©Arlene R. Taylor PhD

brainLife usually goes better when you have built some skills in all four cerebral divisions and have some level of competency in each.

Competency tends to increase as you practice specific skills. At least in the field of music, estimates are that it takes about 10,000 hours of practice to develop high levels of competency. Many think that this estimate may apply to other genres as well.

To become outstanding in your field of endeavor, not only does it take thousands of hours of practice, but also the level of competence you achieve may depend on whether or not you are trying to build skills within your brain’s innate energy-advantage or outside of it.

Nothing in this section is to be construed as a recommendation to attempt to achieve outstanding competence in a field of endeavor that does not match your innate brain bent. (Refer to Adapting and to Prolonged Adaptive Stress Syndrome for information about estimates of amounts of time that may be the healthiest for using skills built outside your brain’s innate energy advantage).

Having said that, back to the opening statement: Life usually goes better when you have built some skills in all four cerebral divisions and have some level of competency. If you want to develop skills in a specific cerebral division, following are examples of competency-building activities.
 

imagePrioritizing Division

imageEnvisioning Division

 

Activities that can help to build skills in the Prioritizing division include:

  • Join a debate club
  • Give a speech in public
  • Read and prepare an abstract
  • Participate in a research project
  • Learn to play chess
  • Learn to read a foreign language
  • Learn to use tools (of any type)
  • Take an object apart to determine how it was made or how it works and then reassemble it
  • Analyze a process or system for functionality
  • Analyze different types of music 

Activities that can help to build skills in the Envisioning division include:

  • Write poems and stories
  • Learn to meditate
  • Compose song and/or arrange music
  • Draw, paint, sculpt, carve, design
  • Assemble 3-D puzzles
  • Travel
  • Learn to play games such as Sudoku
  • Learn to play an unusual instrument
  • Play jazz or music that is new and/or unusual
  • Learn to musically improvise or write free harmonizations 

 

imageMaintaining Division

imageHarmonizing Division   

 

Activities that can help to build skills in the Maintaining division include:

  • Read information and develop an outline
  • Make and follow lists
  • Balance your checkbook
  • Join a club or team
  • Learn to sight-read music
  • Join a group that plays or sings musical selections together
  • Develop a schedule and stick to it
  • Do crossword puzzles
  • Play cards
  • Learn to write in a foreign language 

Activities that can help to build skills in the Harmonizing division include:

  • Join a choir or other singing group
  • Take a drama class
  • Play games for fun
  • Participate inpeer counseling
  • Play an instrument by ear
  • Learn to speak a foreign language
  • Learn to cook gourmet-style
  • Volunteer at an animal shelter
  • Volunteer at a hospice center
  • Work at a summer camp or weekend workshop for children or individuals who are handicapped or impaired