The Emotionally Agile Brain

A revolution has been quietly taking place in academic psychology, economics, neuroscience, marketing, and business. In study after study, emotional forces massively outweigh human rationality in determining our actual choices and actions. This insight has reshaped both science and industry as its power is harnessed for commercial ends. Those of us who are engaged in the nexus of neuroscience, psychology, and human potential have an obligation to raise awareness of these discoveries, and, more importantly, to use them to actually improve people’s lives.

AgileBrain is based on decades of psychological research conducted by the author, and others, published in peer-reviewed academic journals. It begins with the discovery of the first principles of all human motivation. Motivation is fundamentally about change. These principles can be phrased as two questions:

“Where in your life do you wish to make a change?”

To answer this question, we can choose from four life domains: the Self, the Social, the Material, and the Spiritual. Note that these represent pairs of opposites: Self vs. Social, Material vs. Spiritual.

“What kind of change do you wish to make?”

To answer this question, we can choose from Aristotle’s three levels of existence: foundational (being), experiential (doing), and aspirational (having).

The answers to these two questions form a “Periodic Table of the Elements” for human motivations in the form of a three-by-four matrix. Because there are no other possible life domains or levels of aspiration, the reader can have confidence that every possible human motivation is accounted for.

A key takeaway is that all twelve emotional needs are operating and directing us all the time, and that a key to a happy, actualized life is to pursue fulfillment of needs in a balanced way, which avoids serious problems associated with unbalanced need fulfillment. A recurring theme in The Emotionally Agile Brain is the value of distinguishing between authentic need fulfillment and the superficial, inauthentic substitutes offered by our consumer culture.

After analyzing motivational data from hundreds of thousands of individuals (and consulting to scores of Fortune 500 clients), author J. D. Pincus explains it this way: “Everyone has a unique ‘fingerprint’ of emotional needs at any given moment in time. Becoming aware of that motivational state is a profound revelation for most people. It cuts right through the noise and distractions of life, and frees them to pursue what they really want.”