How is your 2020 vision?

The simple idea described below has changed my life over the last five years and is based on almost 100 years of cognitive science.

It is the idea of a New Year's 'evolution' as opposed to a 'resolution' (click here to read why resolutions fail).

• In 2015 my evolution was 'turn around'. 
• My New Year's evolution in 2016 was 'positive change'.
• 2017 was 'step up'. 
• My 2018 evolution was 'take the shot'. 
• This year was all about 'living exponentially'.

Each evolution acts as a code to unlock a more evolved version of my life.

Each evolution is a commitment to being a better version of myself.

Each evolution acts as a framework for how I (re)interpret memories of the past, process situations in the present, and make decisions about the future.

Evolutions are not some woo hoo positive thinking mumbo jumbo. Evolutions are actually one of the fundamental building blocks of cognitive psychology.

The research upon which evolutions are based was first introduced by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget in 1923, which he called schema theory.

We use schemata (the plural of schema) to interpret the world around us by comparing the sensory data we receive with information from our memories in order to organize what action we will take followed by a response (see example in diagram below). Remarkably this all happens in a blink of the eye.

Schemata are critical to human functioning. We are bombarded with millions of data point everyday. To process each piece of data we encounter consciously we'd require brains 100 times larger.

Schemata enable us to quickly categorize each data point's relevance to us, ignore information that will not hurt or help us, and respond to the remainder.

This process of cognitive triage is essential given the bandwidth of our attention is limited. Each day we wake up with a certain amount of brain capacity. Every decision we make depletes this. This is the reason people like Steve Jobs wore the same clothes every day. They don't want to waste bandwidth on non-value creating decisions. Twitter's Jack Dorsey only eats one meal every day for similar reasons.

Given our brain's limited bandwidth it has had to develop ways to conserve energy. Nobel Prize winning psychologist Professor Daniel Kahneman explains this in his ground breaking book titled Thinking Fast & Slow.

Kahneman describes how our brains operate with two unique and mostly complimentary systems as follows.

System 1...

operates automatically, is intuitive and emotional, requires little effort and helps us make quick decisions. Kahneman calls this 'fast thinking', i.e. the rabbit in image below. System 1 is engaged when I ask you what is 2+2 or complete the phrase 'bread and...'?

System 2...

allocates attention to the effortful mental activities, is deliberative and logical. Kahneman calls this 'slow thinking', i.e. the tortoise in image below. System 2 is engaged when I ask you what is 23x47 or when you complete your tax return (ugh!).

Watch the video below to hear more from Professor Kahneman himself.

Schemata are essential for system 1 thinking. The problem is that schema are largely based on our experience and are therefore biased and proned to error.

As per Figure 1 above if I was chased by a scary black dog when I was little my dog schema would prompt me to feel scared whenever I see large black dogs, no matter how adorable they are.

The good news is we can reprogram our schemata. Developing a New Year's evolution is one way to do so.

How you can reprogram your schemata

By way of example my New Year's evolution for 2020 is 'generosity & generativity'.

Generosity is a term we all know but there is some science behind being effectively generous. Wharton Professor Adam Grant revealed in his book Give & Take that the most successful people in a range of work contexts were givers, not takers or matchers.

Interestingly the worst performers were also givers below explains begging the question what do high performance givers do differently? That's a topic for another day but if curious watch the video below.

Making generosity one of my core schemata in 2020 means I look at every situation and decision thru that lens.

For example if I am driving in my car and somebody cuts me off my initial reaction (system 1) might be to assume the other driver is a jerk, get annoyed and honk my horn. By engaging system 2 and having committed to this schema I can choose a more generous interpretation of the event and way to respond. Maybe he is rushing to get home to look after a sick child or maybe he's not a local and is lost. Maybe I could help him as opposed to honking him?

Generativity is a less commonly used word. It was coined by psychologist Erik Ericsson in 1950 to describe how in the middle years of adult life we come to realize:

"I am what survives me."

We can all experience generativity in many ways: by giving birth, by creating a business, writing a book, creating a podcast, filming an educational video series, creating new research, resolving of a common problem etc. All bar the first one I plan to do in 2020. Five kids is quite enough thank you!

Generativity also means creating the very future itself through teaching, volunteering, voting, forming and helping social institutions like community centers, churches, schools and not for profits.

With generativity as a second core schema for 2020 I will be actively looking for opportunities every day from random conversations to large scale client engagements as to how we can not just create value in the short term for the few but over the long term for many.

An example is this article. Publishing it on LinkedIn has the potential to add value to a few hundred to maybe a few thousand people that see it over the next few days. But I will also use content from this article in my book to be published in 2020, as well as the keynotes and workshops I run with clients, and podcasts and videos I record (assuming the concepts resonate of course). Adopting a multi-channel distribution strategy means I can help more people in more ways over more time ticking both the generosity and generativity boxes.

Will I always think, feel and act with generosity and generativity in 2020? No way. There will be times when I revert back to less generous and shorter term patterns. The key is to not beat myself up when this happens and to acknowledge this does not mean I have failed, it simply means I am human.

And it is in those set backs that some of the best lessons come about how I can do things better the next time.

My best to you for creating a clear vision/evolution for 2020. I would love to hear what you come up with in the comments section below. Remember progress trumps perfection. It doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to move you forward.

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Rich Hirst is a leadership, change and high performance psychologist. His insights are based on real world experiences from his work with 10,000+ leaders and over 1,000 CEOs, underpinned by his knowledge as an organisational psychologist and expertise as a change agent supporting organisations for more than 20 years going through major transformation.

For more information please go to www.richhirst.com or contact me via email on [email protected]. For daily leadership tips on LinkedIn search for #dailyrichtips.

Please find below links to my previous monthly posts.

1. How to be the best of the best and 10x the rest
2. 10 career lessons I learned the hard way
3. Don't make this high performance mistake in your company!
4. 7 Tips to World Class Performance
5. Winning in the turns
6. The #1 predictor of career success is not what you think
7. Don't die with your music still in you
8. Blasters, badmouthers, bottlers, brooders and builders. Which one are you?
9. P.S. I love you
10. The great change trap-eze!
11. What is your New Year's Evolution?
12. How to lead when change is NOT constant
13. All good things must...
14. This choke point may be slowly killing your company
15. Australia: The distrusting country
16. The most damaging four letter word to use at work is @#*!
17. Finding your moonshot
18. Sleeping your way to the top
19. How to supercharge your influence
20. How to be a master of mental Aikido
21. Time to terminate HR?
22. Too busy or not too busy. Is that the question?
23. Who inspired you in 2017? My top ten!
24. The missing link of high performance
25. The future belongs to people with this skill
26. Lessons from loss
27. Good Grief
28. 20 reasons why corporate wellness programs get sick
29. Australia is still lucky... but for how long?
30. Change management has become a joke!
31. Are you ready for the third age?
32. What matters most in a post-truth world?
33. Never waste a good crisis
34. Your best bet yet for a year of success
35. What will your New Year's Evolution be?
36. Are you ready for the 'gig economy'?
37. Are you working with an energy vampire?
38. From counting people to making people count
39. Five novel tactics for better leadership
40. Mid year reviews: Ubiquitous but ridiculous
41. Talent pipelines are broken
42. Australia: The innovation immigration correlation
43. Time to reimagine HR
44. The secret to successful disruption: The innovation colony
45. How to survive and thrive in the supermatrix
46. The biggest predictor of career success is...
47. The secret to high performance is not what you think...
48. Where are you on the digital vortex?
49. Diversity does not equal inclusion
50. How to catch and hold the rebound expat
51. The e-factor is the new x: the ultimate growth multiplier
52. Are you working with a waste of space?
53. Iron Man needs you!
54. Collaboration: the new super skill
55. Leading innovation from the Australian subsidiary
56. Insurgent or incumbent: the key to a future every company wants is...
57. Why the talent war is over
58. How 'the other GDP' is causing a talent crunch