Undulating brick surfaces are concealed behind the smooth, windowless exterior of this chapel by Modernist architect Eero Saarinen, captured in these new images by British photographer Jim Stephenson (+ slideshow). (more…)
A former theatre in Mexico City has been restored and reconfigured by Bandada Studio into an interactive museum that displays a giant model of the metropolis (+ slideshow). (more…)
You’re reading How Focusing on Strengths Instead of Weaknesses Changes Your Brain, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
The key to human development is building on who you already are”
― Tom Rath
Let me ask you a question.
How many of your New Year’s resolutions focus on fixing a weakness?
My guess is most of them.
Am I right?
It’s human nature to focus on our shortcomings. And by doing so, we sabotage ourselves.
Research clearly shows that people experience faster growth and development when they nurture their strengths instead of correcting their shortcomings.
As a Harvard Business Review shows, once people focused on their strengths, they felt more satisfied with their lives and believed in new possibilities. All in all, they became happier.
And this goes for focusing on strengths in the form of talents and natural abilities as well as having positive feelings and trusting in yourself too. Often one is influencing the other.
Let’s review a real-life example.
I am quite musical. I play the piano, and I also sing in a choir. I had a solo part in December and took some private vocal lessons to give my best. I enjoy this. I don’t mind putting lots of work and hours into rehearsals. After every rehearsal, I feel happy and refreshed. And I was thrilled to realize that I improved.
On the other hand, when I have to draw something, I feel like a total loser. Even after learning some techniques, I am still frustrated that nothing I draw turns out the way I want. I feel like I want to jump and stomp on my artwork, and then throw it out of the window. It frustrates me. And I’m not having any fun.
Can you see what I mean?
In both cases, I am putting effort and energy into something. I learn techniques, and I try to improve.
But with music, I’m having fun. I see real improvement that leads to something great, which I can perform and present to other people. It leaves me happy, satisfied, and with a feeling of achievement.
With drawing, I’m not having any fun – at all. After putting lots of energy and time into improving this skill, the result is still crap, and I can’t present it to anyone. I feel like I’ve wasted precious time. It leaves me frustrated, discouraged, and moody; even when I try to move on to something else, the negative feelings carry over.
What I described in the examples truly affects our lives, our successes, our happiness, and how we perceive ourselves. Where we direct our focus affects our brains.
Whatever we think of most becomes stronger and more powerful in our brains. So, if we think of our weaknesses, they become stronger in our brains, to the point that our brains make us believe that we are our weaknesses and that we are not good enough.
Spending every day being reminded of what we’re not good at is frustrating. And it stresses the brain. So all of the brain’s functions are reduced to one simple activity: surviving the present situation.
The brain does only what guarantees survival and uses only what it knows. In no way is the brain able to use all of its areas and capacity to visualize and be creative at this stage. Stress reduces and blocks all that.
If we do the opposite and think about our strengths, our brains let us believe that we are strong. We can use more areas of our brains, and our minds open up to new options. Our brains are also more open to learning new skills and new knowledge.
Only a positive, happy, and relaxed brain can be truly creative and think freely.
Focusing as part of practicing a strength and talent improves this specific talent. Improvement is success, to the point of mastering the talent. And the more we experience success, the higher brain activity we’ll have. This activity changes our brains. It increases motivation, self-esteem, and happiness.
Doing what we’re good and strong at is usually accompanied with enjoying what we’re doing. This releases a molecule in the brain called dopamine. Dopamine in the brain provides feelings of pure happiness. It motivates us to continue doing what we’re doing. In addition, dopamine makes the brain be alert and able to react faster to new information.
Don’t misunderstand what focusing on strengths means. It’s not an excuse to do only what you feel like. It’s not an excuse for avoiding hard work. Building your talents into real strengths requires practice and hard work, much like building physical strength does. It is your ticket to success, but it won’t happen by itself.
OK! You got it! It’s great to focus on strengths. But you might still wonder what exactly your strengths are. Do you have strengths and talents at all? Maybe you feel more like someone who can’t do anything well.
Well, everyone has a unique set of talents and strengths. Yes, everyone. That includes you. Some strengths are obvious; some are not so obvious.
You can discover your strengths in several ways:
If you’re not into tests, you can work with a coach where you analyze, ask questions, and roll play. Just make sure the coach is experienced, maybe even certified. By law, everyone is allowed to call themselves a coach. So choose wisely.
You’ve seen clear proof that focusing on your strengths changes your brain, opens your mind, and releases stress.
Your strength is what sets you up for a positive life full of possibilities, creativity, and happiness.
If focusing on your strengths is your way to happiness and success, why would you still focus on your shortcomings and waste your time with it?
Forget about obsessing over your shortcomings.
You have a unique set of talents and strengths.
Use them!
You’ve read How Focusing on Strengths Instead of Weaknesses Changes Your Brain, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Anyone wanting to construct their own tiny house can now buy detailed plans for a micro dwelling designed by Washington DC studio Foundry Architects (+ slideshow). (more…)
From the architect. Between 1890 and 1911, Government Architect Walter Liberty Vernon designed and delivered over fifty projects in NSW, some of which are still standing and in use.
One of those is the Pyrmont Fire Station located on the corner of Gipps and Pyrmont Streets in Ultimo, Sydney. It was constructed in 1906 to address the compounding fire danger posed by an intense growth in industrial development in the area during the first decade of the 20th century.
The original building is Federation Free Style and constructed of red clay face brick in English bond with lime mortar over a rusticated sandstone plinth and has decorative sandstone detailing emphasising door and window openings and other features. The colours and textures of the brick and sandstone are in stark contrast. While the Pyrmont and Gipps Street facades have a strongly defined “base”, “middle” and “top” and feature several asymmetrical features.
Inside, the building originally consisted of two engine bays with attendant stables, a family size officer apartment and single men’s room on the ground floor. There were also apartments for six families on the second and third floors with a laundry, drying yard and watch tower at roof level.
The Station was staffed until 1945 when it was closed. It then reopened in 1960 and remained active until 1994 when it closed again for minor renovations.
The fire station reopened in 2007, however for over 40 years the two upper floors of the fire station have remained unoccupied and had been subjected to squatters, theft, water damage, fire damage and vermin.
In 2013, Fire and Rescue NSW commissioned Group GSA to refurbish and extend the operational Fire Station and derelict upper floors to improve conditions for the fire fighters and to provide office accommodation for Fire and Rescue NSW staff as part of their relocation program from their current head office in Elizabeth Street, Sydney.
Major works included upgrading the buildings structural integrity to a Category 4 seismic stabilisation. This was achieved with a meticulous design by Birzulis and construction by MAXBuild installing new steel portal frames to shore up and protect the existing heritage envelope including the prominent bell tower on the corner of Pyrmont and Gipps Streets.
Twenty-four cubic metres of concrete was used to form 1.5 metre deep footings which extended down in to existing bedrock. This formed the foundations for tonnes of structural steel that protect the building from lateral movement.
The portal frames span two floors and tie to reinforced joist flooring which is braced to the frame with a series of flat bar cross-bracing. The external façade is then tied to the perpendicular walls with a Helibar system.
Architect, Janine Graves believes “The upgrade of the locally listed heritage building is a win for urban development within Pyrmont. The Vernon building will continue to be a landmark building for many years to come”.
A new extension was also added to the building over the 3 floors. The contemporary addition is inspired by design methodologies adopted a century ago – Innovation, decoration and social creation.
The choice of interfacing materials between the heritage building and the extension produces a strong connection between the old and new. The materials complement each other and flow between internal and external spaces in an asymmetrical fashion much like the building before it.
Original concrete floors have been topped with a white concrete, marking the extent of the original building footprint and in contrast, grey concrete floors segregated by a subtle shadow gap defines the extended premises.
Vertical circulation zones are clad in Zinc, linking all 3 floors and the diverse departments of the organisation together. The zinc cladding also located around landscaping to the level 1 terrace compliments the aged red brick and the new glazed façade encasing the rear of the original building.
Recycled bricks from the site’s dismantled outbuildings were used for infills and repairs.
Janine Graves states, “The major renovation presented many challenges through the construction process. These were overcome by the team’s passion for restoring a standout piece of historical architecture and providing state of the art facilities for the service men and women who risk their lives daily to instil a sense of safety and security within our communities.
Artel Constructions worked collaboratively with the consultant team to deliver a successful renovation within the constraints of the brief and site.”
In addition to the retention of the original envelope and the incorporation of an extension to the Vernon building, another challenge involved retaining and repairing details and material such as the pressed metal ceiling above the existing interior engine bay. In order to install the joist flooring without damaging the ceiling, the builders removed the existing floor boards above the ceiling, cleaned and stored them, and then re-laid them on top of the new joists.
The original walls and rusted tin roof of the ‘fodder’ room, used for the horses in the early 20th Century, has also been retained and can be viewed from the level 2 void along with some original art works preserved behind fixed picture frames.
It is Janine’s view that “GroupGSA and the professional team of multidisciplinary consultants have ensured that the work of the former Government Architect Walter Liberty Vernon, continues to function as it was intended but now more aligned with contemporary work processes”.
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama have selected Chicago’s historic Jackson Park as the site of the Obama Presidential Library, the Chicago Tribune has reported. The park is located in Chicago’s South Side, the first lady’s childhood home and where Obama was first elected to office. Located at the eastern edge of the University of Chicago campus, Jackson Park beat out nearby Washington Park for the honor of becoming the library’s home. The design commission was awarded to Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects earlier this month.
The Obama Foundation took a different approach to finding a site than past presidential foundations have taken, deciding to build in an up-and-coming part of town as opposed to an established city center. Jackson Park is surrounded by the neighborhoods of Woodlawn, a predominantly African American community, and Hyde Park, which is already in the throes of gentrification.
The selection has not come without controversy, however, as opponents believe the Library could have provided a greater impact at the Washington Park site, which is currently surrounded with several vacant sites. Friends of the Park, the park advocacy group that recently succeeded in driving the Lucas Museum from its proposed lakefront Chicago site, also expressed their disappointment that the library will be built on park land. Both Jackson Park and Washington Park were designed by 19th-century landscape designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.
The Obama Presidential Library is scheduled to be completed by 2021 and will cost an estimated $500 million. The project will feature the library housing the presidential archives, a museum and headquarters for the Obama Foundation.
News via The Chicago Tribune.
Business news: the creative industries are growing faster than any other business sector in most of the UK according to new data, with 47 “creative clusters” now scattered across the country – including “less ‘hip'” areas like Slough and Chester. (more…)
Sig Nordal 