If It’s Not from Within, It’s Without: An Intro to Enhancing Executive Functioning Skills

Executive functioning is the ability to blend big picture concepts with minute details. Most tasks, and people, are multifaceted. By applying an assortment of cognitive, academic, and self-reflective practices, executive functioning skills help us harmonize the various behaviors and habits that make us who we were, and allow us to do what we do, to the very best of our ability.

A student with strong executive functioning skills:

1) possesses an optimal mindset

- Approaches learning from a perspective that highlights purpose, effort, and autonomy.

- Works with a sense of accountability, as what we put into learning is what we will get out of it.

- Recognizes that learning is a process of progress, and that the aim is to achieve incremental improvement, not perfection.

2) practices methods of self-awareness

- Can perceive strengths and limits, and uses self-reflection to help maximize potential.

- Distinguishes cause from effect, understanding how to address root issues connected to learning.

- Thinks open-mindedly, considering various perspectives and points of view.

3) applies executive functioning abilities

- Exercises cognitive flexibility, and aims to strengthen working memory and impulse control.

- Practices habits of organization, time-management, note-taking, planning and critical thinking.

- Persistently works towards self-improvement in relation to functionality and self-reflection.

Thus, executive functioning skills help students learn how to learn, and put them on a path towards achieving their individual potential.

An optimal EF curriculum ought to strive to reflect the following:

• Learning comes naturally, but doing so to the best of one’s ability requires itemized practice.

• Understanding how and why we do what we do, uniquely, allows us to optimize our performance.

• We are all capable of improving our ability to set goals, apply effort, derive meaning, and achieve.

• Developing a sense of connection to the content of any material, and fostering a sense of internalized incentive, is paramount to achieving one’s goals as a learner.

• Skills such as focus, time-management, independence, and organization are foundational to learning.

• Sustained resilience in the face of cognitive challenges is a vital skill for any learner.

• The ability to balance comprehension of objective facts and subjective knowledge of one’s self, using logic and evidence, is an optimal approach to achieving one’s potential.

In order to enhance executive functioning skills, students can practice the ability to:

1) Achieve balance

Thread the needle between ambition and humility, by practicing metacognitive self-awareness.

2) Cultivate meaning

Find one’s personal purpose for any endeavor, via internal incentive, and increase motivation.

3) Enact organization

Outline specific systems of organization, and practice the ability to stay committed to them.

4) Manage time

Practice the art of planning, and breaking down large tasks into smaller, more manageable ones.

5) Elevate concentration

Discover one’s personal habits and impulses, and work to build resilience in times of temptation.

6) Improve working memory

Examine the validity of judgments based on the evidence presented.

7) Strengthen cognitive flexibility

Implement a multitude of viewpoints when considering beliefs.

8) Accept limitations

Shift the focus from achievement to effort, recognizing that progress, not perfection, is the goal.

9) Enhance self-agency

Work to achieve autonomy, by applying consistent standards of personal accountability.

10) Think critically

Apply critical thinking abilities, in academia and everyday life.

General goals include:

- Vocabulary acquisition

- Enhanced time-management capabilities

- Knowledge of basic self-reflective and metacognitive abilities

- Comprehension of basic organizational skills

- Text-based writing improvement

- Improved note-taking ability

- Expository essay writing skills

- Strengthened reading comprehension approaches

- Cognitive flexibility enhancement

- Working memory practice

- A fostered sense of independence

When I was younger, I used to meditate a lot (more than never is a lot), and I would occasionally get in bed at night with a sense of edification. Feeling connected to myself and the universe around me, appreciating limitations and gifts, welcoming love as much as its absence, I would say goodbye to the day with a sense of enlightenment hugging my consciousness.

Then I’d wake up, rudely dropped into a brand-new day, and consequently a new world, one that I had yet to begin to attempt to understand. And thus, my quest for enlightenment would have to begin all over. I considered that perhaps if I never went to sleep, my enlightenment would last longer than a day. But, as an ode to Gilgamesh, I recognized that I could take value in trying to accomplish a goal, even if I would indeed have to renew my efforts every morning. For it isn’t only during the night that things evolve. Change is a tide that never pauses.

Accepting change is indeed a challenge. In order for us to start something new, we have to say goodbye to whatever it is that we’re leaving behind, accepting the loss with a sense of completion. While mourning the loss of what lies in our wake, we can take pride in the fact that we’re reborn with each new effort that we undertake.

Increasing one’s executive functioning skills can be a tall task, as the overall task consists of not much more than a list of challenges as seen from a renewed perspective. We need to aim to not only have a clear view of where we are, but also where we’re going, and why.

The first goal of improving one’s EF skills is to set goals. Ok, so we’re doing that now. Cool. Our fuel for accomplishing any goal is effort. So, the second goal is to view effort as a power, one that we can wield every moment, in attempts to gain something meaningful from our past, present or future. Building a genuine interest in accepting challenges is another aim of anyone attempting to meaningfully improve their EF skills. Some think of a challenge as something to fear, or maybe something to try to avoid, or perhaps simply grit their teeth through and build up a tolerance of. This is an understandable mindset to have, but it’s one that we’re going to try to adjust.

The goal is to fall in love with challenges as more than an everyday reality of life, but as a requirement of your lateral progression through time, and your vertical ascent of progress. I know; this all sounds very self-helpy, and is kind of the worst. It’ll be okay.

Another goal is to be honest. That’s, like, really important. I view self-honesty as I do writing. When I write, I think it’s acceptable to make mistakes. Sometimes I simply type too quickly, resulting in typos. Oh no. Sometimes I don’t know that I’m in fact making a mistake, while other times I’m just too lazy to try my best to be an immaculate scribe. But even though I do aim to write without error most of the time, I am inevitably going to create flaws, because I am flawed. My job is to go back, find the mistakes, and correct them.

This is how we ought to view personal truth. Though we should aim for honesty at all times when engaging with ourselves (and others), let’s accept that we’ll clearly falter for one reason or another, now and then. But let’s make it our duty to be committed to proofreading, whether it’s a second later, a decade later or anytime in between, and amend the errors. Erase the inaccuracy. Fix the typo. All final drafts are true, and only truths can be final drafts. So, that’s another goal. Be as honest with yourself as possible, either in the moment or during a revision, and aim to turn self-honesty into a habit.

We’re not only individual creatures of habit, but we of course are parts who make up a collective group of human habits. Children with strong EF proficiencies are inclined to develop skills of leadership, decision-making, teamwork and critical thought. Analytical thinking and creativity are likely to be enhanced, as is goal-setting and achievement. Children are more likely to develop and flourish socially if they’re provided with models of effective functionality.

Functional students are more likely to become functional working adults. Functional working adults, who practice self-awareness and empathy (vital EF skills), are proven to avoid a wide range of health problems. If we approach our daily lives from this perspective, we’re more likely to be adaptive when interacting with members of a diverse society. Having a sound set of EF abilities primes our biological systems to respond well to challenges, and if we pass along strong coping skills to the next generation, this strength is likely to stick in our DNA, and help us thrive as a species.

Pretty good, eh? Of course, it seems a bit insane to claim that if we all acted a certain way, then we as a group would be better off. We’re all so different from one another, how can we be expected to follow the same universal guidelines towards a singular goal, called human progress? After all, we exist in a perpetual state of flux, constantly adapting ourselves to our environments, which are continuously transforming as well.

Paradoxically, it’s our individuality that makes us the same as one another. If there were one word that I could predict would be an accurate descriptor of you, whoever you are, it’d be the word ‘unique’. Uniqueness is your personal identifier, but it’s also that which makes all of our identities identical. It is our differences that make us universally similar, upsettingly enough.

This is an important notion to clarify in regards to the idea of EF, because the goal isn’t for us to all use these skills in the same manner. The application of personalized meaning to these abilities, paired with frequent self-scrutiny and recalibrations of our particular progress, will lead us to reach our own individual potential. Me doing my best will look different than you doing yours, but that’s okay. The same way that 43 + 10 looks really different than 74, you and I are not the same, nor will our maximized efforts appear identical, but they are equal in value.

No matter who you are now, how you got to be this current person who you are, reading these silly words in this very moment, or who you aim to be in the near or distant future, you have an opportunity to achieve and progress. And I don’t mean five years, months or weeks from now. I mean within the next five minutes, and possibly even five seconds, you have the ability to do something that will improve that which you are and can achieve. Oh gosh, self-helpy again! Whatever. Just pretend 2Pac is saying all this stuff, and then it’ll be cool. Let’s keep going.

Despite the diverse assortment of achievements that exist across cultures and generations, there is one element that draws all of them together. There’s one feature of progress that is necessary for satisfaction, fulfillment and accomplishment. Meaning is what arouses our highest self. Purpose is what encourages our effort and generates a sense of accelerated activity that we forget we have.

Our senses bring about feelings, these conceptual prognostications of what might happen in the future, all bound by a will to survive. But it’s a practiced appreciation of meaning that gives us the will to create more. To do more and be more and believe in more. We all have an ethos within us, waiting to be stirred. Waiting to be provoked and given a reason to act. Our energy seeks purpose. The more devoid of meaning is an action, goal or idea, the less likely it is to bring you a sense of achievement, either tangible or conceptual.

Maximizing our potential isn’t only about what we can get, nor is it exclusively in regards to what we can do; it very much so is in relation to what/how/who we can be. Achievement occurs in many realms, but it almost always begins within us, quietly, humbly and personally. It’s reminiscent of my attempts at achieving enlightenment, which I have to replicate and renew every day.

And yet, by extending beyond our limitations, and maximizing our capacity for engagement through meaning, we do more than simply add awareness. When potential is fulfilled and our true selves are actualized, not only does light increase, but darkness also automatically decreases. By enacting mindful incentive and engaging in an exploration of personal purpose, we add a positive while simultaneously subtracting a negative. It’s twice as effective as we might imagine.

Adults with solid EF skills are likely to raise and educate the next generation to admire and acquire a similar outlook and skillset. These children, if mentored, guided and educated with attentiveness and nurturance, will mature into an adult generation with fully developed and constantly rejuvenating EF abilities, flush with meaning.

This is a cycle that we can aim to perpetuate. This is the sequence you can begin yourself, carry on from someone else, or pass onto the next. Being able to contribute to this cycle is the final EF skills, and of course, we know where it begins. We know where the loop originates. All flight originates from the ground. All progress begins from below. All change starts from within.