In today’s knowledge-based society, intelligence and education are the driving forces that make us successful. But how can we make sure we stay on top of our game without being swallowed up by the amount of stress we face every day?
Our jobs today are filled with pressure, competition, and elbow mentality. These modern-day phenomena inevitably make us feel like we’re on a constant emotional rollercoaster of distress. Many of us feel like they need to continually develop their abilities in order to stay on top of their game. Showing weakness and failure are traits that are less and less tolerated in the business world. Basically, if you want to make it in the world of employment, strong elbows and a thick skin are definitely a must-have.
Unfortunately, we cannot change how the way the world works – but what we can do is help you succeed in today’s tough performance society without being eaten alive by stress and pressure.
Mental abilities – your tools to success
In today’s knowledge-based society, our mental abilities are increasingly important for us in order to not lag behind. There are barely any jobs left today in which you don’t have to give 100%. Most jobs demand everything from us – our time, our energy, our knowledge and intelligence.
It is not surprising therefore that many studies have confirmed what we already felt was true: that our intelligence is a key decision maker of our professional success. The German Federal Employment Agency showed that chemists and opticians had an average IQ of 114 and 113 respectively, whereas the average IQ of warehousemen was 94.
The good news: you can increase your intelligence
But what exactly is intelligence? Science believes that in order to understand intelligence, it is useful to divide it in two components.
The first one is crystallized intelligence which refers to the factual knowledge that people acquire over their lifetime. Crystallized intelligence increases with age as you accumulate knowledge and experience. The other component is fluid intelligence, which lets you draw logical conclusions, store information for short periods of time, and respond to emerging problems with flexibility. Fluid intelligence enables us to meet the demands of everyday life.
You can improve your fluid intelligence
Studies have shown that fluid intelligence depends on the strength of our working memory, which is responsible for a number of cognitive features in our brain. It absorbs information, and keeps it stored and ready for retrival for a short period of time. The good thing is that you can train and effectively improve your working memory through targeted and personalized training. This benefits your fluid intelligence too, which is interlinked with your working memory. A study that analysed whether the working memory could be trained with brain exercises similar to NeuroNation exercises, revealed that not only did the working memory of participants improve with these exercises, but fluid intelligence increased as well by 40% [1].
Can computer-based brain training improve your mental performance?
But as impressive as these findings are, the question remains whether computer-based training can really substantially improve your brain’s performance in the long run.
The neuroscientist Dr. Basak and her research team examined this question in a 2008 published study, in which they had participants train with computer-based brain training for more than 23 hours [2].
The results were clearly showing that participant’s brain performance increased compared to a control group that had not received any brain training. Particularly their working memory performance – an integral part of fluid intelligence, such as the ability to multi-task – improved significantly.
Boost your career – reduce stress
Every day, we are working very hard to be successful in our career – but is it really worth it if we constantly feel stressed and overwhelmed?
If you don’t want to give up on your career but could do with a little less stress, why not let brain training help you fight stress and master the challenges you face?
Scientist Dr. Stefan Diestel of the Technical University of Dortmund, Germany, was able to prove in a study that employees with lower mental abilities have a 50% higher risk to suffer from burnout when exposed to chronic stress than those with higher mental abilities [3]. Furtermore, another study at the same university confirmed that the brain training exercises of NeuroNation in combination with stress management training were able to significantly reduce the stressload of employees at their workplace [4].
Have a great stress-free career
It is up to you to decide to what extent you let the stressful requirements of our everyday life affect you. A great career, professional success, and a smooth work-life balance are not contradictory: it is possible to boost your career, and feel relaxed and well-balanced at the same time. But this doesn’t happen over night. You need to make sure you train your mental abilities on a regular basis to experience a lasting improvement that will equip you to deal with stressful challenges. Our NeuroNation brain training exercises are designed to motivate you on a regular basis as they offer a variety of personalized training exercises, each of them tailored to adjust to your individual needs. On top of that, we make sure our training is fun and enjoyable for you, to give you a well-deserved little downtime whenever you feel like unwinding from a hectic day.
Sources:
1: Jaeggi S. M., Buschkuehl M., Jonides J., Perrig W. J. (2008). Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory. PNAS, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0801268105
2: Basak, C., Boot, W., Voss, M., & Kramer, A. (2008). Can Training in a Real-Time Strategy Video Game Attenuate Cognitive Decline in Older Adults? Psychology and Aging, 23(4), 765-777.
3: Diestel, S. & Schmidt, K.-H. (2011). The Moderating Role of Cognitive Control Deficits in the Link From Emotional Dissonance to Burnout Symptoms and Absenteeism. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 16(3), 313-330.
4: Gajewski, P., & Falkenstein, M. (2011). Neurocognition of aging in working environments. Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung, 44(4), 307-320.
