The BrainFirst Practitioner Transformation Model provides an overview and guide for transforming your own life, and the lives of your clients. You will also learn:

• How to work with clients in all aspects of high-performance without having to be a expert physiologist, psychologist or any other type of specialist
• Why behavior is driven by our Way of Being and how to facilitate profound and sustainable change with ontological shifts
• How to transform high potential into high-performance by shifting at the physiological, somatic, affective/emotional and linguistic/cognitive levels

Key to helping people change is to work together towards their ideal self and their vision of the future. Upon completion of this training you will be able to:

• Help clients discover and articulate their personal vision, including dreams, passions and purposes anchored in the 'positive emotional attractor'
• Understand the roles that the positive emotional attractor and negative emotional attractor play in helping clients change
• Take a neuroscience-based approach to working with clients' values and vision, as well as co-creating the relationship
• Provide clients with various worksheets and tools to identify and define their core values and personal vision (reinforcing the importance of these powerful drivers)

Being able to change our behavior is critical to success as a high-performer. Upon completion of this training you will be able to:

• Use evidence-based behavior change strategies to help clients define their ideal future and recognize their obstacles to success
• Identify when to shift from visioning and future-oriented questioning to problem solving and planning (timing this correctly accelerates results)
• Help clients gain insight into the barriers preventing them from changing their behavior
• Create an action plan so that clients know exactly what to work on, and can start taking action immediately (an invaluable but often overlooked step in behavior change)

We have all heard of the power of habit. Yet, so many clients struggle to make behavior change stick. Upon completion of this training you will be able to:

• Explain how habits are formed and why they impact every area of our life
• Help clients identify the behaviors and habits that need to change in order to shift from high potential into high-performance
• Draw on what is known about the brain's valuation system to help clients reinforce their changed behavior
• Teach clients the smallest next step (SNS) hack, as well as many others, so that they can change their own behavior in the moment when it is needed most
• Describe the behavior design model and why it is the key to making habit formation easy

Ontology is the study of the nature of being, of human existence. By shifting or transforming in the four domains that make up who we are, we expand our way of being. Our way of being is how we observe or perceive the world, and it also drives our behavior. Upon completion of this training you will be able to:

• Describe the different domains, and their interrelationship, that comprise our way of being: physiological, somatic, affective, and linguistic
• Explain that while traditional interventions usually only focus on one or two domains, ontological change, deep and sustainable change, only occurs when there are shifts in all four domains
• Outline the ways in which the results we obtain in life are greatly influenced by all domains, and help clients expand their way of being, turning high potential into high-performance

Somatic Intelligence is part of the Somatic (body) ontological domain. Upon completion of this training you will be able to:

• Describe the role of somatic awareness in everyday life to improve health, relationships and performance
• Develop the ability to switch between internal landscape and sensory experience, to provide a more accurate map of reality
• Explain how core affect influences our perception, cognition and behavior (and help clients to better manage their mood)
• Facilitate somatic and embodied shifts to transform clients' way of being
• Identify the postures and practices that are impacting affective and mental states, and how to change them

Emotion falls under the Affective ontological domain, and we know from the evidence (and experience) that emotion impacts everything that we do. Upon completion of this training you will be able to:

• Help clients work with the brain's affective and emotional "systems" to improve their health, wellbeing, relationships, and performance
• Understand the difference between affect/mood and emotion, and the roles that each play in our way of being
• Describe to clients how the brain makes emotions to help them understand that they have more control over their experiences than they think
• Use the two-step affect awareness and labeling process to increase emotional granularity: help clients create a new emotional way of being

Language is another ontological domain. Language is regarded as foundational in creating what makes up our perceived reality. And, we act from our perceived realities. Upon completion of this training you will be able to:

• Understand language as an active process of creating our reality and driving action
• Gain insight into your own linguistic construction of reality, in order to expand your way of being
• Explain the importance of shifting from negative to positive self-assessments, and how to do it
• Identify and work with the basic linguistic acts, the forms of language that generate our perceived reality, in order to help clients explore new realities that they may want to adopt

Good sleep is essential to health and performance, and the quality of our sleep impacts every area of our life. Upon completion of this training you will be able to:

• Explain the sleep cycle, circadian rhythm, and the importance of sleep quality and how it impacts health and performance
• Assess sleep quality with easy-to-use science-based assessments
• Apply the neurophysiologically-based model of sleep hygiene to tailor sleep recommendations for clients
• Utilize various strategies and tools to help clients achieve high quality sleep, so they can perform at their best

Nutrition plays a critical role in brain health and performance. Upon completion of this training you will be able to:

• Explain how food choices can drain or boost our energy, and impact brain health and performance
• Describe the main sources of brain draining foods, drinks and approaches to cooking that are detrimental to health and performance
• Help clients make better food choices to support their high-performance way of being
• Use a circadian-approach to food to improve body composition, glucose levels and other markers of metabolic health

Breathing impacts every aspect of health and performance, yet, we often don't give it a second thought. Upon completion of this training you will be able to:

• Explain functional breathing and breath-work science to clients, and why taking control of their breath is one of the fastest way to influence physiology and brain performance
• Use breathing techniques to reduce stress and relax the nervous system, and where "deep breathing" goes wrong
• Help clients develop new breathing habits that support attention, focus and the high-performance way of being

Movement is so much more than exercise, particularly where the brain is concerned. Upon completion of this training you will be able to:

• Describe the relationship between movement, movement types, and brain health and performance
• Create a physical activity plan designed with client preferences, goals and circumstances in mind
• Explain how different types of movement impact different mental functions
• Help clients adopt movement habits that increase attention span, improve mood, reduce anxiety, and prime our brain for focused productivity

Modern day life brings more choice than we have ever had before. But how do we know where to focus our time and energy?! Upon completion of this training you will be able to:

• Describe the differences between permanent and personal domains of human concern
• Draw on the neuroscience evidence for different domains of concern, so clients gain valuable insight into their importance
• Design the domains of concern that clients will observe and assess their lives with
• Bring clients' awareness to the unavoidable concerns of life, so they can act to take care of them
• Develop a high-performance concerns map for each client, to help guide them towards their new way of being

The evidence is clear: humans, and especially high-performers, are driven by more than pleasure and pain. Upon completion of this training you will be able to:

• Explain where the pleasure/pain principle fails, and how to go beyond this model of human motivation
• Describe the five human drives and how they are linked to wellbeing and high-performance
• Understand the neuroscience evidence supporting the human drives and their importance
• Assess clients using the Wheel of Human Drives to help them identify which drives to improve so they can begin taking action
• Provide tools and resources to help clients develop the different drives

Studies have revealed that there are at least three independent intellectual domains, that each domain has its own brain network, and that they are highly susceptible to a number of influences. Upon completion of this training you will be able to:

• Describe the four domains of cognitive function and their roles in daily life and high-performance
• Explain how sleep, exercise, nutrition and stress impact cognitive function, and how clients can make simple changes to improve their cognition overnight
• Recommend tools, resources and products to help clients improve memory, reasoning, verbal ability and attention

A 'mental state' is defined as a state of being that makes us feel or think a certain way. High-Performance Mental States include flow, thinking, learning, and relaxation states. Upon completion of this training you will be able to:

• Understand the neuroscience evidence supporting various high-performance mental states
• Explain that focused attention is key to accessing states needed for performance and productivity
• Describe the various triggers that dramatically increase the likelihood for high-performance mental states to emerge
• Provide tools to help clients to switch on their High-Performance Mode, and stay in the optimal arousal zone

Procrastination is a universal human trait. And yet, we have far more control over it than many of us have been led to believe. Upon completion of this training you will be able to:

• Explain to clients that procrastination is normal, and not laziness or a character defect but a natural consequence of how our brain works
• Understand why the more time we have to finish a task the more we procrastinate, and what to do about it
• Use the four factor model of procrastination to help clients identify areas that need attention
• Draw on what we know about the brain's valuation system to stop delaying tasks
• Work with clients beliefs and perceived capabilities to reduce procrastination

Obstacles and challenges inevitably arise as we pursue goals, and prevent many people from moving forward. Perseverance is key, but what determines our level of perseverance?! Upon completion of this training you will be able to:

• Explain that perseverance towards goals is a skill that can be cultivated
• Discuss the relationship between perseverance and resilience, and where hope and growth mindset fit into the equation
• Describe the effect that emotion can have when we encounter roadblocks to success, how it impacts our perseverance and what to do about it
• Teach clients how to adopt an attitude of acceptance when setbacks arise
• Use the valuation model to help clients improve their in-the-moment perseverance (when they need it most)

Humans are a complex social species. We form strong bonds and attachments, co-create and work harmoniously together towards common goals. We also have a million year old brain that evolved to survive and dominate. What could go wrong! Upon completion of this training you will be able to:

• Describe the similarities between how social pain and physical pain are processed in the brain to illustrate the impact social pain can have
• Explain how social pain and social pleasure impacts decision-making and action-taking, and the implications for working with others
• Understand how the brain's reward/threat response works and is applied to the five domains of social experience
• Help clients increase opportunities for activating brain networks of social reward and reducing brain networks social threats when working with others

Fewer distractions, less demands, lower stress, high quality work, faster progress towards goals, more free time. Productivity is key! Upon completion of this training you will be able to:

• Describe the roles of attention and energy in developing sustained focus for important tasks
• Help clients use deliberate distraction to improve productivity and flow (not all distraction is bad)
• Understand differences between dual-tasking multi-tasking and task-switching multi-tasking, and why not all multi-tasking is bad
• Design an optimized work environment based on current research
• Recommend tools and resources to help clients build their productivity skills
• Develop a productivity map with clients so that they can eliminate unnecessary tasks and to-dos and focus on quality outputs