Tap Your Own Brilliance
Solve Problems Faster, Make Better Decisions, and Communicate More Effectively by Drawing on Your Own Experience & Expertise
This class is included in Thinking Lab membership. Thinking Labbers, access it here.
In your mental databanks, you have a tremendous amount of experience and expertise that can help you with all your toughest problems, decisions, and people issues. In fact, your particular background knowledge is uniquely helpful: no one else understands the details of your situation like you do.
There’s just one problem. You can’t always access the information when you need it. And inventing ad-hoc methods for accessing this information, in-the-moment, for every new problem is time consuming and counter-productive.
If you want to speed up the process, and learn to access what you already know when you need it, you can learn how in my 4-session course, Tap Your Own Brilliance. This class presents the core toolset you need to pull helpful information out of your own brain, and use it to solve problems faster, make better decisions, and communicate more effectively.
If this sounds like a tall order, bear with me for a few paragraphs while I explain the underlying problem, how I help you solve it, and why this solution brings benefits on such a wide range of activities.
NEW!
Convenient Private Podcast Listening Option
Listen to the recordings in your car or while you walk, using your smartphone and one of 19 popular podcast apps.
When you purchase this course, you will be added to the private podcast feed. Then we'll send an email that explains how to subscribe to the feed on your phone. The feed will have all of the audio recordings for the units and the bonus recordings.
Ready to purchase?
Included in your payment is:
- Downloadable recordings of all 4 Sessions in MP3 format
- Class manual and handouts in PDF format
- Two bonus recordings of “Thinking Notebooks 101” and “Using Targeted Thinking to Get What You Want”
- 14-page “Thinking on Paper” pamphlet and a summary sheet for quick reference both in PDF format
Plus
A 3 month trial subscription in the Thinking Lab
“This class makes it easier to face difficult decisions, to more quickly find paths to better solutions, and to overcome obstacles such as overload, confusion and lack of ideas. The time and money I spent thinking about thinking was a solid investment that will pay dividends for decades.”
—Eric Kalin, Manager, Sales Operations, AT&T
I said there was just one problem, that you can’t always access valuable information when you need it. Well, maybe it’s really three problems:
- The relevant information does not always occur to you at a convenient time and in an obviously helpful form.
- Sometimes the relevant information is mixed up with more dubious material: old assumptions that are no longer true, past mistakes that weren’t caught, vague recollections, etc.
- Sometimes the most important information is associated with unpleasant thoughts or memories, which you’d rather not dwell on, if possible.
How do you identify the true and the good within this muddle? That’s what thinking is for. Thinking is a process of sorting out your thoughts from feelings, testing your assumptions, and checking for contradictions.
You actually have many years of experience with thinking; you have been thinking since you were about three. But if you are like most people, you had to “pick it up” as you went along.
Personally, I picked up tools for thinking from a wide variety of sources. Classes on philosophy, computer science, writing, and marketing proved helpful. I found useful information in books on time management, people skills, and cognitive psychology. Most important was one-on-one mentoring from first-class thinkers in diverse fields, from science (specifically, adaptive optics), to philosophy, to marketing. (You can read more about my background here.)
As a result of just “picking it up,” most people lack a self-conscious mastery of thinking. When their thinking flows smoothly, they do well. But when they get bogged down or go in circles, they don’t know what to do.
In my class, Tap Your Own Brilliance, I teach you exactly what to do if you feel overloaded, confused, conflicted, or blank. At such times you may feel like your brain has stopped functioning and has nothing to offer, but that’s not true. I guarantee there is crucial information in your mental databanks that could help right at that moment. In my course, I’ll teach you what to do. We cover one issue in each of four sessions:
- Picking Someone’s Brain (Yours!): Learn how to get helpful, relevant information flowing from your databanks at the first sign of problems.
- Lassoing Runaway Thoughts: Find how to capture the good ideas when you’re feeling overloaded, confused, or overwhelmed by emotions.
- Avoiding Wasted Effort: See how to uncover and address conflicts that are causing you to flounder.
- Triggering New Insights: Discover a reliable way to prod new, helpful ideas from your subconscious when it feels like you’ve run dry.
“Your Thinking Lab is simply outstanding. I just downloaded the teleclass on ‘Using Targeted Thinking to Get What You Want,’ and as usual, I found it very helpful and illuminating.”
—Rohit Gupta, PhD, Santa Clara, CA
3-Month Trial Subscription to the Thinking Lab
When you purchase Tap Your Own Brilliance you will receive a 3-month trial subscription to the Thinking Lab. In the lab, you get access to other mini-courses with valuable content, as well as, weekly thinking tips. And you can access a whole library of step-by-step instructions on topics of interest, and get feedback and help from me.
During each class, I present a tool, explain what it is, how it works, and when to use it. Then everyone in the class pauses to try out the tool, on an issue of his choice. As you’re listening, you can pause too and try the tactics on your own real-life problem. Each exercise is fairly short, usually only a few minutes, but they are long enough for you to see how powerfully the tactics focus your attention on top issues and help you zero in on answers. Plus, immediately after trying the technique, you’ll hear the class questions and discussion.
If you have your own questions, never fear. This package comes with a 3-month trial subscription to the Thinking Lab, my membership program for people who want to improve their mental efficacy. As a member of the Thinking Lab, you are welcome to email me questions or ask them during a Thinking Day. I promise at least a short response, and a pointer to where you can get more help on the Thinking Lab site — or in some of the other material you’ll get as part of the package.
Tap Your Own Brilliance is offered as a downloadable recording of classes originally delivered over a telephone bridge, with a live, interactive audience. The course manual includes handouts for each session, plus an extensive set of questions and answers compiled from dozens of people who have taken the course. You also get a pamphlet explaining “Thinking on Paper” and a summary sheet for the course, both in PDF format. Plus, I include recordings of two additional classes, “Thinking Notebooks 101” and “Using Targeted Thinking to Get What You Want.” These classes were originally recorded in the Thinking Lab, and complement the basic material in the course.
I (Jean Moroney) developed this material by working with individuals and groups, targeting the top thinking problems they faced when they sat down to think at their desks. We’ve all felt stuck in our thinking at times — though you may have called it “procrastinating” or “bogging down” or “going in circles.”
What most people don’t know is that a few basic tools can slay these dragons. I’ve taught these tactics in workshops to well over a thousand people (see my testimonials). I’m now offering a recorded version of the material, in the Thinking Lab, making it accessible to a wider audience.
Who can benefit from Tap Your Own Brilliance?
As a professional, you sometimes work by yourself, by choice or necessity. That’s when you have to rely on your own brain. And that’s why people from a wide variety of professions have found the techniques valuable:
- Managers, who have to do strategic thinking for their groups or projects, and have to think through a variety of complex problems, from how to do more with less, to how to handle people.
- Small business owners, who have to develop many different skills from marketing, to managing cashflow, to hiring and firing, many of which they were never trained for.
- Nonfiction writers, who have to collect and organize their ideas, and then transform them into written words on a schedule.
- Engineers, who are always being asked to solve a new, harder problem than the one they solved last week.
- Artists of all kinds, including painters, novelists, and composers, who find that even if their artistic medium is not words, their ability to manage their creative process in words helps them be more effective.
- Anyone who thinks for a living.
You are your own greatest resource. This class will help you do your best thinking, on demand, when you want to or need to. Using these tools, you can help inspiration to strike.
“If you ever experience confusion, overload, procrastination, floundering or a blank brain when trying to make a decision or move forward on a project (and who of us hasn’t), this class is a must. This class taught me a wide variety of techniques to tap into my own brilliance. Thank you, Jean, for making it so much easier than I could ever have imagined to breakthrough the brain fog I’ve experienced in the past, but will never need to fear again.”
—Kathy Goughenour, President, LeadBoosterClub.com
Ready to purchase?
Included in your payment is:
- Downloadable recordings of all 4 Sessions in MP3 format
- Class manual and handouts in PDF format
- Two bonus recordings of “Thinking Notebooks 101” and “Using Targeted Thinking to Get What You Want”
- 14-page “Thinking on Paper” pamphlet and a summary sheet for quick reference both in PDF format
Plus
A 3 month trial subscription in the Thinking Lab
“What did I learn from Jean’s classes? I learned how to set clear, realistic goals, to access knowledge already stored in my subconscious, to overcome common barriers to thinking, to sustain thinking on difficult problems, to unclutter my mind so it would function efficiently. In other words, I learned to think better and faster.”
—Virginia Tabor, Artist
3-Month Trial Subscription to the Thinking Lab
When you purchase Tap Your Own Brilliance you will receive a 3-month trial subscription to the Thinking Lab. In the lab, you get access to other mini-courses with valuable content, as well as, weekly thinking tips. And you can access a whole library of step-by-step instructions on topics of interest, and get feedback and help from me.
Here’s exactly what you’ll learn:
Session 1: Picking Someone’s Brain (Yours!)
- What works automatically in your brain and what doesn’t
- How to concentrate when you’re feeling distracted
- The top tool for digging information out of your mental databanks
- A step-by-step procedure that unleashes pent-up ideas
- The one No-No that shuts down thinking
In-Class Individual Exercises: you will use the tactics on a modest problem that is bugging you and an issue you want to dig deeper on.
Session 2: Lassoing Runaway Thoughts
- The number one obstacle in thinking
- Three steps to deal with overload
- The stock questions that sort out confusion
- An amazingly easy process for coping with too many emotions
- Why you need a cheatsheet for your brain
In-Class Individual Exercises: you will use the tactics on an issue you’re feeling confused about and an upsetting situation.
Session 3: Avoiding Wasted Effort
- The one time it’s imperative to stop thinking
- The surprising technique you already know that can help identify why you’re floundering and what to do
- The listening skill they don’t teach you in communication classes
- Nine signs of conflict and what they mean
- When “trying harder” fails, and what to do
In-Class Individual Exercises: you will use the tactics to diagnose why you’re floundering on one or two tasks.
Session 4: Triggering New Insights
- The advantages and disadvantages of a group brainstorming session
- Three steps to triggering new ideas by yourself
- Three easy triggers to use
- The question that can break you out of tunnel vision
- How all the tactics from the course fit together into a system to help you concentrate
In-Class Individual Exercises: you will use the tactics to brainstorm ideas for one or two issues.
Class will be mostly lecture and exercises, with some discussion.
“Your tactics gave me a structure for the thinking process that is helping eliminate the logjam of stalled thinking. They have freed up my mind to focus on solutions instead of floundering.”
—Tim Rozycki, Chicago, IL
Still not sure if Tap Your Own Brilliance is right for you?
It’s not for everybody. This is a hands-on class, for people who have items on their “to do” list that they need to think about. Use this simple quiz to find out whether it’s right for you.
NEW!
Convenient Private Podcast Listening Option
Listen to the recordings in your car or while you walk, using your smartphone and one of 19 popular podcast apps.
When you purchase this course, you will be added to the private podcast feed. Then we'll send an email that explains how to subscribe to the feed on your phone. The feed will have all of the audio recordings for the units and the bonus recordings.
Quiz
Take two minutes to write down the top 5-10 items on your “to do” or “to think about” list.
When you’re done, go back over the list and rate the items on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows:
1 — This is easy, I know just what to do, there will be no problem when I get a moment to do it.
2 — I expect I’ll figure out exactly what to do with no problem. I do not anticipate any procrastination or floundering or confusion on this task.
3 — This is a hard one. I’m sure I can figure it out, but I will need some time.
4 — This is a hard one, I’m sure I can do it, but I’m a little worried about some aspect. I think I may have problems with ______________ along the way. (Fill in: overload, confusion, blankness, floundering, procrastination, etc.)
5 — This one is hard. I don’t know how to tackle it, so I’ll have to stretch my brain a bit to work it out.
If all your tasks are 1’s and 2’s, you don’t need this course.
This course will help you speed up 3’s, and deal with 4’s and 5’s quicker and more effectively.
Ready to purchase?
Included in your payment is:
- Downloadable recordings of all 4 Sessions in MP3 format
- Class manual and handouts in PDF format
- Two bonus recordings of “Thinking Notebooks 101” and “Using Targeted Thinking to Get What You Want”
- 14-page “Thinking on Paper” pamphlet and a summary sheet for quick reference both in PDF format
Plus
A 3 month trial subscription in the Thinking Lab
Let’s sum up what you get:
- Powerful tactics that you can apply every day in your own thinking that make it more productive, more efficient, and more pleasurable
- Surprising insights into how to use what you already know more effectively
- A chance to use the tactics on your own issues to solve problems during class
- Edited recordings of all four sessions
- Soft copies of handouts for each session plus a compilation of participant questions & my answers
- An unlimited opportunity to ask questions by email or during a Thinking Day during your membership in the Thinking Lab
- Two additional recordings “Thinking Notebooks 101” and “Using Targeted Thinking to Get What You Want.”
- Soft copies of a 14-page “Thinking on Paper” pamphlet and summary sheet for quick reference
- A 3 month trial subscription to the Thinking Lab
More questions? Email me at: jm@thinkingdirections.com or
call 212-972-9495