My Speed Reading Journey

My words per minute were 197.

This left me devastated. I had just scored below average on my reading speed test.

With a lot of determination, I started practicing speed reading from “The Speed Reading Book” by Tony Buzan.

The Speed Reading Book

I was pleasantly surprised only hours later. As I progressed through the following chapters, and did the practices and exercises, my speed improved. At my fourth test I scored a wpm of 249.

What’s amazing is that, In both of these test I had a comprehension rate of 73.3%!!

I almost didn’t buy this book. I did not think it would turn out to be such a gem. The tips and techniques here are common sense and effective.

There’s much more! Tony Buzan also talks about mind maps here. I’ve been using mind maps from my last semester finals. They have proven to be really effective.

I love mind maps! They apparently use both sides of your brain. I don’t really know how they work. But they have reduced the time it takes me to memorize something. It also seems to aid my understanding of a topic.

Mind Maps

To be frank, I was scared of speed reading, at first. I thought maybe the comprehension will get lower and lower with each increase in speed.

To my amusement, it turned out to not be the case! My comprehension level stayed the same as my speed rose higher and higher.

Now I am excited to go even beyond that! I hope to increase my WPM up to 1000. I don’t know if this book is going to make this happen for me but I’ll give it a fair shot.

The science behind it made it clear for me. Apparently our brain can take a snapshot of something within microseconds. We don’t need to read slowly and word by word for better comprehension. Rather it’s wiser to read a chunk of words together. Thus the relative meaning of the words become more apparent.

Another great technique for comprehension is to use the first line of each paragraph as a reference. After reading the first line, try to establish a connection of that with the rest of the lines in that paragraph. Was the first line an introduction? Was it a summary of what comes next? Or is there no correlations at all? This increase comprehension and recalling abilities.

Now I feel sad why I didn’t learn this even earlier! I’d have read so many books! Because speed reading has made reading a lot of fun.

I’m excited about this semester and want to see how much better I can do with my newfound powers of speed reading, better comprehension and mind mapping.

I feel angry that it’s not taught in schools. It could have saved so much time that students could invest in there hobbies or towards building a career.

I’d love your feedback. This blog sprung out of passion and not just to make money. I love to learn new skills and share them. It’s like a need for my psyche.

Thanks for reading.

A powerful tool for focus and motivation: Simon Sinek’s bagel trick

What is the main reason we lose focus and motivation? Where does our motivation and focus go? Well, for me it’s obstacles. Whenever I’m focusing more on the struggles I’ll have to go through to get something, I get really discouraged.

British author Simon Sinek talks about one advice to get through this problem. He goes on to tell a story about him and one of his friend first. They were together somewhere and saw someone giving away free bagels. Simon was super excited to get the bagel. His friend on the other hand was not. The friend discouraged Simon’s enthusiasm by telling him about how long the line is and that he doesn’t wanna put up with that. He was focused on the obstacles and not the reward. Simon was the opposite. He could only see the free bagel.

At a certain point in our life, all of us accept that mere wishing isn’t enough. We must work for the things we wish to get.

Then some of us get fed up with how stale and predictable (& sometimes terrible) our life is. They get up and try to do something about it.

An unfortunate discovery is to be made at this point.

There is a good reason most people are lazy & unmotivated.

Work is hard. Pursuing ambitious goals is a dark path of constant struggle, failure, confusion & rejection. It’s freaking inhuman and a big bubble of ‘ifs, buts and what ifs’.

Getting through this is the real problem. It’s where you lose sight of why you started the journey in the first place.

This is exactly what you MUSTN’T forget.

Never let your why be blurry. No matter what it is, shamelessly accept your why. Nurture it, let it grow. Let it consume you. Otherwise, the struggle will overwhelm you and you will quit.

And this is the trick. Keep your eye on the rewards you are working for. Do not forget your why.

Achieve your most ambitious goals using one simple trick

I hate to do big tasks. It’s frightening and I’d rather watch something on YouTube. Same applies to difficult things that we naturally don’t wanna do. Like waking up early or exercise.

It’s been bothering me so much lately so I devised a plan to tackle this. I came up with a hack. And it works.

I think we all agree that, everything we do stems from our thoughts. And every action can be divided into many smaller actions. It’s real easy to convince myself to do those smaller tasks.

So now when it’s time for exercise I don’t ask myself to workout for half an hour.

I rather tell myself to just go to my workout place. Then to put my headphones on and play my workout music. Then open my workout app. Do the first task.

I don’t even ask myself to complete the first task. Just doing the right thing at this moment is enough. Somehow things get done if I just keep faith and do the smallest thing that is required of me RIGHT NOW.

What about big tasks? Like studying for long hours? If this scares you then- DON’T THINK ABOUT IT THAT WAY.

Rather try and find what’s the next small logical step. Maybe to just go to your study room. Sit in the chair for a while. Pick up a book. Read one line. Then read the next line. See how far can you go.

Watch This Ted Talk given by Stephen Duneier. He talks about a similar idea. This guy totally transformed his life using this idea. You’ll be amazed to see how much he has accomplished and how awesome his life is!

Don’t kill the kid inside you.

The kid inside you knows no reality. It doesn’t really care. It doesn’t have to. Only thing it cares about is what it wants. That’s it. Give it to him. Now. It’s not gonna stop whining until it’s been given to it.

So you have two choices. Listen to it and work your ass off to meet it’s unreal expectations. Or kill it.

I am here to suggest that you should not kill it. Rather nurture it. Work for it. Love and cherish it’s existence.

It’s the voice inside you that keeps saying you’re not done yet. That you don’t wanna be just good, you wanna be the best. That your not gonna settle. That you won’t take no as an answer. Ever.

It’s also the curious side of you. That believes the key to this world is knowledge. The part of you that is humble enough to ask. To bother others for an answer. That believes that there is an answer somewhere. You just have to find it.

The kid inside you will push you. It will give you energy, motivation and a worthy cause. It will take your hand and take you towards greatness.

Don’t let the kid inside you die. The voice that tells you that it’s all or nothing. That you deserve whatever you wish for. You may reason with it, show it better things to long for. But don’t kill it.

Train like a Dog

Reward good behaviors and punish bad ones. We do this with everyone else. Why not ourselves?

Say ”I am amazing for doing this”, “yes, I am awesome” or maybe give yourself a more constructive and well thought out compliment like- “wow, I really did a good job at doing x”.

Don’t take yourself for granted. Cherish your superior moments. Thank yourself for not being dumb and doing something right. Watch the video below to see how B.J Fogg uses this to reinforce a habit.

Don’t beat yourself to death when you falter. But gently say, hey it’s okay. But let’s not repeat the same mistake. Let’s learn and be better.

But don’t shrug off and say it doesn’t matter either. Don’t reward yourself for bad behavior. If you repeat bad behavior (like smoking, sleeping late etc) tell yourself that you don’t appreciate it and it’s better not happening again.

Train yourself like a dog for some days and see the change!

Be like an arrow on a trajectory, like a bullet on a mission..

“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.”

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Want to know the secret to success? Is it law of attraction? Is it perseverance? Is it staying hungry and foolish?

First let me clarify I’m not in a position to advise anyone. I’ve been a self-help junkie since I was 16; it’s been only 2 months since I’ve started applying all the knowledge. Surprisingly, these self-help things been working for me. I’ve lost 9 kg of weight, learned a ton of topics- including but not limited to stuffs assigned to me by college authority, I’ve been waking up early almost everyday, my social skills improved, I quit smoking, quit sugar and am still pumped about the next day.

And that last part is what surprises me most. I never thought I could sustain a full gung-ho mood for such a long time. But I’ve never been happier!

Well back to the main topic of this post. What is the secret to success?

I think it’s this- ‘A goal that silences everything. Something that means so much to you that you don’t care if everything else fails.’

For me, that is to make the best of my existence and to inspire others by example.

What is it for you? Trust me, you know it already. Even if you can’t say it right now, somewhere in your heart their is something that matters to you more than anything else. (Hint- it usually involves doing good for other people)

Wait, is that all?

Well, yes and no.

Yes in the sense that after you’ve known exactly what motivates you, you’ll make your dreams come true no matter what. As goes the proverb- ‘if there is a will, there is a way’

Now let me clarify the no..

Having a goal is great. But you also may need this other thing I found helpful.

Visualization.

What exactly should you visualize? 2 things- How your new reality looks like & the process you’ll use to get there.

Now why does setting a goal and visualizing about success work?

Believe it or not, these claims are backed by logic and ton of examples.

Our brain loves problems. If you don’t give it one, it’ll just create one for you. But if you give yourself a worthy problem to solve, something that both your heart and brain agrees on, you brain will try and find the solution. It will even work to solve it while you’re sleeping!

Vision is costly. That is why we have selective vision. We can only focus on one thing properly. When you have an overarching goal- you’ll be super focused and you’ll see opportunity everywhere.

 

Visualization works for 2 distinct reasons. One is that it’s hard for us to do or accomplish something beyond our self image. If you believe you can’t- you probably won’t. But- we can use this knowledge to our advantage. Visualization helps you to fool your brain into thinking that this is the new reality. Your subconscious mind accepts this new paradigm and mental blocks are destroyed.

Secondly, visualization keeps you motivated. It makes you see how much better the new and improved reality could be. That makes you inspired for success.

So what is your ‘must have’? Try these two steps and you’ll definitely see amazing results.

Please subscribe ‘now’ for more posts like this! See you in the next post 🙂

Why Learn from Others? How?

The first humans had to learn from scratch. There was no label attached to anything.

Something sounds good? It’s nothing but soothing sound until someone called it- Music.

Someone writes well? Let’s call him a writer.

Oh that guy thinks clearly and his logic makes sense! Let’s call him a philosopher.

Thus labels were created. Infinite potential became infinite fields of study- Infinite labels to achieve.

Now, no one’s good enough. As Jordan Peterson says in his book, “Who cares if you are the prime minister of Canada if someone else in the president of United States!”

South Park complains- Simpsons have already done it! Which implies that there seems to be lack of fresh ideas remaining.

Does this make the world uninteresting? Have we really come to a place where it’s finally boring to live and to learn?

Heck no! Not even close! It’s the opposite. It’s the greatest time to be alive. Even for the creative types.

You see no body creates from the scratch. Creativity is nothing but solving the same puzzle in a different way. We do this by combining existing resources.

Nokia used to make great phones and Sony used to make great cameras.

What did the most innovative company of the century- Apple do? They put camera, phone, web browsing, music everything in one thing, made it easier than others to access those things and called it a great invention. People swear by the name of iPhones. But someone else had already made similar stuff? Haven’t they?

Part 2:

It’s people like Tom Bilyeu who makes me feel like life is a game worth playing. What does he do? He invites people from different fields of study to tell their stories. Writers, designers, entrepreneurs you name it!

Learning is so easy now! Let’s say you want to learn how to rhyme. 2000 years ago you’d have to practice, fail, brainstorm, find a mentor blah blah blah.

Only if somebody else had already cracked the code! What if you didn’t need to rediscover anything? Rather, focus your efforts on learning what’s been already done and then progress further along the way?

Well, now you can! You can find every song ever published by Eminem on YouTube. For free! Who better to teach you rhyming than the God of rap himself!

You want to learn how to build an Artificially intelligent being? What if you wanna learn how rockets work? Or maybe you just want to learn how to cook your favorite dish by yourself?

There’s no limit! Somebody has already cracked the codes!

A solid example of what I’m trying to say:

Are you shy and want to learn socializing? Go google Vanessa Van Edwards. Thank me later.

This amazing woman has dedicated her whole life to crack the social code. She has hired experts, run experiments in the real world through numerous people, has written books and produced videos about it.

What do you have to do? Just learn what she has already discovered! What’s your reward? You’ll get closer to your existing friends and acquaintances, you’ll find more love and spread more joy! You may learn how to deal with toxic people. You’ll make new friends, hold better position in your job, influence your employees… sky is the limit really.

And you don’t have to spend strenuous time and energy on rediscovering anything! The dish has been served already! Just go and eat. You’ll get healthier in a matter of days!

Imagine if we insisted on reinventing the wheel! How dumb would that be? What makes us humans so great is our ability to store knowledge.

If I’ve found something with great efforts, I’ll write it down so that my sons and their sons and daughters won’t have to rediscover! They will build upon it!

That’s how lucky we are! Rabindranath Tagore has already cracked the codes of poetry! Elon Musk has already shown how to pursue an impossible dream and still succeed! Let’s learn from them. Let’s build upon them!

Humans are Running on Outdated Software: Part 2

In part one of this post I talk about Endorphin, Dopamine and Serotonin. Go check out that first if you haven’t already- here

I said that serotonin can be dangerous. But how? Well, it can make us want status so much that we forget to care about other humans. Which is not good. Corporations are sometimes on the victim side of this as their serotonin boosted Executives forget about employee’s well being.

If you feel like you need more confidence, what you need is a boost in serotonin. An easy way to get that is to by keeping good posture.

It’s time to talk about Oxytocin now. It’s often referred to as the ‘love chemical’ as it gives us sense of bond and fondness towards someone else. Oxytocin can make you want to do good for another person and feel good for it. It created comrade in armed forces and other organizations. Lack of Oxytocin and too much dopamine and serotonin in an organization may lead to too much competitiveness where everyone is trying to one up the other person. But boost oxytocin and people become cooperative and creativity flows.

There’s one more brain chemical that I want to talk about briefly. It’s called Cortisol.

Cortisol is anxiety, stress, feelings of threat. I makes our heart pump faster and our blood go quicker. It prepares us for fight or flight. It’s what pro’s call excitement before a performance and beginners call nervousness.

Cortisol is awesome for all this reasons and more. But sustained exposure to it all the time can cause from fatigue and headache to various diseases. It can generate bad mood which in turn ruins marriages and disturbs children’s mental health.

What causes a sustained overexposure?

Overly competitive workplace, low job security, anything that causes feelings of threat- like maybe comparing your humble life with the great life everyone else seem to have on display for Instagram etc.

All the other animals benefit immensely from these brain chemicals. For example, a herd deer will stop eating when they feel a Lion approaching, run for their lives with high doses of cortisol in their blood and then rest when safe. Their cortisol level will go down and they will start eating and chilling again.

But, we humans don;t live in an organic natural environment like that anymore. We are in a more advanced and sophisticated society.

We have excess of food and we can eat easily whenever we want. So there’s no need for us to be stuffing all the food at once as our dopamine tells us to. We abuse the good feelings of dopamine by watching excessive porn, gambling and staying an unusual amount of time in social media sites. All of these are harmful and should be avoided.

We live in a society where every workplace is highly competitive and there’s always backstabbers (read Lions) lurking around. For this, we are in a dangerously high dosage of cortisol- all the time! This chemical was not designed to fight in this new environment we created and now its ruining our mental and physical health and relationships.

That is why I say we humans are running on outdated softwares. Do we need an upgrade? Maybe! But also maybe not! As we can always make conscious changes in our actions. We can chose not to overeat and we can chose not to waste our lives in social media. We can refuse to work in a stressful workplace or instead we can meditate and learn how to control our own stress levels.

Socrates said, “know thyself”. This is more imperative now than ever. We need to learn about how we function so that we don’t become a victim of our own system.

See you in the next post 🙂

 

How to Master Something and Get Paid for it.

To master something you have to work regularly at it. You should get a mentor, learn the tricks associated with it and let the mentor correct your mistakes. Don’t forget deliberate practice (to purposefully do the things you find most difficult).

For example, if you want to master how to invest in the stock market, pick up Benjamin Grahams books, read the letters Warren Buffet has sent to his shareholders throughout the years. That way, you stick to one style of investing and you also learn from the best.

But often times this isn’t enough. The field that you get into is so packed with talent that it’s hard to get a job. In that case, a real mentor can be of tremendous help. An insider, who has all the networks needed for your success.

This is what’s missing from Tai Lopez’s videos. But careful analysis of his life shows how mentors helped him not only with knowledge but also networks and resources.

In his book, The Third Door, Alex Banayan tells us the real life story of how Stephen Spielberg got into Hollywood. It was his mentor who made the necessary calls to get him his first job- a 7 years contract for the Universal Studios!

They say, to master something you have to work at it for 10,000 hours. That’s bullshit. There’s no time limit of mastery. It’s also different for each individual person. And it’s different for each individual field of mastery.

To truly master something, learn to practice what you can’t more than what you can. It’s called deliberate practice and it’s what differentiates a good student from a great student. It’s easy to keep doing what you already know and avoiding the hard stuff. This gives you some sense of competence and lets you avoid hardship. But, stay away from this type of behavior if you truly want to be a master.

Now, you may ask, why master something at all?

Well, you may chose not to. It’s fun being a jack of all trades. It’s great to know a little about a lot of stuff, to be able to connect with people from different fields as if you are an insider too. Being competent in different fields of expertise also boosts creativity as it lends you different lenses to view the world with.

But, if you chose to master one thing, while sacrificing your desires for learning everything else, it may reward you immensely. The first reward comes from career opportunities. People who are the masters of one single craft earn a lot of money. Examples of this would be Messi and Ronaldo from Football (Soccer), Warren Buffet- the stock market wizard, Robert Downey Jr. from Hollywood, David Guetta (DJ) etc.

Secondly, it’s spiritually and psychologically fulfilling to devote yourself to one cause.

Third, it enhances focus and lets your mind settle into one thing, which in turn boosts productivity.

Which path did you chose? How’s it working out for you? Let me know in the comments section! See you in the next post 🙂

 

Humans Are Running on Outdated Software: Part 1

Our feelings dictate to a large extent what happens to us. How we feel is how we see the world and also how we operate in the world. But how reliable are these feelings?

Why do we like shopping so much? Why texts or emails from friends and family feel good? Why eating is so much fun even when we know it’s hampering our health?

I’ve posed two sets of questions above. Are they unrelated? Let’s find out.

Good feelings are the result of 4 chemicals in the brain. EDSO- Endorphin, Dopamine, Serotonin and Oxytocin.

Endorphin is released when we do physical labor. It’s what makes runners feel good about running a marathon or body builders to feel good while working out. Not bad. It actually makes moving and working fun. Thank God for Endorphin!

Dopamine is so vital, that if you take it out of a mouse’s brain, it will die of hunger but not eat a bite! Yes, dopamine is what makes us want something, it’s the reward we get after we accomplish a goal or stay on the path of our aims and dreams or when we take a puff of cigarette or stuff ourselves with sugar!

Yes, Dopamine my friends is a double edged sword. It can make you or break you. It can compel you to sit down and write a blog post, to sit and study for your exam but at the same time it is what makes smoking, sugar, gambling, social media and games so much fun! So there goes the answer to the second set of questions I laid out at the beginning of this post.

What about serotonin?

Without it you feel defeated. You feel like a nobody. Confidence, status these are what serotonin brings to the table. Dr. Jordan Peterson has this interesting fact about lobsters on his book- 12 Rules for Life. A lobster boosted by serotonin puffs his chest, feels like a million bucks and fights for his territorial rights. Where as a lobster robbed of his serotonin is filled with anxiety, runs at the first que of trouble, feels and acts like a defeated person.

Ever took an antidepressant and felt a boost in confidence? They boost serotonin.

Serotonin can be a double edged sword too. Read more about it and the rest of the post in part 2 of this series 🙂