Our Perfect Year of Learning

High-Performing Life-Long Learners

Our network members are lifelong learners. We are executives, operating and human capital leaders, knowledge workers, educators, and coaches who recognize that we can develop critical work capabilities and solve otherwise intractable human capital challenges through neural training.

We’re excited about the surge of neuroscientific discoveries and our opportunity to apply this new knowledge to enhance our lives and work. We see the transformative potential of neural training to create more effective leaders, a happier, healthier, higher-performing workforce, and a safer, more inclusive, and more productive workplace.

A Plan for Measurable Progress

We’re here to learn the science and essential mental and emotional skills for effective leadership and work — for ourselves and for our teams, organizations, and coaching and teaching clients. Traditional programs teach us about human skills. Neural training is the process of activating the trait through intentional changes in our neural networks. So, for 2026, we have identified ten key human capabilities and created a 21-day habit-shifting challenge for each.

Critical Neural Skills for 2026

January – Switching Off Autopilot: The brain is wired to learn, create algorithmic models that drive survival, social, and situational decisions, and then act or react automatically. Scientists estimate that 95% of brain activity occurs below our level of consciousness.

February – Cultivating Awareness: We can only change what we notice. Awareness is the first step in disrupting automaticity, surfacing unconscious habits, and choosing intentional action. This challenge trains the capacity to recognize what is happening in the moment — in our bodies, our thoughts, and our environments — so we can act with clarity instead of defaulting to reactivity.

March – Training Focus and Attention Control: Information overload, digital distraction, decision fatigue, and ADHD are crushing our abilities to direct and sustain focus. Yet attention is foundational to nearly every other mental process. Without attention, our ability to learn, remember, problem-solve, and make decisions is severely diminished.

April – Processing Change and Uncertainty: The velocity of change is accelerating, and we are increasingly faced with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Our brain’s evolved reaction is first fear, then resistance, which impairs our ability to accept, adapt, and intentionally act. Managing change and events beyond our control are essential mental skills.

May – Creating Trust and Psychological Safety: No team can perform at its best without trust. This challenge focuses on the practices and micro-behaviors that allow people to feel safe speaking up, asking questions, and taking risks. Psychological safety is the foundation for collaboration, innovation, and resilience in the face of uncertainty.

June – Finding Purpose and Motivation: Purpose aligns us with what matters most. Motivation is the energy that sustains action over time. Together, they determine whether effort feels draining or inspiring. This challenge trains the mindset and neural pathways that help us connect to meaningful goals, draw on intrinsic motivation, and build perseverance.

July – Creating a Positive and Growth Mindset: Positivity and Growth Mindset are based on the belief that talent and intelligence are trainable — rather than fixed and immutable — and that sustained effort is the key to mastery. It is a belief that failure is only a step in the process of eventual success — and that we can learn, adapt, and grow the capabilities we need to continue forward.

August – Cultivating Emotional Intelligence: EQ is famously a better predictor of leadership and career success than IQ. But how can we take what we’ve learned about it and actually develop the neural networks that determine traits like self-awareness, emotional regulation, empathy, or compassion? These patterns are trained through embodied procedural learning.

September – Challenging Old Beliefs and Biases: The brain learns consciously and nonconsciously, creates algorithmic models, and then acts and reacts according to them. The problem is that situations evolve, the original data may be inaccurate, or conclusions may be outdated. Most of us are severely limited by dissonant biases and beliefs we are not consciously aware of.

October – Changing Habits and Behaviors: The brain is programmed to create habits based on cravings, neural rewards, and repetitive behaviors. Once codified, they are challenging to eliminate or change. Though self-discipline and willpower are essential traits, they are not the only (or even the best) tools for intentional habit formation and change.

November – Achieving Peak Performance: Peak performance occurs when the brain is in a state of “flow,” characterized by being fully immersed in an activity, experiencing heightened focus, deep engagement, and a sense of effortless involvement. The neural mechanics of achieving and sustaining the flow experience can be transformative for performance and productivity.

Why This Matters

Each of these challenges reflects a core mental or emotional skill that leaders, teams, and organizations need to thrive in the decade ahead. Neural training offers us a way to move beyond knowledge — to activate traits, build capabilities, and hardwire habits that last. Over the course of this year, our Perfect Year of Learning will provide not only the science but also the structured daily practices that make change real.

We are at the beginning of a new era in leadership and workforce development. Breakthroughs in neuroscience are showing us that the skills we once thought of as innate — resilience, adaptability, focus, empathy, creativity — can be trained, strengthened, and scaled. By joining these monthly challenges, you are not just learning concepts; you are building the neural foundation for a better version of yourself, your team, and your organization.

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Author: Michael Foster Organization: Institute for Organizational Science and Mindfulness (IOSM) Email: mike@iomindfulness.org IOSM Web: iomindfulness.org OMN Web: om-network.org About IOSM: The Institute for Organizational Science and Mindfulness (IOSM) is a global non-profit association of human capital and operating leaders, educators, and coaches. We share a common mission to apply all-science mindfulness to create more effective leaders, a happier, healthier, and higher-performing workforce, and a safer, more inclusive, and more productive workplace.