Limitless - Jim Kwik Page 0,81
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ELEMENTARY LEARNING
One of the reasons rote learning is inefficient is because it only involves a small part of your brain. You’re using a more analytical part of your brain to process information and store what you need to learn. By implementing rote learning, you only engage part of your mind and an even smaller portion of your potential.
In the traditional education system, you probably learned this way in such topics as:
History: “Calvin Coolidge was the 30th president of the United States, Coolidge 30, 30 Coolidge . . .”
Chemistry: “Glucose C6H12O6, Glucose C6H12O6, Glucose C6H12O6 . . .”
French: “Comment allez-vous means ‘how are you?’ Comment allez-vous means ‘how are you?’ Comment allez-vous is ‘how are you?’ . . .”
The list goes on and on and on and on. The question you must ask yourself now: “Is the way I learned in elementary school the best method for me to learn today?” The answer is most likely no. In school, they taught you the three Rs: reading, ’riting, and ’rithmatic (too bad spelling wasn’t one of them). I always thought the fourth R should have been recall. Your requirements for learning have changed a lot over the years. Repetition learning had some decent results when you were younger, but in today’s world, it will leave you drowning in information and mental fatigue. (Note: The word rote literally means “an unthinking repetition or mechanical memorization.”)
In this section I’m going to show you the skills to remember more effectively than you ever thought possible. These skills will help you to replace the feeling of hoping you’ll remember with the feeling of confidence in knowing that the information you possess will be available, whenever you need it.
Now, take a minute and, without looking back, try to recall the list in the order it was presented. Write down as much as you can remember. Take a minute and do this now.
How did you do? If you are like most people, you probably were able to retain a few of the words on the list.
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Now let’s try something else. Take a minute and stretch. Take a few deep breaths. Clear your mind and relax more with every breath that leaves your body. Just take a moment and relax. When you are done, continue.
Next, make sure you are comfortable and imagine you’re standing next to a giant fire hydrant, the biggest one you’ve ever seen. Now, attach a bunch of balloons on top of the fire hydrant. There are so many balloons that it takes the hydrant out of the ground so it floats up high in the sky. Then suddenly it is hit with a load of batteries and explodes. The batteries are being launched into the sky in large barrels. The barrels are being thrown up with a wooden board like a seesaw. The board is being balanced by a large diamond, a big brilliant sparkling stone. Then a knight in shining armor takes the diamond and runs away. He’s quickly stopped by an ox. The only way to get through is to brush the teeth of the ox with toothpaste. The ox moves aside and reveals a big neon sign with the word Congratulations on it, and then there is a huge explosion.
Now take a minute, close your eyes and review this little story. You may read the story again if you need to. Do this now before continuing.
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Without looking back, write the story down.
As you may be aware, we turned your list into a story. Now go through the story in your mind and list as many of the words as you can remember. Check your answers and write down the number you got correct.
How did you perform the second time? If you are like most students, you were able to recall more of the words than you did previously. The amazing thing is that once you start training your memory in this way, you can use this tool to memorize vast amounts of information. I’ve used this technique to help actors learn all their lines in a script, to help students memorize the periodic table, and to help salespeople speak about a product with a level of granularity that made it seem as though they’d engineered the item themselves. Remember that there’s no such thing as a good memory or a bad memory, only a trained memory or an untrained memory. Employing this tool regularly will give you the kind of training that you can access in all kinds of situations.
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