In your ever-busy, “on demand” life, have you ever wondered how it would feel to be able to learn twice as much in half the time? Life changes in an instant, so here is a proven, Instant Learning® formula that will give you the learning edge you need.
Whether you are a CEO, an employee in job training, a student, or a parent, did you know that a baby learning to walk uses the same techniques that are key to your Instant Learning® ability? The baby practices but really learns to walk in an “instant” once he unlocks the code I share in my Instant Learning® seminars—“learning is not about being smart; it’s about strategy!”
Curious? Read on, put your eyebrows on relax, and you will remember everything you read in this chapter. Here are five proven strategies that neuroscientists, psychologists, and learning experts say anyone can use to confidently learn anything new. I call this Instant Learning® formula BBAPI.
1.Belief. You already believe that you can learn in an instant because you’ve been doing it your whole life. When you were younger, you learned thousands of new things, firm in the belief that you would succeed. You simply tried new strategies until you mastered the task. As Henry Ford said, “If you think you can do a thing, or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.”
Right now, give yourself permission to believe that you can learn anything based solely on the information you receive from your actions. Adjust your learning strategies as you read this chapter, and do things differently until you get the result you want. Remember, your belief and strategies together are so strong that they inspire the highest vision of what is possible.
2.Body. Your body movements are a reflection of what is going on in your brain. If you lie on the couch in a dimly lit room and say self-defeating things to yourself while deciding that you’re going to learn something new, you will simply end up on the couch. This is information that you’re not highly motivated to learn anything new.
Do this: change your body position as if you are perfectly successful and record how you feel. When you are ready to learn something new, put yourself into your “success position.” Next, do what experts do with their bodies: I call it “Brain Smart, Body Smart™.” Make sure you get any “body or brain” roadblocks to learning out of the way. Have your eyes checked by a developmental optometrist to make sure that you see the printed page the same way others do; make sure you are hearing properly; exercise, love your body enough to put nourishing foods into it, and explore why supplements like omega 3s, which are proven to help you think faster and remember longer, are the very best strategies to enhance your body and brain.
3.Association. Have you ever met someone and liked them right away, even though you did not actually know the person? The reason is called association, which neuroscientists say is created from connections in your brain that remind you of someone else you already know and like.
To make learning faster, connect it with something you already know because your brain craves patterns. To cement the learning, add more connections like humor, uniqueness, emotion, and visual, auditory, and tactile modalities. Psychologists report that you can learn something new the very first time, if the associations you make along with it are strong enough. When I teach medical students how to recall complicated medical terms, we use humorous letters, pictures, and words connected with things they already know. Their learning is stress-free and virtually “instant”!
4.Pictures. Have you ever read sections of a book and then forgot what you just read? After you see a movie, do you notice that it seems easier to remember the pictures?
Picture recall has much more meaning across many parts of the brain, so the saying “one picture is worth a thousand words” really is true. Whenever you are reading something new, put your body into success position and become a filmmaker in your mind. Read something, look up, and make a movie from the words. Then, add your own, personalized version of something familiar in your picture. Connect the two images, and when you look up at your images again, you’ll easily be able to learn and remember whatever you want. This is called the eye-brain connection.
5. Match Input, Storage, and Output. If you wanted to find out whether a baseball player had the skills to make the team, would you give the person a written test? Sounds silly, but the mismatch between learning and testing styles is a major reason people wonder about whether they can learn new things.
One of the best-kept learning secrets that you’ll never hear in school is how to match learning styles with testing styles for effortless learning. Discover your preferred learning style (visual, auditory, or tactile), and ask yourself what style will be used to test your knowledge. Match your learning style (input), memory style (storage), and testing style (output), and learning becomes a breeze.
Remember, learning is not about being smart. It is only about strategy, and once you know the strategies, you can choose to learn anything at any time. Learning how to learn is your key to Instant Learning® for a lifetime of learning success.
** This article is one of 101 great articles that were published in 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life. To get complete details on “101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life”, visit http://www.selfgrowth.com/greatways.html
Pat Wyman is known as America’s Most Trusted Learning Expert. She is a best-selling author, international consultant, and corporate spokesperson. She conducts seminars on her Instant Learning® strategies for corporations, schools, parents, teachers, and medical schools. Her work has been featured in such publications as Family Circle Magazine, Woman’s World, and Nickelodeon Family Magazine. Wyman is also an Instructor of Continuing Education at California State University, East Bay, a regular media guest on radio and TV, Director of the nonprofit organization I Read I Succeed, and founder of the award-winning Web site http://www.HowToLearn.com.