Friday 14 February 2014

Dopamine, Marmite, Deepak and Squared Online



The Power of Dopamine

For quite a while I thought I had a butterfly mind.

Not whilst I was working for a large corporate – I was supremely driven and focused what with the goals, objectives, performance management and key performance indicators –and the bonuses in good years!

But, it struck me just recently that this year I will have spent 40% of my working life so far as a self-employed freelance. Here I‘ve tended to follow what’s interested me and where the charge of ‘butterfly’ could reasonably be levied.

 

Dopamine at Work!


Imagine then my delight when I recently did one of those multitudinous self-questionnaires  and was categorised  as a ‘Searcher’ – someone who looks for meaning and who wants to do things which are valuable for their own sake – like learning.

This delight was compounded by some recent reading that identified that - like gambling, exciting new adventures and it has to be said abusive substances – learning can produce a mood enhancing substance called dopamine.
I felt doubly better!

Note: Don’t take this as a definitive view of dopamine – I may have bent it round the edges a bit for the storyline!

Score +1 for 

 


The Marmite Test

I could have let social media pass me by and morphed slowly but surely into a Victor Meldrew – a very, very grumpy old man. I thought social media was a Marmite test – you either loved it or hated it, black or white – simple as that!  I described it as ‘cappuccino froth’ - all bubbles and no substance.


Marmite or What?


But, as an old fashioned  marketing guy - when we had above and below the line - I began increasingly to recognise its value – particularly for the start-ups and small businesses I was working with day to day. I particularly liked the scope it gave to have your own voice.

So I did a couple of weekend courses. Did I warm to it then? Well, no not particularly, but I became increasingly interested in the broader impact of Digital Technology and its importance to the global competitiveness of UK Plc - which is fuelled of course by the digital skills of today’s workforce.

And here was an opportunity to learn with that generation!

Score +2 for



The Deepak Experience

Are things like ‘buyer’s remorse’ and ‘post-purchase rationalisation’ still in the marketing lexicon?  I ask, because in a fit of uncommon exuberance I’d signed up just before Christmas for the Squared Online course – not the best time for an impulse purchase.

 
Neurons Firing!
 

So it was particularly re-assuring to just come across a video by Deepak Chopra from which I took the notion that parts of the ageing process could be slowed if the brain was exercised in different ways. This also echoes the idea of brain ‘plasticity’ - if you learn a new language or play Luminosity regularly you can in fact generate new brain cells rather than let them waste away.

So, all is well and I’m manfully grappling with seeing, hearing and reading simultaneously the Squared Online modules without spontaneous combustion!

Score +3 for