We all know that setting goals for ourselves is a good thing.  We all do it (mostly in the form of New Year’s Resolutions), and we then pretty much go about doing things the way we always have – that is, fall back into our comfort zone and our habitual ways of doing things.

Goal….’I will only drink on weekends’…then at 6.30 pm Monday on the dot, miraculously that wine glass is filled and halfway consumed before we remember the goal we had set.  Then, of course, we are not going to pour it down the sink, so we will start that one …..tomorrow…..Sound familiar?

The part of our brain that stops or ‘inhibits’ our habitual brain messages is the pre-frontal cortex or PFC. It is our Executive Brain, the one in control of our higher-level thinking, our decisions and our conscious actions.  Sadly, it is the part of our brain that is most fickle.  It tires easily, and doesn’t like to work very hard.

You can increase the capacity of your PFC to ‘inhibit’ through brain training, and therefore help you brain to stick to your goals.  Training your brain…ie, brain fitness…can provide you (over time) with a sharper memory, faster brain processing, improved focus, better self-control and better emotional control!  That sounds like a good way to get ready for 2014!

Try this brain training activity….