7 Deadly Mindsets that Hold You Back From Learning Effectively

In this hyper-competitive global environment, there is no certainty. Only change is certainly there. An honors degree can no longer secure a high paying job for life. As a result, you are constantly going for courses, learning new stuff and upgrading your skills.

This is a fast-paced world after all. You are faced with revolutionary changes and there’s so much to learn. This article will show you some of the dangerous mindsets that hold you back from learning effectively.

1. I’m too old to learn
As you grow older, there is this tiny voice in your head saying, “You are getting old and your brain is getting ‘rusty’”.

It’s true that your brain cells are killed over the years. But look at Albert Einstein, scientists have proved that he had only tapped less than 1 % of his brain’s power. It’s not an excuse to say that you can’t learn because you are too old.

Exercising your brain is like exercising your muscles. When you train your muscles, it gets developed and becomes stronger. The more you do, the more satisfaction you’ll get from the results. This applies to learning too.

If you consistently train your brain to learn new things, you will learn things much faster.

2. I know everything.
Perhaps you are successful; you have an honors degree or even a master degree. And you assumed that you have learnt everything you need to know.

You believed that you are right and everybody is wrong. You won’t listen to anyone except yourself. Eventually someone is going to be hot on your heels and surpass you sooner or later.

It’s only when you fail would you start to realize that you’ve got to learn again.

3. I’m not smart enough.
You lost your job and you are finding a new one. You have been in a specialized industry for several years. Now it’s time to re-learn from scratch.

You wanted to learn something new, but you are worried that you are not smart enough. And you keep putting it off.

Even before you fight a war, you have surrendered. By thinking negatively, you have lost half the war.
Although you may have started learning, but half way through, you feel that you are not smart enough and give up halfway.

The truth is that to master a skill, there are many learning curves and obstacles to break through. Maybe you are just a few steps away from mastering the skill.
Think about it, won’t it be a waste to give up halfway?

4. There are many people who are smarter than me.
You are in a class full of young, talented and intelligent professionals. When you looked at the mirror, you felt you are inferior to them.

In terms of learning abilities, these people are more proficient and skillful than you are. You cannot help it but thinking negatively about yourself.

The truth is there is always somebody better than you are. And the only way you will have an edge is through endless and continuous learning. It is your battle, not a battle with others.

5. This is not for me.
I’m sure you have been very enthusiastic when you first picking up something new. You may hit dead ends occasionally but at the start, your enthusiasm has pulled it through.

After a while, you keep going nowhere. You are near the intermediate stage but you are somehow stuck and you can’t advance to the next stage. You saw your friends improving and you are on the plateau. All the fun, excitement and enthusiasm die off.

Now, you are tired of learning and you want to give up. You said to yourself, “This is not for me”.
The truth is this will be a deadly habit that will hinder your success. Think about it, it’s just an excuse to escape from the fact that you are not confident about yourself and your learning abilities. If you give up learning because it’s not for you, then you will never master anything.

6. Not focus.
Some people have the tendency of learning many things at the same time. One moment they are reading a “how to invest” book, the other they are reading a “how to do ebay”.

If you find yourself distracted, maybe it’s time to focus.

Imagine you are multi tasking, doing many different things at one go - talking on the phone, watching television, doing your work on the laptop. Would you able to do it well?

I doubt so. My advice to you…

Stay focused.

7. I can learn it another day.
You returned home from a tiring day of heavy workload, stressful working environment and even long hours of office hours.

You have already planned to read another chapter of your book. But you decided to put it off again. In fact, for the past week, you have procrastinated and delayed your lessons or classes.

After a month, you simply forget about it.

The fact is to learn effectively, you got to be disciplined. No matter how tired you are, you have to stick with your plans and deadlines.

Please share some of your learning obstacles and comments about learning effectively.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

George Tee is the author of “Secrets Of Scoring ‘A’s” and founder of Learning Nest - Secretsofstudying.com . A few of his popular articles are 5 Hacks That Make Study Simple And Effective, How To Effectively Manage Your Time and How I Excel In My Exams And Emerge Among The Top 53 Students.

Source: Lifehack.org

10 Tips to Study Smart and Save Time

As a college student, I have always been hoping to get that UNO without devoting all my time and effort to study. I still want to have a life, you know. hehe... These tips from Lifehack.Org might help. *wink*

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Building an Understanding

Learning is a process similar to building a house. You aren’t fed the complete picture. Limitations on communication prevent the instantaneous transmission of knowledge. Instead you listen to lectures, read textbooks and take painstaking notes to try and comprehend a subject.

You are fed building supplies, bricks, mortar and glass. It is up to you to assemble the building. Unfortunately, most learning strategies fall into two basic types:

1. Memorization - Instead of building anything you simply stare at each brick for several minutes trying to record its position.
2. Formulas - This is the equivalent to being blind, fumbling around a new house. You can’t see the building itself but you learn to come up with simple rules to avoid walking into walls.

There is nothing particularly wrong with either of these strategies, assuming they aren’t your entire strategy. The human brain isn’t a computer so it can’t memorize infinite sums of knowledge without some form of structure. And formulas no longer work if the questions they are designed to solve change scope.

Learning Holistically

The alternative strategy is to focus on actually using the information you have to build something. This involves linking concepts together and compressing information so it fits in the bigger picture. Here are some ideas to get started:

1. Metaphor - Metaphors can allow you to quickly organize information by comparing a complex idea to a simple one. When you find relationships between information, come up with analogies to increase your understanding. Compare neurons with waves on a string. Make metaphors comparing parts of a brain with sections of your computer.
2. Use All Your Senses - Abstract ideas are difficult to memorize because they are far removed from our senses. Shift them closer by coming up with vivid pictures, feelings and images that relate information together. When I learned how to do a determinant of a matrix, I remembered the pattern by visualizing my hands moving through the numbers, one adding and one subtracting.
3. Teach It - Find someone who doesn’t understand the topic and teach it to them. This exercise forces you to organize. Spending five minutes explaining a concept can save you an hour of combined studying for the same effect.
4. Leave No Islands - When you read through a textbook, every piece of information should connect with something else you have learned. Fast learners do this automatically, but if you leave islands of information, you won’t be able to reach them during a test.
5. Test Your Mobility - A good way to know you haven’t linked enough is that you can’t move between concepts. Open up a word document and start explaining the subject you are working with. If you can’t jump between sections, referencing one idea to help explain another, you won’t be able to think through the connections during a test.
6. Find Patterns - Look for patterns in information. Information becomes easier to organize if you can identify broader patterns that are similar across different topics. The way a neuron fires has similarities to “if” statements in programming languages.
7. Build a Large Foundation - Reading lots and having a general understanding of many topics gives you a lot more flexibility in finding patterns and metaphors in new topics. The more you already know, the easier it is to learn.
8. Don’t Force - I don’t spend much time studying before exams. Forcing information during the last few days is incredibly inefficient. Instead try to slowly interlink ideas as they come to you so studying becomes a quick recap rather than a first attempt at learning.
9. Build Models - Models are simple concepts that aren’t true by themselves, but are useful for describing abstract ideas. Crystallizing one particular mental image or experience can create a model you can reference when trying to understand. When I was trying to tackle the concept of subspaces, I visualized a blue background with a red plane going through it. This isn’t an entirely accurate representation of what a subspace is, but it created a workable image for future ideas.
10. Learning is in Your Head - Having beautiful notes and a perfectly highlighted textbook doesn’t matter if you don’t understand the information in it. Your only goal is to understand the information so it will stick with you for assignments, tests and life. Don’t be afraid to get messy when scrawling out ideas on paper and connecting them in your head. Use notes and books as a medium for learning rather than an end result.

18 Things to Consider While Young

I bought this book in NBS yesterday. It was written by Ed Lapiz.

18 Things to Consider While Young

1. Take care of your teeth.
"A Christian - a spiritual, a godly person - is a balanced person. " kaya dapat alagaan natin ang ating mga katawan.

Luke 2:52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

2. Take care of your skin.
The people of God should also be beautiful. Dahil unang tinitignan ang ating balat, dapat itong pangalagaan. Yung iba kasi, pag nakaroon na ng mga peklat, nagkakaroon ng inferiority complex na nakakaapekto pa sa self-concept nila at pati na rin sa pakikisalamuha sa iba.

3. Eat a lot.
Eat a lot. Eat right. Enjoy. Kumain na raw tayo hanggat kaya pa ng ating katawan. Kasi pag tumanda na tayo, marami nang mga ipagbabawal na pagkain. Pero siyempre, piliin din ang kakainin upang maging malusog!

4. Learn to swim.
Malaking handicap ang hindi marunong lumangoy. Hindi dapat tayo pumayag na habambuhay tayong pipigilan ng pagiging handicap natin na gawin ang mga bagay-bagay. Kung kaya naman gawan ng paraan, di gawan natin! Learn to swim!:)

5. Learn to dance.
Nilikha ang ating mga katawan para magpuri sa Diyos kaya maganda kung magamit natin ang mga ito sa pamamagitan ng pagsayaw. Kaya nga tayo may katawan di ba, para gamitin!

6. Learn your grammar well.
Ang tao, kahit di masyadong matalino, pag maayos ang grammar, nagiging kagalang-galang ang dating. Malaking tulong ito para madaling makakuha ng trabaho, ng girlfriend, at kung anu-ano pa.

7. Finish your schooling.
Siyempre naman. Naghihirap ang ating magulang para mapagtapos tayo. Iba ang nakatapos - may maipapagmamalaki!

8. Be in the right course.
Kung nasa maling kurso kayo, hindi kayo magbu-bloom. Halimbawang napakahina mo sa Math, wag kumuha ng Accounting o Engineering. At saka, mas maganda kung gusto mo yung course mo kasi hindi burden sa iyo ang mag-aral kung nag-eenjoy ka.

9. Learn fractions and percentages.
Naman! Basic na toh! malaking tulong sa buhay. hehe...

10. Learn computers.
Siyempre naman. Lalo na ang mga kabataan ngayon. Dapat lang na marunong tayong magcomputer. At kung hindi pa, aba! Mag-aral na!

11. Get a master's degree.
Mas maganda ang posisyon mo sa trabaho kung magpapakadalubhasa ka!

12. Make a lot of good friends.
Siyempre dapat may friends din tayo para masaya ang buhay.

13. Enjoy your family.
Hindi lahat may pamilya pa, kaya wag isnabin ang mga magulang at kapatid. Samantalahin nating nandiyan pa sila.

14. Make friends with your brothers and sisters.
Kayo-kayo talaga ang magtutulungan kaya makipagbonding na sa mga kapatid para mas masaya ang samahan!

15. Attend parties.
Wag naman laging nakakulong sa bahay! Socialize! Maganda to kasi mas makikilala natin ang sarili natin sa pag-attend ng parties. Malay mo, maka-meet ka pa ng friends or partners. Pero siyempre, know your limitation.

16.Avoid dangerous activities.
Siyempre, mag-ingat sa mga pinapasok. Isipin lagi kung ligtas ba. Paano na lang ang pamilya mo kung may mangyari sa iyo?

17. Avoid pre-marital sex.
Maraming buhay ang nasisira dito. Napipilitang magpakasal tapos maghihiwalay tapos sira na buhay.

18. Put God first in everything you do.
Kailangan active kayo sa church at may ministry para obligado tayo parating magchurch. Wala nang mas satisfying pang gawin on a Sunday morning (or kung ano mang sched nyo ng service) kung hindi ang magchurch at purihin si Lord!