challenge, researchers suggest, is that we are largely unfocused. We’re becoming even more easily distracted every day. We continue to be remarkably unaware of how unaware we really are. Neuroscientists say that ~95 percent of brain activity is unconscious. Researchers at Harvard discovered our minds are lost in thought 47 percent of the time. It’s believed that 40% of our…