Using your Brain to Develop Goals for Your Life and Career
- Russell Fitzpatrick, PhD
- Aug 1, 2024
- 3 min read
When we talk about the brain, it is important to recognize that there is a lot of stuff going on in there. First and foremost, your brain is responsible for keeping you alive. Getting oxygen into your blood and to your cells, pumping your heart, etc., and even making you jump out of the way when a car is barreling towards you. And your brain does this through a vast network of 100 Billion neurons (that’s with a “B”!), all talking to each other through electrical and chemical impulses. Various areas of the brain form networks of neurons and perform certain different functions. Two of these networks of neurons, the Default Mode Network (DMN) and the Task Positive Network (TPN), come into play when you are designing goals for your life and career.
Default Mode Network (DMN). The DMN is active when you are focused on your inner, and not exterior, world. When you are day-dreaming, envisioning your future, and involved in introspection. It is called the default mode, because that is what your brain is doing when you are calm, peaceful and at rest (but awake).
Task Positive Network (TPN). The TPN, on the other hand, is engaged when you are focused on goal-directed activities, striving to meet your objectives and key results (OKRs), utilization goals, performing tasks, work, planning, and performing activities that require heightened attention and focus. The TPN is all about focus and activity.
It is easy to look at these definitions and see where we are positioned most of the day - our daily lives and work call for activation of the TPN. And that is perfect. Our TPN keeps us focused on the task at hand. But at the end of the day, sitting on the coach, our DMN often takes over. An important thing to remember about the DMN and TPN is that they are what Richard Boyatzis of Case Western calls Opposing Domains. The research varies on this, but Boyatzis notes that when one of these networks is active, the other is dimmed. For example, most of the day our TPN is activated as we go about working on projects, budgets, dashboards, metrics, making dinner, changing diapers, etc. While the TPN is active, the DMN takes a back seat, otherwise we could lose focus and start daydreaming. Conversely, when we purposely want to daydream and imagine our future, we don’t want our TPN getting in the way telling us that what we want can’t or won’t work, etc. - we want to imagine the possibilities!
When we are working on something as important as goals for our lives and careers, we want to use both networks, the DMN to imagine the possibilities, and the TPN to figure out how to make them happen. But, we can’t use them at the same time, we need to toggle between them. First, we start by engaging our DMN to process ideas we have for the future - stare out the window and imagine all the possibilities, without processing how or if you can achieve them. What will it look like when I am CEO - what will I do in the morning? What will it look like having a relationship - how does my home life change? These types of envisioning activities for the brain are sort of like trying on new roles, and this is perfect for the DMN. Once you have a sense of what resonates with you though, you need to move to activate your TPN to figure out how you might enact a plan to achieve the visions of your DMN. But don’t stop there. Once you make some progress with the TPN, take that back to your DMN and envision some more. Then back to the TPN, and so forth. With our brain’s negativity bias, your TPN is almost sure to explain that you can’t achieve the goal your DMN wants. By going back and forth, and toggling through the networks as you develop your plan, you can fine-tune something that perfectly aligns your goals with your ability to achieve those goals.
