Overcoming boredom

One of the issues I have found with self training is boredom. I find it hard to focus for any length of time. It gets tiring practicing alone all the time. Since I have been working on bettering myself for a while now I find I get bored quicker. So I am now starting a two fold plan.

1)I am going to start training Nicole with me. She doesn't know it yet.

2)I am going to get an egg timer and practice for 10 minutes bursts everyday starting tomorrow.

I am hoping with these changes I can start making sustainable progress.

Mentat Training

I have been looking at methods of training to further my mind. Here is what I found out.

1)you should do a work out before learning.

2)You are better off doing 5 subjects at 10 minutes per subject every day, than do 1 subject for 50 minutes.

So I am going to focus on learning my piem for only 10 minutes at a time.

I am up to 12 numbers. I am having issues converting the numbers from the piem.

See you next time

Memory Feats

This week I plan on tackling an interesting memory feat. I plan on memorizing pi to the thirty second decimal. Right now I can take pi to 3.14159, but I feel the need to go much further. There are obviously many methods for this. The one I am going to use is to make (or memorize) a piem. Its like a poem only it pertains to pi.

The trick to memorize Pi with this method is to memorize sentences in which each word's length represents a digit of Pi. This method can only be used up to 31 digits after the decimal point, because the 32nd digit after the decimal point is 0.

A couple of classic examples are:

1. May I have a large container of coffee?
2. How I want a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy chapters involving quantum mechanics.
   One is, yes, adequate even enough to induce some fun and pleasure for an instant, miserably brief.

Most likely I will just memorize an already made poem since my ability to pick words seems a little lacking.

I am still working on the Major System, just have to keep stacking learning methods.

See you later

Bobby

Early Struggles

Well we are well into my second day of mastering the Major System. I am far from a master. I reread the hack last night and found it would be better to use nouns than verbs because its easier to create mental pictures.

So my ability to pick words needs some major work. That is okay, this is a marathon not a sprint. I got my checking account number and I am trying to make a sentence with it. Very difficult, but on the bright side I pretty much have my debit car number memorized. Next up will be my passport info.

While I am having issues with picking good words, I feel I have down the conversion.

For example the "conversion" turns into 728402. I only needed to look up the v.

I like this method because it forces me to expand my vocabulary also.

See you later

Major Upgrades

Well my first hack has gone well. I have begun to learn the Major System. It is a system that allows you to convert numbers into letters and make words out of it. For example if you wanted to remember a phone number say 704-555-8314. Each number turns into a consonant, then we make a word.

So 704 becomes K S R and the word I make is Kisser

555 becomes L L L and the word(s) I make Lolly lie. As you can see I still need practice with making words. In my defense 555 is not a real phone number.

8314 becomes F M S R and the words I make are Fame Sir.

So we have Kisser Lolly Lie Fame Sir. I realize how lame this is. Now just make some picture with these words.

Now I started to create these words for important numbers for me. Like my bank account number and credit card numbers. I figure it I will come in handy if I get thrown in jail when I go to Costa Rica. I will keep on practicing tonight.

Keep on living the dream.

Mind Hacks

Last night I picked up Mind Performance Hacks from the bookstore. It is rare for me to go to a bookstore since I have a kindle, but some books aren't available. I started reading it last night and guess what happened. My mind has already started to go into different paths. Right now I will practice at least one hack a week until I go to my workshop in December. And will post the results.

My first hack will be Hack #5 The major system.

See you later with results

Hoping to improve my memory before I forget

I will be journaling my quest to improve my mind. It is my firm belief that one can train one's mind to be a genius. Right now my plan for improving my mind is a little muddled. I know what my first step is but after that I am not sure where I want to go.

So here is my first and absolutely will be refined before I am finished, outline.

Step 1: Improve memory- I will mostly follow Harry Lorrayne's model for memory improvement using association as the big key. Right now it takes me about 10-15 seconds per association, I need to get it down to 2-3 seconds for it to be useful for my purposes. I will be going to a seminar in early December to help hone my skills. My goal is to be able to use the mind mapping technique within 3 months.

Step 2: Speed Reading- I have gone back and forth on this. What is step two? Right now I have settled on speed reading. After I have increased my capacity to recall info and create connections I need to be able to rapidly acquire information. Right now I read about 300 words per minute with a comprehension of 90%. While I read 50% faster than the average reader, there are people out there who read 1000+ words per minute with an 85% comprehension. So my goal is to be a One Percenter

Step 3: FACE- This is where it gets fun. This stuff is based Paul Ekman's work. It will be awesome when no one can lie to me. I took the basic course and it has helped me immensely in reading people, but i have a long way to go.

Step 4: Covert Persuasion- Actually I will be working on this throughout the other steps. I will be pulling from several sources for this. Magic, NLP, and hypnosis

The journey begins