Royane Real
Top Secret Brainpower Algorithms
By Steve Gillman
Introductory comments by Royane Real
Author of “How You Can Be Smarter - Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better and Be More Creative” )
Most of us want to be successful. Few of us know how to use our minds to achieve success. One common reason why it can be difficult to achieve success is because we may have developed mental habits that get in the way of success. To achieve better success, we need to develop better mental habits.
The following article by Steve Gillman is about how to use secret algorithms to make your brain work better. I was very intrigued by his use of the word “algorithm” but I wasn’t sure what it really meant.
I looked up the term “algorithms” so that I could try to explain it and make the meaning more clear. It turns out that the word “algorithm” means a series of instructions for completing a task.
So really, Steve Gillman’s article is about how you use your brain to accomplish specific tasks. People who are very successful at anything in life are successful because they have learned how to give their brains instructions to follow to get the results they want.
These people may have started out with certain basic talents, but they needed to learn how to capitalize on that talent. They needed to learn how to improve their abilities and how to adapt their behavior to the world around them.
We are always giving ourselves instructions, but sometimes those instructions are not clear and focused enough, so we end up going around in circles.
As Steve Gillman points out in his article, one of the keys to using your mind more successfully is to ask the right questions. When you learn how to ask yourself the right questions, you can increase the chances that you will find new and creative solutions.
( The introductory comments were written by Royane Real. Discover ways to boost your intelligence and creativity in her popular ebook : " How You Can Be Smarter - Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better and Be More Creative.” )
Feature article:
Top Secret Brainpower Algorithms
By Steve Gillman
Brainpower algorithms is my own term for the rules that we develop to help us think more efficiently. There are examples from every area of life. Salesmen more effectively sell once they are trained to smile and match the pace of the buyer's speech. Real estate investors can more easily analyze a property if they have a mental checklist that they run through. Writers think in terms of headlines that "grab" the reader by using words like "top secret."
Universal Brainpower Algorithms
Some of the most useful rules of life are simple questions that cut through the clutter in our minds and point to the most essential aspects of things. Consider the question "What would (insert hero here) do?" Asking this is a powerful way to quickly resolve ethical issues. A Christian facing an ethical problem, for example, can usually quickly imagine what Jesus would do.
This process bypasses the rationalizing that often passes as rationality, and lets our powerful unconscious mind show us the way. Here are some other questions that can be useful.
- What can I learn from this?
- How can I use this to my advantage?
- How can I most quickly and effectively resolve this?
- What is good about this situation?
- What is the key element here?
- How can I look at this differently?
- Do I have all the information I need to make a decision?
More Specific Brainpower Techniques
To develop your brainpower in specific areas, find out what successful people in those fields are thinking. For example, consciously or not, a good comedian is always looking around and asking things like, "How can I take this to the extreme?" "What is the silliest part of this situation?" "Which words in this have double meanings that I can play with?" or "What's wrong with this picture?" He may also be imagining things reversed, done differently, or from another perspective.
An inventor thinks about how things work, how to apply those principles of function to other things, or how to make them work differently. He challenges assumptions, asking things like, "Do chairs really need legs, or would there be advantages to hanging them from the ceiling?" These idea-creating techniques are just specific brainpower algorithms.
The key to using these brainpower algorithms most effectively isn't in learning as many as you can. Many of us have learned enough "self improvement" techniques to last a lifetime. It isn't that knowing more is harmful, but application is the key here, not compiling more unused knowledge. You need to take what you know and use it, and, even more importantly, make it into a habit.
A simple and useful principle turned into a good habit is more powerful than a head full of great ideas.
How do you create these brainpower habits? Repetition. How long do you have to repeatedly do something or think something for it to become a habit? The consensus of the experts is about three weeks. Pick the mental "program" you wan to install in your brain, and start using it every day for a few weeks. Carry a card with reminders if necessary.
We have mental habits anyhow, but they are not necessarily the best ones, right? Why not consciously train yourself to use the questions, rules, and patterns of behavior that are the most useful for you? This is how you make brain content into brainpower.
Steve Gillman has been studying brainpower and related topics for years. For more on How To Increase Brain Power, and to get the Brain Power Newsletter and other free gifts, visit: http://www.IncreaseBrainPower.com
Article source: http://www.999Articles.com
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
