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A key to success and personal growth is to increase your mind power. You need
to work on all aspects of your mind – your inner strength, your knowledge and your
ability to just process information. This article discusses a few useful ideas that
can help you process information better.
Improve your memory
How often do you walk into a room or go to the shops only to find you’ve forgotten
what you what you wanted? A better short term memory can save you a lot of time
and effort. Here’s a simple trick that’s been around since the Roman Times.
Take the list of things that you want to remember and associate them with something
you are familiar with. Also tie in some strong emotions to reinforce the picture.
I use the rooms in my house. Say I want to buy coffee, bread, milk, sandwich spread
and a newspaper, I’d take a tour of my house.
Coffee would go in the bedroom (I love a cup of coffee in bed!). Bread in the
kitchen (I’d imagine the smell of fresh bread). Milk that’s a bit more difficult
but I’d put it in the living room with sandwich spread, sitting in my favourite
chair eating that sandwich and drinking a glass of milk. My newspaper would go in
the garden where I’d be reading it on a sunny morning.
When I get to the shop and it’s time to recall the information I’ve stored, I
take a mental walk through my house looking for the things I need!
I hope you get the idea. Next time you need to remember a list of things, try
this tip, it really works! Start on short lists of 5-10 items and work up.
Increase your Motivation
When you find yourself feeling unmotivated, talk through your plans to yourself.
When you do this you are reconnecting with the motivation and excitement you felt
when you put your plan together and your brain will literally remember that positive
state.
As you’re talking to yourself, it can help if you sit up or stand up with your
head up and a smile on your face.
This is easier to do that forcing yourself to cheer up, or recite lots of positive
affirmations. When you’re feeling down, forcing yourself to change you mental state
can feel like pushing a large rock up a large hill! It’s better to go with the flow
and take another easier route round the problem.
You can apply this technique to others as well – cheer them up by getting them
to talk about something they really enjoy and/or they are passionate about.
Read Faster
There’s been a lot written about speed reading. It can help you to increase the
rate at which you learn new information.
What I find is that a lot of books contain pages where there’s relatively little
new information. I just want to get the gist of what’s being said to make sure I’m
not missing anything.
My favourite trick is to read the first and last sentence on each page and quickly
skim any subheads. If it looks like there’s nothing new, I’ll go to the next page.
If it looks like there might be something new, I’ll read the first and last sentence
of each paragraph on the page until I find the nugget I’m looking for.
Simple really, it takes a bit of discipline to apply, but you can cut down the
time it takes to hunt out the nuggets of new information in any book you’re reading.
Sharpen up your mental math
So many people struggle when it comes to numbers, to understanding whether something’s
a good deal or not. Practice mental arithmetic. It takes a bit of effort not to
reach for the nearest calculator, but the rewards are tremendous.
So much of what we do in this world is expressed in numbers – sports scores,
bank balances, business decisions, investment decision, what’s a bargain and what’s
not. An ability to work with numbers quickly and easily is a powerful asset for
anyone.
You’ve read about four useful tips to increase your mind power. Ways to improve
your memory, increase your motivation, read faster and sharpen you mental math.
Pick one and just have fun with it. As you improve your mind power, you’ll feel
better about yourself and more confident about your abilities.
to work on all aspects of your mind – your inner strength, your knowledge and your
ability to just process information. This article discusses a few useful ideas that
can help you process information better.
Improve your memory
How often do you walk into a room or go to the shops only to find you’ve forgotten
what you what you wanted? A better short term memory can save you a lot of time
and effort. Here’s a simple trick that’s been around since the Roman Times.
Take the list of things that you want to remember and associate them with something
you are familiar with. Also tie in some strong emotions to reinforce the picture.
I use the rooms in my house. Say I want to buy coffee, bread, milk, sandwich spread
and a newspaper, I’d take a tour of my house.
Coffee would go in the bedroom (I love a cup of coffee in bed!). Bread in the
kitchen (I’d imagine the smell of fresh bread). Milk that’s a bit more difficult
but I’d put it in the living room with sandwich spread, sitting in my favourite
chair eating that sandwich and drinking a glass of milk. My newspaper would go in
the garden where I’d be reading it on a sunny morning.
When I get to the shop and it’s time to recall the information I’ve stored, I
take a mental walk through my house looking for the things I need!
I hope you get the idea. Next time you need to remember a list of things, try
this tip, it really works! Start on short lists of 5-10 items and work up.
Increase your Motivation
When you find yourself feeling unmotivated, talk through your plans to yourself.
When you do this you are reconnecting with the motivation and excitement you felt
when you put your plan together and your brain will literally remember that positive
state.
As you’re talking to yourself, it can help if you sit up or stand up with your
head up and a smile on your face.
This is easier to do that forcing yourself to cheer up, or recite lots of positive
affirmations. When you’re feeling down, forcing yourself to change you mental state
can feel like pushing a large rock up a large hill! It’s better to go with the flow
and take another easier route round the problem.
You can apply this technique to others as well – cheer them up by getting them
to talk about something they really enjoy and/or they are passionate about.
Read Faster
There’s been a lot written about speed reading. It can help you to increase the
rate at which you learn new information.
What I find is that a lot of books contain pages where there’s relatively little
new information. I just want to get the gist of what’s being said to make sure I’m
not missing anything.
My favourite trick is to read the first and last sentence on each page and quickly
skim any subheads. If it looks like there’s nothing new, I’ll go to the next page.
If it looks like there might be something new, I’ll read the first and last sentence
of each paragraph on the page until I find the nugget I’m looking for.
Simple really, it takes a bit of discipline to apply, but you can cut down the
time it takes to hunt out the nuggets of new information in any book you’re reading.
Sharpen up your mental math
So many people struggle when it comes to numbers, to understanding whether something’s
a good deal or not. Practice mental arithmetic. It takes a bit of effort not to
reach for the nearest calculator, but the rewards are tremendous.
So much of what we do in this world is expressed in numbers – sports scores,
bank balances, business decisions, investment decision, what’s a bargain and what’s
not. An ability to work with numbers quickly and easily is a powerful asset for
anyone.
You’ve read about four useful tips to increase your mind power. Ways to improve
your memory, increase your motivation, read faster and sharpen you mental math.
Pick one and just have fun with it. As you improve your mind power, you’ll feel
better about yourself and more confident about your abilities.
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