flynn012

Learning Backwards: Braintenance Mind-Jolt How often have you heard of someone knowing something "backwards and forward(s)"?  There is a reason for this in the etymology of the expression itself: it is generally perceived as being difficult for people who have learned and memorized something in a particular order to be able to learn and memorize it in a different order. Learning something "backwards" requires a (with apologies to Liam Neeson) special skill set. The skills involved are used both consciously and subconsciously every day by most people. In learning backwards, you'll have to use these skills consciously -- at least at first. These skills include visualization (visualizing the list of items with eyes closed), creating acronyms (using the first letter of each image to create a word) and sensory association (i.e., linking a group of things to a simple song, or making them part of a simple story). The benefits to backwards learning are tremendous. The p...

If you have had dreams, ambitions and objectives, you know that most of them are never achieved -- not because they were impossible, but because they were never even started. If you would like to get anything done, the key is to visualize what you desire (in terms of the outcome), and to then -- within 5 critical minutes of your visualization process -- take a first action toward that dream, ambition or objective, even if this action is simply reducing the idea to its essence and writing it on your "to do" list. Then within that same day , take a first physical action step (such as making a phone call, registering for an event, visiting a website, etc.) and pledge to yourself to take one additional action toward the furtherance of that which you are seeking to achieve per week at minimum. The greatest acts and deeds are not achieved in giant steps -- they are achieved by incremental consistency; by working conscientiously, one action step at a time until your book is written...

The conscious and subconscious mind crave orderliness and organization, with each item of data clearly recorded in multisensory detail, and filed in its most appropriate and accessible place. This is why we have routines, rituals and recurring cycles of thought (which sometimes haunt us and which sometimes help us). Look at the picture above. At first, it appears as a meaningless bunch of letters -- but as we study it consciously, it becomes a plainly-worded statement of fact. In fact, when we look at incomplete pictures or have "blind spots" in our foveal or peripheral vision, our minds tend to fill in those blanks for us. This effect is responsible for many optical illusions. And what we see (or think that we are seeing) is a significant input into what we will be thinking. Peripheral vision plays more tricks on us than foveal vision, but our foveal vision can be made to play tricks on us as well. Let's get ourselves some definitions of these two types of vision from Wi...