Managing Your Brain Part 10: Introduction to Your Brain's Operating System, Programs and Applications and Why Knowing Them Makes a Huge Difference

In the previous article I mentioned that your brain and my brain, our human brain, operate in a very similar way to your mobile phone, laptop or computer; the major difference being that your brain can do a lot more and have far greater processing power and memory than all your computers combined. I also mentioned in another article that in spite of the many complex things that your brain and mine and those of all other humans, are not very good when it comes to making decisions. Now, many will dispute this assertion and say;

“If my brain is not good at making decisions, how come I am this successful? How come I am so rich? How come I have a top job? How come I have this and that?”

There are several reasons why even with the poor decision maker brain we can be extremely successful and produce excellent results in different areas of life and in different fields. Let me explain further.

First, you may have heard the adage that a one-eyed man among the blind if king. This means since all human brains are not very good at making decisions; the brains that are even slightly better than the other brains will outperform brains by a huge magnitude especially in the “either or” type of decisions. The same applies to strategy. Organisations are in general not good in strategy and the ones that are just slightly better than the other organisations outperform them in a hugely disproportionate way.

Second, there is a difference between making poor decisions and making bad decisions. 

Poor decisions are decisions that produce desired results but not in the desired or desirable quality or magnitude or both

Bad decisions do not produce the desired results at all and leave you in the same situation that the decision needed to address.

Dangerous decisions are decisions that produce a worse situation that the situation that you want to solve by making that decision.

Third in an environment where all brains are equally not good in making decisions, you are can actually succeed by profiting from the bad and poor decisions others make when they interact with you. For example, people can make a poor decision by hiring you for a position ahead of someone who could do a far better job that you. If that position is a top position, the financial difference compared to others better than you in your job is huge and even outrageous.

Fourth, there are issues of fortune and a few times when you can make excellent decisions even if generally you make a mixture bad and poor decisions. That one brilliant decision can make up for all the bad and poor decisions that you might have made in the past.

The contrary is that you can make many great decisions and then one dangerous decision that you make unwittingly may have devastating consequences on your life, career, company, economy or business. Listen, this is why decision-making is an important area that regrettably, many people in positions or leadership and management ignore. 

Now, your brain is an operating system. Just as a computer has an operating system and runs programs and applications; the same can be said of your brain, my brain, and their brains. The difference is that the brains programs and applications are many and not easily accessible and cannot easily manipulated. This is for a good reason because humans are very naughty and giving them full access to the full codes and algorithms would lead to disaster. At the same time, for good reasons, some of the means by which the brain operates are now available and we can deliberately improve the performance and the results our brains produce. 

Your brain runs many programs and “applications”; the main ones are the cognition and emotion programs. These programs and applications are responsible for our performance and our results both mental and physical. The following are examples of a few of the applications;

1. The belief management application

2. The values management application

3. The decision management applications

4. The talents management application

5. The skills management application

6. The learning management application

7. The knowledge management application

8. The self-management program

9. The general life management program

10. The emotions management application

11. The motivation management application

12. The memory management application

13. The mental performance management application

14. The physical performance management application

15. The logical thinking management application

16. The goals management application

17. The programs and apps responsible for managing the different organs 

Most of these applications are tightly coordinated and do not operate in isolation but as a whole system of inputs, processes and outputs. In some brains these application exist but they are deactivated. In addition;

1. Some of the programs and applications are inbuilt or hardwired; meaning that your brain comes with them at birth

2. Some applications are consciously or unconsciously created by the brain during the course of life. 

3. Your brain and mine can create new applications and programs. The new programs and applications will help us start to create new types of results.

4. We can modify some of our existing programs and applications and produce better, new or different results or improve or transform our performance in a general sense or in specific areas of life.

Managing your brain can make a big difference in your life, your profession and your career.

To Your Greatness!

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