Scott G. Halford - Activate Your Brain: How Understanding Your Brain Can Improve Your Work - and Your Life

If you want one book about how to put your best brain forward, read Activate Your Brain. Scott Halford has written a fascinating neuro spin on success that teaches you how to consciously create your most productive brain and to optimize your interactions with others. He expertly ties together behavioral psychology and his own practical training method with a characteristic sharp, funny style. Activate Your Brain is altogether perfect!

Mary Case, MD, neuropathologist

Most of my days are spent trying to figure out whats going on in other peoples brains. Now I have a better understanding of my own. This is a groundbreaking book for the layperson who wants to unleash the power within!

Mark Madgett, Senior Vice President of Agency Distribution, New York Life Insurance Company

Scott Halford is one of the worlds only thought leaders who truly understands both business success principles and the neuroscience of the brain. In this book, he combines them to bring you a powerful guide for how to take your life and business to the next level!

Rory Vaden, cofounder of Southwestern Consulting and New York Times best-selling author of Take the Stairs and Procrastinate on Purpose

Scott understands how the human brain functions and turns that into forceful action. His ability to speak to the real potential of the brain and unleash the secrets of using it to its fullest is unmatched. He makes business people revolutionize their thinking, which quickly changes how they behave.

Patti Dennis, Vice President of Talent Development and Recruiting, Gannett Company

A compelling look into how to harness the power of your brain to do, have, and become more.

Randy Gage, author of the New York Times best seller Risky Is the New Safe

I encourage you to read Activate Your Brain, love it, and buy a copy for anyone with whom you want to work more effectively or whom you love and want to see enjoy life more. If everyone understood the contents of this book, the world would be a better place. This is the science of being successfully you.

Amy Brann, author of Make Your Brain Work and Neuroscience for Coaches, Director of Synaptic Potential

Scott Halford serves as your executive coach and guides you on a journey through the lens of how your brain influences professional and lifestyle choices. Activate Your Brain is written in Scotts naturally warm and funny voice and is a must-read if you are looking to develop your core performance skills and emotional intelligence.

Geil Browning, PhD, founder of Emergenetics International

This fast-moving, enjoyable book is loaded with great ideas that you can use immediately to think with greater clarity, make better decisions, and unlock more of your inborn potential.

Brian Tracy, success expert and international best-selling author of Now, Build a Great Business and No Excuses!

Activate Your Brain translates much of the knowledge scientists have discovered about the brain in the last 20 years into practical actions that we can take to be more and to accomplish morewith less stress. Written with the busy business person in mind, this is not only a truly fascinating read but also a hands-on guide to living a more complete life.

Bill Cates, President, Referral Coach International

I love this book! Activate Your Brain is easily accessible, true to brain science, and incorporates important psychological and neuroscience research. It will improve your life. Start small, start now, and buy this book.

John B. Molidor, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine; author of Crazy Good Interviewing

Scott Halford knows that becoming a great leader requires you to be emotionally aware and fully intellectually engaged. Read Activate Your Brain and learn how.

Colleen Abdoulah, Chair, WOW!, Internet, cable, and phone provider

Published by Greenleaf Book Group Press

Austin, Texas

www.gbgpress.com

Copyright 2015 Scott G. Halford

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the copyright holder.

Distributed by Greenleaf Book Group

For ordering information or special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Greenleaf Book Group at PO Box 91869, Austin, TX 78709, 512.891.6100.

Design and composition by Greenleaf Book Group and Debbie Berne

Cover design by Greenleaf Book Group and Debbie Berne

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-62634-198-2

Ebook Edition

WARNING: The following paragraph may make you feel uncomfortable.

You have a work deadline staring at you. Its a day before you need to deliver. Youre tired and crabby with your friends and family, but you believe they understand, because youre under pressure and once its over youll be back to your charming self. You work furiously into the wee hours of the night, until you become so weary that you drop into a fitful sleep with your laptop next to you in bed. You awaken with a start a couple of hours later because you inconveniently remember something you forgot. Your groggy brain is convinced that its the biggest deal in the whole wide world. You look at your alarm clock and feel a sense of dread because its three in the morning and you only have three more hours, at the most, to sleep. The anxiety keeps you awake, but youre too tired to get out of bed and make progress on your project. You eventually fall back to sleep, sort of. When your alarm goes off, you cant believe how tired, how off, you feel. You get up and go about your morning activities before work, hoping that your partner or kids or dog doesnt require any of your cognitive power, because you really dont have any left. You get to work, open your scads of emails, and begin your day of distractions and worry.

Its just another day in the life of a stress junkie. The scenario is always differenta volunteer commitment you really dont have the time for, the addition of a new leadership initiative to your already full plate, a request (read: demand) from an out-of-touch bossbut it plays out again and again in many peoples lives. If that is youoccasionally, sometimes, or oftenI bet you feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and out of control. I can risk that bet because Ive experienced this scenario myself and hear about it from the majority of the professionals I talk with in my work. Whats disturbing to me is when they follow their laments with statements like Oh well, theres nothing I can do about it or I dont really have a choice.

Many of us feel victim to our circumstances. We have to work sixty or seventy hours a week or we might not get noticed and win the next promotion. We have to commit to every school activity or our kids will grow up to be criminals. We have to tackle another house renovation or our neighbors will think were derelicts. We have to, we have to, we have to.