Books Summaries
The Miracle Morning
Who is the author?
Hal Elrod is an American Author and success coach. Hal suffered a severe car accident at the age of 20. He uses this moment and his subsequent recovery as an example of how anybody can better themselves and have the life they want. He is the founder of the Achieve Your Goal podcast and has written two books: The Miracle Morning and The Miracle Equation.
How this book is useful?
This book is for anyone who want to live their life to full potential. We all have the potential to be successful.
Hal says, “If you follow 100 individuals for 40 years, you will only find one wealthy person and four financially stable people. Comparatively, five will need to work their whole life, 36 will have died, and 54 will still be reliant on friends and family. Basically, 95% of people are not living life to their potential”.
If you want to live your full potential, you need to develop the six traits which he gives the acronym: Life SAVERS (silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, scribe-writing). You should practice at least few or all of them every day.
What is rearview mirror syndrome (RMS)?
Our subconscious minds are equipped with a self-limiting rearview mirror, through which we continuously relive and recreate our past. We mistakenly believe that who we were is who we are, thus limiting our true potential in the present, based on the limitations of our past. As a result, we filter every choice we make—from what time we will wake up in the morning to which goals we will set to what we allow ourselves to consider possible for our lives—through the limitations of our past experiences.
One of the most significant issues that arise from RMS is that people look to their past to define their future.
How to change how you think about your sleep?
“Every time you choose to do the easy thing, instead of the right thing, you are shaping your identity, becoming the type of person who does what’s easy, rather than what’s right. On the other hand, when you do choose to do the right thing and follow through with your commitments—especially when you don’t feel like it—you are developing the extraordinary discipline (which most people never develop) necessary for creating extraordinary results in your life.” – Hal Elrod
Many of us are guilty of hitting the snooze button as soon as we wake up. The issue with this is that we choose to start our day by letting ourselves off the hook. Instead, we can wake up with a sense of purpose. If you wake up with a purpose in mind, you will be on your way to crafting a happier life. The most successful people across all fields have one thing in common: they get up early.
Hal describes how tiredness in the morning is not to do with not having enough sleep but not having enough anticipation. We never struggle to have enough energy on Christmas morning or our birthdays. The anticipation for the day ahead stops us from being tired. We need to recruit this same purpose for every day of our lives.
Hal recommends forgetting about the number of hours of sleep you will get. Thinking about how exhausted you will be tomorrow will only spoil your productivity for tomorrow morning. Hal recommends telling yourself that you will feel good in the morning as you have a purpose and a goal tomorrow.
How to create a morning routine that instills motivation?
Hal recommends a few things you should incorporate into your morning routine to improve your motivation levels.
Before going to bed, you should remind yourself that you will wake up tomorrow feeling refreshed. Looking forward to the next day will make waking up feel like less of a chore
Place your alarm clock on the other side of the room to where you will be sleeping. Try and make turning the alarm off a more challenging choice than going back to sleep
After switching off your alarm and getting up, you should brush your teeth straight away. Brushing your teeth will give you a feeling of freshness after waking up
Next, you should head to the kitchen and drink a glass of water as fast as you can comfortably manage. We lose large amounts of water overnight, so we must rehydrate ourselves. Dehydration can make us feel more tired.
How to fight stress with purposeful silence?
Stress is a part of everybody’s lives. However, our morning routine has a significant impact on how much stress we experience throughout the day. Meditation is a popular example of purposeful silence. Hal outlines the steps you can take to engage with purposeful silence.
Take a break from your worries and concentrate on yourself
Find a quiet, comfortable place to sit. Try and sit cross-legged and upright
Close your eyes
Bring your attention to your breath. Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth
Breathe slowly into your belly rather than your chest
Set a pace for your breaths by breathing in for three seconds, then out for three
If meditation doesn’t work for you, then there are alternatives. Hal suggests that people can pray if they are religious. Alternatively, you can merely reflect on your life and the things you are grateful for.
How positive affirmations and visualizations help you obtain an ideal life?
Affirmations
The way we speak to ourselves is hugely important. Our self-talk subconsciously programs our brains. Therefore, we can improve our lives simply by using positive affirmations. Hal recommends the following steps to start introducing positive affirmations into your life.
Write down how you want your life to look in the future. Make sure you cover as many areas of your life as possible
Ask yourself why you want these things
Ask yourself how committed you are to doing whatever is needed to obtain these life goals
After creating these positive affirmations, you should read them aloud to yourself at least once daily.
Visualization
Another approach that can help you obtain your ideal life is merely imagining yourself in that position. Suppose you want to become an Olympic athlete. In that case, you should visualize yourself on top of the gold medal podium at the Olympics. You can even combine these visualizations with your affirmations by considering what you want and then visualizing having it.
How does morning exercise help you?
Morning Exercise is Key to Body Health and Personal Success.
People often make excuses about how little time they have to exercise. Plus, a frequent excuse is when they do have a spare hour for some exercise, they are too exhausted to do it. Therefore, the morning is the best time to do some exercise. Exercise is vital for our health, and fitting it in soon after you wake up will mean you won’t have to worry about it for the rest of the day.
Hal provides an example of self-made multimillionaire entrepreneur Eben Pagan. Eben described the one key to his success as being morning exercise. He specifically said this exercise was his “personal success ritual”.
Your morning exercise doesn’t have to be extremely intense. Anything that gets your blood pumping is a good choice of exercise. For example, just following a yoga DVD for 20 minutes every morning will still have a huge impact on your life.
Scribe: Always read and write in the morning:
After exercising, you should aim to focus on your personal growth. Two of the best activities for personal growth are reading and writing. Reading and writing help you reflect on your current successes and your future goals.
Specifically, Hal recommends reading books on personal development. These books help you gain insights from people who are already successful. Try and read a minimum of ten pages per day. This is only 20 minutes of reading but will have a massive impact as each reading session adds up. For example, that is 3,650 pages a year.
Hal recommends writing for just five to ten minutes each morning. Topics you can write about are your thoughts, feelings, and insights. Personally, Hal would split his page into two columns: Lessons Learned and New Commitments. He would fill each of these every day. Simply filling these columns allowed him to learn from his mistakes and commit to new life changes.
How long does it take to form a new habit?
It takes approximately 30 days to form a habit. Therefore, Hal recommends trying the miracle morning for 30 days. If you can adhere for 30 days you will find it easy to maintain these self-improvement practices.
The 5 AM Club
Who is the writer of this book?
Robin Sharma is a Candian author and leadership expert.
Why is this book unique?
Sharma says, “To have the results The Top 5% of producers have, you must start doing what 95% of people are unwilling to do”. The time of 5 to 6 AM is the ‘Victory Hour’ since it is the period of least distraction and greatest insight. If you wake up early at 5 AM, it will allow you to deep inner work, so you gain clarity, confidence, and calm for the rest of the day.
How can you master your day with the ‘Victory Hour’?
Sharma proposes a 60‐minute morning formula to accelerate personal development ‐ the 20/20/20 formula: spend your first 20 minutes sweating (Exercise), your second 20 minutes reflecting (Write gratitude, strengths, vision, passion, etc.), and your last 20 minutes growing (Study).
How can you wake up early as 5 AM?
Plan to sleep at 9:30 PM.
You need five sleep cycles each night to perform your best. The average sleep cycle is 90 minutes. Therefore, if you fall asleep at 9:30 PM, you will complete your fifth sleep cycle by 5:00 AM and wake up fully refreshed.
Turn off your devices and screens at 8:00 PM and do a winddown activity like reading, walking outside, or meditating before going to bed.
Mindset
Who is the author?
Carol Dweck is a world-renowned American psychologist. She is a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. She has also taught at Columbia University, Harvard University, and the University of Illinois.
What are the two types of mindsets?
Fixed versus Growth Mindset. People with a fixed mindset believe they are born naturally gifted at doing some things but utterly incapable of others, whereas people with a growth mindset believe they can become anything if they try hard enough.
Fixed Mindsets Prevent Growth:
Individuals with a Fixed Mindset generally believe that ability is set in stone. A Fixed Mindset suggests there are people in life who are naturally talented and those who are incompetent. Those with a Fixed Mindset believe that those lacking talent will never develop their talents. Those with natural talent will never lose their skills. In a Fixed Mindset, everything is about the outcome. If you fail or if you aren’t the best, everything was wasted.
People with a Fixed Mindset are often worried about what other people think. As they often judge others based on their aptitude for a task, they also assume others judge them all the time. Hence, people with a Fixed Mindset are obsessed with showing how talented and smart they are.
Growth Mindsets Encourage Development:
Carol uses the example of curious children as the classic individual with a Growth Mindset. Children with a growth mindset will be given a complicated math problem at school and rise to the occasion. Then, they go home, and they want to do more challenging math problems. Children with a Growth Mindset understand we learn more when we solve problems.
A Growth Mindset is a fantastic asset to have. The sky’s the limit for people like this, as they are always seeking to find new ways to learn. Importantly, individuals with Growth Mindsets are not fixated on being better than other people or receiving the best grades. These individuals obtain satisfaction from pushing themselves to the limit to help themselves grow. They will practice relentlessly and are aware that you have to work your hardest, and overcome some failures, to improve.
Fixed Mindsets Seek Approval; Growth Mindsets Seek Development.
Fixed Mindsets See Failures as Disasters; Growth Mindsets See Failures as Opportunities.
Fixed Mindsets Avoid Difficulties; Growth Mindsets Relish Difficulties.
Childhood Role Models Define Our Mindset:
“If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. That way, their children don’t have to be slaves of praise. They will have a lifelong way to build and repair their own confidence.”
Anyone Can Adopt a Growth Mindset:
“Mindset change is not about picking up a few pointers here and there. It’s about seeing things in a new way. When people…change to a growth mindset, they change from a judge-and-be-judged framework to a learn-and-help-learn framework. Their commitment is to growth, and growth take plenty of time, effort, and mutual support.”
Some Have Greater Opportunities, but We All Have a Chance:
It would be naïve to say that effort is the only thing that’s important in succeeding. Effort is significant and is why those with a Growth Mindset increase their chances of success. Though, many other factors influence your chances of success. For example, Carol explains that resources and opportunities are useful for success. Those born into influential families with better access to education have a much higher chance of success. However, although your starting point matters, this does not mean you shouldn’t improve and create the best endpoint possible based on your opportunities.
Importantly, Carol concludes by stating that a Growth Mindset does not mean we should try to improve everything. Sometimes the wisest decision is to accept our imperfections, especially those that will cause little harm.
Applying the Growth and Fixed Mindsets to Business:
The most successful business managers are not natural talents who ooze ego. Instead, they are the individual who is continuously looking to learn.They are also willing to ask questions and are not afraid to fail in front of their employees. They keep faith in their team to improve when they have made a mistake, rather than deeming them failures.
In contrast, Fixed Mindset bosses are dangerous. They often seek to be controlling and abusive to showcase their superiority. These behaviors push their fellow employees to adopt Fixed Mindsets, as well. Hence, instead of moving forward through learning, the company will be fixated on individual goals. Additionally, they will aim to obtain short-term goals by covering up mistakes and screwing other people over.
Applying the Growth and Fixed Mindsets to Love:
Relationships can often be complicated, and most of us will have multiple failed romantic relationships throughout our life. Individuals with a Fixed Mindset see these failed relationships as a defining feature of themselves. They label themselves as unlovable and want revenge for the rejection they have experienced. People with a Growth Mindset will also find rejection difficult. However, they will also see it as an opportunity to reflect on where things went wrong in the relationship.
Additionally, the two mindsets have different levels of success in relationships. Relationships based on Fixed Mindsets are destined to fail, as both parties will be expecting everything to be perfect with no effort. Additionally, both parties believe that love can solve everything.
TAKE-AWAY POINTS
When a fixed mindset person approaches a challenge, he or she thinks: “Will I look smart or stupid while doing this?” When a growth mindset person approaches a challenge, he or she thinks: “How might I learn and grow?”
After a difficult challenge, a fixed mindset person will think, “I’m not smart enough to do this.” After a difficult challenge, a growth mindset person will think, “I’m not smart enough to do this, YET.”
By making the transition from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset your story goes from: "I am who I am. My personality, my intelligence, and my talent are fixed." To “I am a constant learner. My abilities are constantly evolving and growing.”
“Did I win? Did I lose? Those are the wrong questions. The correct question is: “Did I make my best effort?” If so, she says, “You may be outscored but you will never lose.” ‐ Carol Dweck
Unlimited Memory
What is special about this book?
We view some people as having fantastic memories and others as having hopeless memories. However, the reality is that almost all of us only tap into 10% of our memory potential. It aims to guide you to unlock more of that remaining 90%. Providing a wide range of concentration and memory methods, Kevin Horsley claims that readers can easily double their productivity and significantly enhance their memory.
Who is the author?
Kevin Horsley is a memory expert. He is one of only a few people in the world to hold the title of International Grandmaster of Memory. Additionally, Kevin is a World Memory Championship medalist. Finally, he is a two-time world record holder for The Everest memory test. Not to mention, he can recall the number Pi to over 10,000 decimal places.
What are the KEY methods to improve your memory mentioned in this book?
“Memory is not a thing that happens to you; you create your memories…The greatest secret of a powerful memory is to bring information to life with your endless imagination” ‐ Kevin Horsley
There are two primary methods that Horsley and other ‘International Grandmasters of Memory’ use to remember vast amounts of information.
You can use these two methods to remember the name of every person you meet, and details of every presentation you deliver.
SEE:
Senses
Use your imagination to create a rich sensory experience in your mind.
To remember the last name of the author, Horsley, visualize a horse. Then imagine touching it, smelling it, hearing it, and tasting it… Okay, tasting a horse is a bit gross, but it's memorable!
Exaggerate
Make the horse pink and make it the size of a house.
The goal is to be extreme, ridiculous, and funny. Horsley says, "The more illogical the image, the more it will stick…There is no scientific evidence to prove that learning should be serious.”
Energize
Lastly, energize your mental image by tapping into your inner Walt Disney and turn the image into a motion picture. See the horse running, jumping, or getting launched over a house with a cannon!
"Your mind is the greatest home entertainment center ever created." ‐ Mark Victor Hanson
Use the S.E.E. method to remember a new word by thinking of images that sound like sections of the word.
For example, if you’re giving a presentation on the brain and you need to recall the neurotransmitter Serotonin (the neurotransmitter which produces a feeling of happiness), you could see your see your friend Sara (sounds like the first part of “Sero‐ton‐in”), with a giant musical note on her head (reminds you of tone, the second part of “Ser‐ton‐in”), jumping through a field of daisies (reminds you of happiness).
PLACE:
When you have a long list of items you need to remember, like five stories for an upcoming presentation or ten ingredients of a recipe, place the items on your list in the memory of a familiar environment.
Our minds are great at remembering the details of familiar environments like your body, car, house, journey to office etc.
Close your eyes and imagine walking through your house. Can you visualize your front door? Your kitchen? Your TV room? Your stairs? And your bathroom?
“Memory is not a thing that happens to you; you create your memories…The greatest secret of a powerful memory is to bring information to life with your endless imagination” ‐ Kevin Horsley
Tiny Habits
Who wrote the book?
Dr. BJ Fogg founded the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University, where he directs research and innovation. In addition, he teaches industry innovators how to use his models and methods in Behavior Design. The purpose of his research and teaching is to help millions of people improve their lives.
Where Tiny Habits Stem from?
Every time Hogg needed a wee, he would do two wall push-ups before heading to the toilet. This behavior became a tiny habit and was one factor that helped Hogg lose 20 pounds and become healthier and stronger. Additionally, his mental strength improved, leading to him being more productive and effective.
What is Fogg Behavior Model?
The effectiveness of these tiny habits is that their difficulty levels are so low that they only require minimal motivation to engage with them. Fogg provides an action curve in the book, which suggests that we only engage with behavior when our motivation levels are above the curve. This curve suggests that we only engage with very difficult tasks, such as running into a burning building, if we have a very high motivation level. For example, our child is still in the building. Comparatively, brushing our teeth every evening is so easy that it requires minimal motivation. The utility of tiny habits is that they reduce the motivation required for you to engage with action, as the behavior is moved further down the curve towards the ‘easy’ task end. Learn more @ https://behaviormodel.org/
What are the challenges of developing daily habits?
Judging Ourselves for Failure
The first challenge of developing healthy habits is we are particularly harsh on ourselves when we fail. Arguably the most common example of this is when people pick up a new diet. Just one example of breaking the diet can lead to people spiraling out of control. They exaggerate this failure and let it take over the healthy habit. This cycle is often repeated over and over by serial dieters. You will never change your habits by feeling bad for yourself.
Mistaking Aspirations for Behaviors
Behavior is something that you can do at a specific point in time. This could be right now or at a specific point in the future. Aspiration is not something that you can achieve at a specific time point. Aspirations require you to implement several healthy behaviors.
Relying on Motivation to Help us Achieve Goals
There is a common misconception that we should set ourselves lofty goals and then expect our motivation to help us reach these goals. However, Fogg highlights our motivation levels are highly variable. Therefore, we cannot rely on motivation to keep us on track with our goals. We need triggers to encourage greater motivation. However, we also need the skills required to achieve these goals. Instead of setting high goals and relying on unreliable motivation levels, Fogg recommends you create tiny habits.
What is the Three-Step Formula for Building Tiny Habits?
Find an Anchor Moment
Fogg introduced anchor moments as an existing routine or an event that happens frequently. Examples include getting dressed, or the sun rising every morning. These anchors are stable, so they are effective in reminding you to engage with a Tiny Behavior.
Make Behaviors Tiny
Fogg suggests you focus on small actions that you can complete within less than thirty seconds. These tiny behaviors should be positive, like doing ten-star jumps. Plus, the tiny behaviors should also immediately follow the Anchor Moment.
Here are action prompts BJ Fogg uses:
After I start my morning coffee, I will set out my vitamins.
After I walk in the door from work, I will get out my gym clothes.
After I sit down on the train, I will open my sketchbook.
After I put my head on my pillow, I will think of one good thing.
Celebrate Accomplishments With Shine
Fogg believes that habits are like a tree. We must nurture and feed the habit until it grows and forms strong roots in your life. Providing your habit with some shine will help the habit grow into something huge. Fogg describes shine as the feeling you get after an accomplishment or ‘authentic pride.’ We often struggle to develop habits because we are only willing to bring some shine to our lives when we accomplish something massive, like getting a new job. Fogg explains that it might seem odd at first, but you need to learn to celebrate every small accomplishment. This is the key to developing habits. Like training a dog, you must reward every positive behavior rather than only rewarding the dog when it does something remarkable. Rewarding those small positive behaviors, such as waiting before crossing the road, will allow your dog to develop habits that are crucial for success. The same is true for you. Giving yourself shine after engaging with tiny habits will help keep you above the action curve.
“When you feel successful at something, even if it’s tiny, your confidence grows quickly, and your motivation increases to do that habit again and perform related behaviors. You can call it success momentum. Surprisingly enough, this gets created by the frequency of your successes, not by the size.”
When you give yourself a steady dose of Shine after doing the tiniest version of a habit, your motivation will steadily grow. When your motivation increases, you move higher up the action line and can tackle harder habits. Soon your one‐breath‐meditation turns into a 5‐minute meditation and eventually a 60‐ minute meditation you look forward to every day.
“You that you can resist learning to celebrate (small completions), but be aware that you’re choosing not to be as good as you could be at creating habits. For most people, the effort of learning to celebrate is a small price to pay for becoming a Habit Ninja.”
What are the main takeaways of the book?
Use BJ Fogg's “Tiny Habits Method” to hack the B=MAP behavior model.
1. Shrink a new habit to the tiniest version (a behavior you can complete in thirty seconds or less).
2. Use an action prompt to trigger your tiny habit to start with momentum.
3. Always celebrate small behaviors. The more you celebrate, the faster you’ll grow your habit.
Never force yourself to do more than the tiniest version of a habit. Give yourself the flexibility to do more, but permission to do the tiniest behavior. Never be ashamed of doing a tiny behavior.
“While small might not be sexy, it is successful and sustainable. When it comes to most life changes that people want to make, big bold moves actually don’t work as well as small stealthy ones.”
Limitless
Who is the author?
Jim Kwik is a world-renowned expert in speed-reading, memory improvement, brain performance, and accelerated learning. After a childhood brain injury, Kwik created strategies to dramatically improve his mental performance to overcome the impacts of his brain injury. Now he teaches others how to improve their mental performance. His clients range from students to world-leading CEOs and celebrities. He also provides training for top organizations like Google, Virgin, SpaceX, and Harvard University.
Why Jim wrote this book?
Limitless covers the story of how Jim Kwik taught himself to learn again after he hit his head and suffered a brain injury. Following in his classmates’ footsteps, 5-year-old Kwik had stood on a chair to get a better view of fire engines that were parked outside his school when someone began pulling on his chair. This caused him to fall and land head-first on a radiator. After this injury, he found it hard to memorize basic facts. It took him three years longer to learn to read than his peers. But today, Kwik can recall the names of fifty or more people in an audience that he’s just met. He can also recite a string of one hundred random numbers, forward and back, while onstage. Kwik has gone from never reading a book before the age of 16 to reading a book every week for the last thirty years. At the heart of Kwik’s mental transformation is a simple truth: We all can mold our brains and continuously improve our mental abilities. If you’re struggling to learn, it’s not due to an innate brain limitation. Your struggles with learning are due to either a limited mindset, limited motivation, or a lousy learning method.
What are the fundamental skills for faster methods?
F- Forget – The key to focusing on a task is to remove or forget the potential distractions surrounding you.
A- Act – Traditional education has taught most people that it is okay for learning to be passive. However, your brain does not learn as much by consumption as it does by creation.
S- State – Your learning will always be dependent on the state you are in at that time. This includes both your psychological state (including your thoughts) and your physiological state (including the condition of your body).
T- Teach – Learn with the intention of teaching this information to someone else. If you act as if you will have to give a presentation, you will learn with the intention of mastering it.
E- Enter – Many people enter important tasks in their schedule but forget to enter opportunities for personal growth and development.
R- Review – The “forgetting curve” refers to our tendency to forget information in a short amount of time if we don’t actively try to remember it. To limit the impact of the forgetting curve, you should actively recall what you’ve learned by using spaced repetition. Spaced repetition requires you to practice new and difficult information more frequently than older and less difficult information. You should increase the time interval between each time you review information.
What are 3 M’s?
Kwik shows us the three self-imposed limits that prevent us from excelling.Your Mindset (the What) – Your mindset consists of your beliefs, assumptions, and attitudes. None of these are preinstalled at birth, which means you pick them up from your environment and those around you. Kwik explains that it is possible to adopt a limitless mindset. This approach allows you to verify that any limitations are self-imposed and that your true potential is within your control. If you can apply this point, your potential grows substantially.
Your Motivation (the Why) – Kwik outlines that your personal motivation is not fixed. Instead, you can generate your motivation every day. That’s because motivation is the result of a repeatable process you can control. Kwik explains that your motivation is a combination of your purpose, energy, and three small and simple steps.
Your Methods (the How) – As well as approaching every day with a productive mindset, you also need to understand how to learn. So, you need methods. These methods should teach you how to focus, study, memorize critical facts, undertake speed-reading, and think clearly. If you can become an expert in these five areas, you will genuinely become limitless.
What are the 4Ds that make limitless life difficult?
As well as optimizing the 3Ms, Jim talks about the 4Ds that can make living a limitless life difficult in the modern world. These are:
Digital Deluge – We consume significantly more data now in one day than a person centuries ago would have done in their entire lifetime. This can leave our brain overwhelmed
Digital Distraction – Instead of relaxing into our time, we often pull our phones out. This ultimately trains our distraction muscles
Digital Dementia – Overreliance on technology could lead to us no longer honing our cognitive abilities. We should be looking at our brains more like a muscle rather than a hard drive.
Digital Deduction – The automation of skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving is making us much worse at these skills. We will always need these skills in life.
What is the 4, 3, 2, 1 Method?
Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.” If you insist you can’t read quickly, you’re all but guaranteed to never improve your reading speed. The key to improving any mental ability is to suspend any limiting beliefs and temporarily act as though your mental abilities are limitless. By merely entertaining the idea that your reading speed potential is limitless, you can noticeably increase your reading speed.
To prove this, consider following the ten-minute exercise called the 4, 3, 2, 1 method. Set a timer for four minutes and open an easy-to-read book. Start reading at a comfortable pace while using your finger to underline the words as you read them. When the four-minute timer expires, mark the point at which you stopped. Now go back to where you started and set a timer for three minutes. Try to get to that same point you reached after four minutes. Don’t worry if your comprehension isn’t perfect. Instead, just make sure you underline and see every word. When the three-minute timer expires, do the same for two minutes, and then one minute. After this 4, 3, 2, 1 exercise, resume reading the rest of the book at a comfortable speed for four minutes. If you compare the number of lines you read now, you will be pleasantly surprised by how much faster you can read. By merely pretending you can read faster, you’ve upgraded your reading speed.
What is Effective Reading?
Consider a book you were forced to read in English class. Then imagine a book recommended by your mentor. This is someone you greatly admire who tells you that this book contains the secret that transformed their life. Which are you more likely to read effectively? After hearing that statement, it’s hard to not wonder what the secret is. If you pick up a book in a peak state of curiosity, wonder, and excitement, you are bound to learn quicker and retain more.
Jim Kwik says all learning is state-dependent. A valid reason why you may not have learned much in school is that you found school boring. So, before you start reading anything, put yourself in a peak state of curiosity. You can do this by asking the following three questions: What great insight will I get from this book? How will this insight forever change my life? And, when will I get to use this insight? Assume that every book you read contains a profound insight. For example, imagine that someone else has just paid ten million dollars for the information you are about to read. With that mental framing, you will become extremely curious and motivated to absorb the information. After you’ve generated ample motivation, it’s time to upgrade your reading methods.
You can apply this method for reading to all learning. We must produce sustainable motivation.
What are Effective Questions and Equations?
As a way of considering your motivation levels, Kwik encourages you to ask yourself the following questions:
How connected do I feel to my purpose?
How are my day-to-day energy levels?
What am I allowing to drain my energy that I no longer should?
Based on these points, Kwik devised a simple equation for what motivation consists of:
Motivation = Purpose x Energy x Small Simple Steps
Limitless methods
“Give a person an idea, and you enrich their day. Teach a person how to learn, and they can enrich their entire life.”
Focus
Jim Kwik points out that today when working we are often using technology. We can work anywhere at any time. We, therefore, become purely focused on our devices rather than the environment around us. The issue with this is that our habitual mind is still recognizing the environment around us, even if our conscious mind is not. Our mind is using these cues to influence our thoughts and work-related behaviors. Therefore, based on Julia Roy’s recommendations, there are three ways in which to improve your focus through changing your environment:
Designate work-only zones
Set the right soundtrack. Set the same playlist on whenever you do a specific task and choose playlists that fit the task
Give your devices specific tasks. Our brain doesn’t know the difference between the real world and the digital world. So, we should use a personal phone and work phone; a personal laptop and work laptop; personal iPad and work iPad
Reading
Jim Kwik says, ‘when was the last time you took a class called reading?’ For most, it was back in the fourth or fifth grade, and if you’re like most people your reading skill is probably still the same as it was back then. If you haven’t actively changed your reading habits since the elementary school there are three reading habits that are limiting your reading speed. These three habits are regression, subvocalization, and word-by-word reading.
Memory
Jim Kwik provides 10 steps for improving your memory.
Good brain food – What you eat matters…especially to your brain matter e.g. blueberries
Try and avoid negative thoughts and complaining
Exercise
Brain nutrients – Take a blood test and see what you are deficient in, so supplement
Positive peer group – Who you spend time with is who you become, based on mirror neurons
Clean Environment – Clean air, water, and space around you
Sleep – Dreaming is important for amazing ideas, sleep is vital for protecting you against age-related brain damage, and it is important for day-to-day functioning
Brain protection – Avoid putting your phone under your pillow and protect yourself from head injuries by wearing a helmet when cycling
Learn new things – Neuroplasticity (connections in your brain) can be instigated through learning new things
Reduce your stress through yoga, meditation, or massage
You need to try and frequently challenge your methods by asking yourself the following questions:
Have I thought about the methods I am using?
Have I learned this method from someone who has been successful at what I am trying to achieve?
If I changed my method would my results look different?
Regression
Regression is the tendency for your eyes to go back and reread certain words in a sentence. Jim Kwik says almost everyone does it to some degree, and most of the time it’s done subconsciously. To solve the problem of regression you need to use a pacer. Attention follows movement, so if you use your finger to guide your reading by underlining the text as you read it, you prevent your attention from jumping around the text. Many people have low reading comprehension because reading is too slow and boring for them, but if you move your finger at a pace that’s just on the edge of your perceived max reading speed you will require your full attention to comprehend what you’re reading. More attention equals more retention. Use a finger as a pacer when reading a physical book. Use your finger as a pacer when reading on your phone by sliding it down the side of the phone. And use your mouse as a pacer when reading content on your computer.
Subvocalization
Bad reading habit number two: subvocalization. Subvocalization is the habit of saying the words to yourself in your head as you read. When you feel the need to sound out every word as you read, your reading speed is limited by how fast you can talk. You can get your inner narrator to talk fast and sound out 200 to 250 words per minute, which happens to be the average reading speed, but there is no need to hear the words in your head as you read them. You’ve seen 99% of the words you’ve read before and you have mental images for most of them. If you can bring to mind the image a word represents, rather than sounding out that word, you’ll become a much more efficient reader. To break your subvocalization habit, in turn reading into a purely visual experience and thus dramatically improve your reading speed, quietly count out loud as you read. It’s hard for your mind to sound out words and speak out numbers at the same time, so when you start reading count 1 2 3 4…you’ll free your mind of the inner narrator and train your mind to see the words on the page like images and turn what you’re reading into a motion picture experience.
Word-by-word reading
Bad reading habit number 3: word-by-word reading. When you first learn how to read you train your eyes to look at one word at a time. But now you’re familiar with most words, so there’s no reason not to look at chunks of words, like three, four, or five words at a single glance. Instead of reading ‘the boy walked home’ you can see all four words at one time. This technique actually works in conjunction with the last technique, because it’s easier for your mind’s eye to generate imagery for groups of words rather than a single word. I’ve started to train my brain to use my peripheral vision and see chunks of words at one time by using a free program called the spread. It takes a body of text in my web browser and breaks it into word chunks that display one at a time. In the end, remove the perceived limitation on your reading speed by setting aside 20 minutes for the next two weeks to build your speed reading muscle. Each day, forget what you believe your limitations are and pretend for 20 minutes that your potential reading speed is limitless. Then, grab a book you’ve been wanting to read and take one minute to ask yourself questions about the book e.g. What great insight will I get from this book? How will this insight change my life? The goal is to put yourself in a peak state of curiosity so that you’re motivated to learn what you read. Then use the next 10 minutes to warm up your speed reading muscle with the 4 3 2 1 method. Then, focus on each of the following methods for 3 minutes each.
First, use a pacer to prevent regression. As you read, move the pacer at a speed that requires your full attention.
Next, count out loud as you read to stop yourself from subvocalizing the text.
Finally, relax your eyes and expand your peripheral vision to try and take in more than one word at a time.
When you start using these three methods (pacing, counting, and expanding) you’ll feel a little awkward, but if you continue using them you’ll start to see your speed and reading comprehension improve dramatically.
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