While everyday life is riddled with tempting and derailing distractions that offer cheap, easy, and immediate payoffs, it also presents itself with valuable options and opportunities that demand focus, hard work, and self-control with immense payoffs in the distant future guaranteeing a better life for the future-self. It is the highly developed frontal lobes that are responsible for strong skills referred to as Executive Function ~ the brain’s CEO ~ that steers attention, effort, and actions in the right direction while weighing options to ensure that our Future-Self is well protected and grateful to our current-self.

This symposium will present the current evidence from neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and social sciences to help understand how a healthy prefrontal system enables individuals to readjust behaviors, reappraise emotional reactivity and rethink social connections to achieve our goals and produce favorable results that benefit others as well as the future-self. Participants will discover that while the brain’s CEO is responsible for impulse control, sustained focus, long-term planning, gratification postponement, and emotional regulation, it does not arrive on the scene as a highly skilled and ready-to go entity; rather, it requires training, coaching, and guidance to master self-management skills. Lastly, every individual (student, faculty, or leader) needs strong Executive Function to activate motivation, predict performance challenges, and handle setbacks to reach their highest potential using ideas and strategies discovered by the progress neuroscience has made in the last 30 years.