AlexK’s Blog
Dec 12
If you are spending a lot of time researching how other people did it perhaps you’re afraid to be a little different?
You can learn on your own terms. Courses usually teach you what to do step by step.
Yet some people are afraid to start in case they fail. They want to make sure they have [...] [...more]
Posted: under expectation, frustration, learning.
If you are spending a lot of time researching how other people did it perhaps you’re afraid to be a little different?
You can learn on your own terms. Courses usually teach you what to do step by step.
Yet some people are afraid to start in case they fail. They want to make sure they have everything right before opening the books. They want to have everything 100% perfect with minimal to no effort. Failing means they might be different to those who succeeded before them.
I’m often amazed at how much effort people put into researching. Seeking to know from others, ’How long did it take you? How many hours did you put in Is there anyway that I can learn faster than you? Are there any short cuts? What’s the secret?’
Now it’s interesting when I tell them just start the course it will take you as long as it takes you. Three months later they are still asking me how long will it take when I start and can you guarantee me that I will succeed?
Well no I can’t guarantee you’ll succeed. Sad to say if you’re still researching whether you should start the course three months later I’m not sure you’ll succeed because you might not start.
Is it really difficult to be that little bit different and just start the course and perhaps not be a master at it the first time you do it? How can you make it okay to be different that it takes you a different length of time than someone else? Why must your ability match their time frame?
Dare to be different.
The sooner you start the course the sooner you reach a destination.
Consider this for a moment. If you spent 3 months researching 2 hours a day to prove that the course you are interested in works. You’ve spent roughly 240 hours researching. If you start a course with 8 to 24 CDs that require an hour of listening and perhaps an hour of work each the total time to complete the course is 16 to 48 hours.
If you started 3 months ago you’d be using a new skill now.
So don’t ask
- how long did it take you?
- how much have your grades improved
- what are your grades now?
The answer is who cares? You’re not really asking to be inspired. You’re asking to be guaranteed that the effort is worth it. Yet expending more effort looking for that guarantee. Just Do It and see.
Ask instead
- what are you doing that I am not?
And I can answer immediately. I’m applying what I learned.
We are all different. So there is little point to fear what is reality. Dance to the tune of your own drum. Just make sure you recognise where you are putting your energy. Into procrastination? You don’t need to research reasons why you shouldn’t do something you don’t want to do. Don’t do it. If you’re not interested in a course right now then it’s okay to say it.
I see people spend three months researching before they take a risk and do the course. They stoke the fear that they will fail.They rob themselves of the valuable time they have to start learning and then are rushed by desperation and panic because they used so much time researching. If you need to prove that you can or cannot learn what is taught in a course you need to start the course and see. No one else can do that for you.
Experimenting and discovering it doesn’t work for you isn’t failure and you’re still okay. You’re allowed to be different. You don’t have to be good at the same thing as everyone else. You just found out what doesn’t work for you.
What do you think?
© Alex Viefhaus
Oct 14
One of the interesting things I learned from the PhotoReading 2007 Retreat and during one of the meetings with Paul Scheele, is the true value of confusion and the need to go with the flow.
It’s easy to become frustrated and angry when you think you don’t know what is going on. Yet I was fascinated [...] [...more]
Posted: under Change, Photoreading, Purpose, confusion, learning, learning curve, reading.
One of the interesting things I learned from the PhotoReading 2007 Retreat and during one of the meetings with Paul Scheele, is the true value of confusion and the need to go with the flow.
It’s easy to become frustrated and angry when you think you don’t know what is going on. Yet I was fascinated by it during the retreat. Since I have no doubt that PhotoReading works it became a fascinating exploration to see how others cope with the confusion.
One of the greatest problems we face when we are learning something new is our apprehension about doing it right. We can get so stuck on wanting to be sure we understood the instructions and what we are supposed to be doing that we stop ourselves from doing anything. And even when we are in a situation were we have no choice and must do our best we hold ourselves back and avoid giving too much. We hold on when we must let go.
Through some of the exercises we learned through play and yet even then it was difficult to let go and play for fear of doing it wrong. The purpose of the games were simply to help us change our state, release and laugh and challenge our brain and body to do something new or differently. Again holding onto our fear of not performing up to an unknown goal or outcome.
We didn’t know what the outcome of many of the exercises would be there was a lot of apprehension. Would we look the fool, would we get it wrong? It was a matter of just playing and seeing what happens when we just do it. There is never a wrong experience at the Learning Strategies Retreat. It’s all just a learning experience.
We think if we know what the outcome is going to be we can control the actions to do it right. Yet you cannot control your actions if you have never done it before and the fun is if you follow the directions as best you can, you will get some sort of results. You’ve got no experience to work with until you just do it. And it’s much easier to do if you let go and just be playful in your approach. With experience you can experiment and play at it again. And you will always get results. Results are neither good or bad. They are a foundation experience that you can work with. With results you start adjusting as you play and notice a shift in the outcome.
Play is how we learned as a child to do many things. It was the excitement of not knowing what the outcome would be that we just went ahead and did it.
The PhotoReading Retreat was an opportunity to enhance PhotoReading skill and it was also a great opportunity to learn about learning. Waking up your mind to shift your thinking.
Paul Scheele and other authors have taught me that when you’re feeling confused you need to let go, be in the experience and to wait and see what unfolds. It’s a bit like opening Christmas presents when you don’t know what’s inside. Paul deliberately didn’t tell his team leaders too much of what he was planning to do. So we too, had the opportunity to experience confusion.
It was amazing to become aware of how often people wanted to jump ahead and get out of the uncomfortable present moment were new learning experiences are taking place and new neural pathways are being formed. This anxiety to move on blocks our ability to recognise what we learned from the experience.
We think if we can understand the outcome of what the experience means we can understand the current challenge better. Yet the purpose of the current challenge is to build a bridge to the goal. The mind can understand logical explanations however experience is something deeper and more personal. That’s why just sitting in an audience listening to a speaker does little to change you.
Another thing I noticed at the Retreat was the learner thought it would help them understand had no relationship to the current problem. That is they were off in the wrong direction and didn’t know it. And for all the talking we couldn’t convince them to let go of that idea and just play. They were so focused on understanding something irrelevant and thought if they didn’t understand this they would not get it. Of course they wouldn’t get it. It’s like trying to put a square peg in a round hole.
What we think we know interferes with learning to do so something different. If you want to check out this theory for yourself try this challenge
The solution is simple and one we used a lot at the Retreat. Let Go.
True success is not achieved through analysis. It is achieved by learning through experience. Being in the moment and to let go and be in that experience. Then after fully participating in that experience can you notice what happened, what you got, what you learned.
© AlexK Viefhaus
Jan 17
When we learn something new. We start out not knowing something and not having any ability in that skill. Then we set about learning it. Our experience as we learn it is still slightly short of our expectation. Then we take away that skill at the end of the course and we have expectation that [...] [...more]
Posted: under Activation, Blip page, PhotoRead, Photoreading, comprehension, learning, learning curve.
When we learn something new. We start out not knowing something and not having any ability in that skill. Then we set about learning it. Our experience as we learn it is still slightly short of our expectation. Then we take away that skill at the end of the course and we have expectation that is higher still than out current skills. At the same time, while we know what to do, it is not what we know we are capable of. It’s not what we did in the during learning or we felt we did far worse than we give ourselves credit for. We expected that our skill would be even higher than it is at that point in time. The distance between our ability and our expectations is at it’s greatest.
This can create confusion or frustration. Frustration asks, ‘What am I doing wrong? Why isn’t it working? I can’t do it there is no point. I am hopeless. I give up.’ It’s like facing a wall not realising you can change direction only if you change your thinking.
Confusion looks at, ‘What can I do? What is working? What if I keep trying? There is a way because this is the natural learning curve and I did it at least partly and it can get better than this. What can I do to stay motivated?’
Look for ways to stay motivated. Simplify the actions and give yourself more time. One of the things that will happen when you are out on your own is the first couple of 20 minute activations are more confusing and seem unsuccessful compared to a live seminar activation. Look at it logically. There you spent 2 days honing your skill learning it testing it step by step and had someone to bounce your purpose off. The successes you had were because of the work you did before. When you get home you don’t have that, you don’t have someone to press you to check your purpose works. You don’t have the time keeper, you’re riding on your own. And if you did it with just the self-study course you also need to be the timekeeper right from the start.
So, understand the first two or three activations can seem sluggish and slow for a beginner and yet that’s only 40 minutes if you used a timer set for 20-minutes each. Remembering that your old reading style takes can take up to 10 hours for a book and most readers would be happy just to double their reading speed and get their reading done in 5 hours you haven’t even spent that much time with the book. Give it an extra activation or four. Even with six 20 minute activations you will have only spent 2 hours with the book. You haven’t finished activating until you’ve finished and get that sense of being finished. Knowing what you need and want to know. So in the beginning a book can take 2 to 3 hours where it used to take 10. That’s 1/3rd or 1/5th the time it used to take. Just don’t short change yourself on the activation steps because nothing seems to be happening at first. Drop the little bits you find onto a mind map and continue to build it and in less time than traditional reading you’re done.
One other thing that often holds people back is the lack of a purpose. Discover your purpose you discover your motivation. That’s a topic for another time.
If you’ve put PhotoReading aside for a while and want to get back into it. Just PhotoRead 2 to 3 books a day for a couple of weeks. One or two of those books will probably get you curious to know more. Activate those books playfully. Using the 5 day test. Yes give yourself the space to fail the first few times.
© Alex Viefhaus January 2007
Nov 08
Whether you use PhotoReading or not here is a tip that will help you get your reading done faster and with better comprehension. It can even help build your curiosity and make the subject much more interesting.
Start at the back of the book. Spoiler? Not always. For some novels maybe. This is especially important for [...] [...more]
Posted: under Purpose, comprehension, learning, motivation, reading.
Whether you use PhotoReading or not here is a tip that will help you get your reading done faster and with better comprehension. It can even help build your curiosity and make the subject much more interesting.
Start at the back of the book. Spoiler? Not always. For some novels maybe. This is especially important for textbooks and books that have a glossary.
If you’re dealing with complex text or have to study something that may have several words you don’t know the meaning of, read the glossary first. Or put it this way. If the book has a glossary start there. Kick-start your understanding by getting on the same wavelength as the author. They may not be using the precise dictionary meaning.
Here may discover new words or words that excite you and get your curiosity going. Since they give you hints what the text covers and is a concise way of finding out what the book is about. It can even improve your mind probing question. Most of all it will help clarify what authors mean when they use that particular word. It will give you something to look forward to, like where did the author us that word. In what context and how does it build on what you already know. It’s the shortcut for learning something new. If you have a daily goal of learning 3 new things a day, then look at the glossary of a book.
The end of a book is a great place to start even if it hasn’t got a glossary.
It seems like an unusual place to start yet that’s the place the author placed everything that provides background information to help you understand what the text is about. It provides extra information that may even be all the information you need from that author. Also reading the last chapter, the glossary and even the end notes first, will help build the conscious comprehension and understanding faster
For novels, many people will avoid reading the last chapter of a novel to avoid spoiling the story, that’s fine. Yet if you’re not getting it. If it’s not making sense or boring you and you have to read it. Go ahead and read the last chapter now. It’s an ideal approach for a book you simply cannot get into. You can then decide if you want to read it to know how the hero got to that point or you can safely dump it if it was just too predicable. This is especially helpful to those who do read any book from beginning to end. When you think about it. It’s a waste of precious time. Time you could be using on more interesting books even. If you’re spending 12 hours reading a novel do you want to be boring? Read the final chapter and if that doesn’t spark your curiosity then dump the book.
Now if the book is essential reading and you cannot get into it. You must read the final chapter. Then ask yourself questions like how did the hero wind up here. What problems have been solved. Where did this take place.
To read for understanding you need to build your curiosity. So check out the back of the book first. And if you have already started and are struggling. Read the back pages now. Whether you are activating or just traditionally reading. It will boost your understanding of what the text is about.
© Alex Viefhaus
Jul 24
Speed reading is pushing the eye to move faster over the page. The problem is that people read slow because they have difficulty understanding what they read. To learn speed reading you need sacrifice understanding and push the eyes faster across the page. For many learning speed reading this compounds the problem that brings them [...] [...more]
Posted: under Photoreading, learning, reading, speed reading.
Speed reading is pushing the eye to move faster over the page. The problem is that people read slow because they have difficulty understanding what they read. To learn speed reading you need sacrifice understanding and push the eyes faster across the page. For many learning speed reading this compounds the problem that brings them to speed reading.
They want to understand what they are reading faster.
People who come to speed reading want better understanding so they can read faster. This makes it even more difficult for the learner. They were not satisfied with their comprehension skills and are asked speed up their reading at the expense of understanding what they read. With the promise that understanding will come with practice. It only takes an hour a day for three to six weeks. Who has that time?
Does understanding really come eventually? When learning speed reading one of the requirements is that you learn to create visual images of the words meaning. So instead of seeing the word “house” you have a mental picture of a house. How does that work on academic text where words themselves are often abstract? If you never successfully learned to understand what you are reading at a slower rate how does moving your eye and primary consciousness faster increase understanding?
To me this means if you’ve never learned the techniques for understanding what you read your reading will remain painfully slow, no matter how fast you try to push your eyeballs across the words.
Another problem associated with speed reading is that all the information is stored in the short term memory. This means you will forget everything you read in a short period of time. If you’re reading for an exam in 3 weeks you will remember little of what you had read if you used speed reading. So a lot of time must be invested in other Memorising techniques.
People also look to speed reading courses because they want to remember what they read in the shortest possible time. The problem with that idea is to try to memorise the information while one is reading interferes with understanding. In other words if you try to memorise as you read, not only does it slow your reading down, it makes it difficult to understand and naturally makes it difficult to memorise.
Speed reading can only promise to get the reader to speeds of about 800 words a minute. Any faster than that and you are skimming. Which is not a good if you’re apt to miss the cues that change the meaning of a sentence, since they are often small words they are easily skipped.
The reason people look for speed reading is in one word, speed. It’s not necessarily to “read” faster. The true reason is the need to “understand”. They want to understand what they are reading faster. To get their homework done on time. To get out of the office and back to the family. We want and need to understand what we are reading faster.
In that way learning speed reading creates a paradox. You have to surrender your need to understand what you are reading It’s something that most people have difficulty doing. And an hour a day for three to six weeks just practicing speed reading adds to the work overload people have to deal with.
I too attempted to learn speed reading. At the end of the course my reading was slower than at the beginning. Why? I found it difficult to accept the loss of comprehension while I was reading.
Thankfully I discovered “photo reading”.
© Alex Viefhaus July 2006
Yet some people are afraid to start in case they fail. They want to make sure they have everything right before opening the books. They want to have everything 100% perfect with minimal to no effort. Failing means they might be different to those who succeeded before them.