It’s not About the Genes Darling, It’s Practice

Still many today laugh at the thought of being able to “become a genius”. Most people are convinced that “geniality” is something that happens to you, a bit like having red hair o blue eyes.

Truth is a bit different and it’s science stating it. As the Italian psycologist Pietro Trabucchi states in one of his books, Anders Ericcson, psycology professor at the University of Florida of Sweedish origin “gave scientific support to the fact that in our species the pinnacle of excellency is not obtained thanks to genetic determinism, but through a voluntary process: absolute performances in any field, be it artistic, chess, sport or science research are preponderantly the fruit of practice rather than innate abilities.”

This naturally doesn’t mean that the genetic predispositions we inherited from our parents don’t count, highlights Trabucchi. It’s obvious that a wannabe basketball player who is 7 ft tall (2.13 mt) has basically better chances than someone who is a mere 5ft9inc (1.80 mt). But if the first confides on his height alone to climb the stairways to stardom he can easily be trampled on by the latter if he has trained for years with constant drive and determination.

In other words Trabucchi concludes “without effort and dedication, without exertion and training you can be good, but never extraordinary.

INTENTIONAL EXERCISE vs. MECHANICAL EXERCISE

The fruitage of Ericsson’s study is known as “the theory of the ten thousand hours”. Take heed. Many – if not all, confused by that teaching according to which you need to read and repeat until you nail it into your brain is as ancient as it is wrong – end up thinking that you get extraordinary results only if you put tons of effort into it ultimately boring yourself to death.

We are so used to thinking studying is nothing more that read-and-repeat that if someone tell us that in order to have excellent results all we need to do is simply work harder longer hours with more determination and effort, many prefer letting it all go.

This is how such ideas as “I’m not cut out for this subject”, “I don’t feel like it”, “I’m too tired”, are formed. All these are in effect form of protection apt at avoiding the burden and boredom that a mechanical study method can have, like repeating till you drop!

If you have read Open, The provocative book by tennis champ Andrè Agassi, you’ll know that you can have extraordinary results like his even if you hate what you do, simply because you want it.

Agassi in fact tells that he hated tennis, sport he was forced into practicing by his father. Whether that is true or not is not for us to say – his father wrote another book altogether to deny what his son wrote – right now we are not interested in knowing where the truth lies as much as understanding that by means of obsessive repetition, full of stress and anger, one can actually reach even great results at time, but at what cost?

Always concerning tennis let’s now consider another tennis champ, Novak Djokovic. In his book “Serve to win”(“Il punto vincente” Italian edition) he tells how since he was a little boy he’d run the risk of being blown up by a bomb coming from American planes during the attacks in ex-Yugoslavia where he lived, just so he could go play tennis. His life and tennis were one in the same, he loved tennis more than anything else, and willingly sacrificed many other “common pleasures” for the sake of tennis, one example is pasta.

Yep, you got it, pasta. Novak says that regardless of his boundless love for tennis, his body couldn’t take the stress on the tennis courts and he would fall to the ground without strength.

After an endless amount of visits a strange and somewhat unconventional doctor ventilated the thought that his problem could be an intolerance to gluten and advised him to abstain from it completely, eliminating it entirely from his diet.

Novak’s rebirth started from that moment onward. Without any more physical limitations caused by pasta and gluten he conquered triumph after triumph, extraordinary results.

The morale. There are two ways you can achieve results: mechanical exercise, repetitive and passive, what you do because you have to, but it bores you to death. In this case scenario the exertion is VERY HIGH, the strain a real killer along with ZERO entertainment. If for any given reason – a very demanding father, a particularly strong or dramatic external need – you can keep this exertion all the necessary time needed to achieve results, you may even conquer a certain mastery, be it in sport or language skills, for a fact however the quality of your life is quite low.

There is however the way of receiving results: intentional exercise which, as far as learning is concerned we can also call “intelligent exercise”, or better exercise in which you apply yourself with pleasure after annihilating what kills you.

In Novak’s case the gluten contained in pasta was his poison, in the case of students in general the poison is the linear method of studying, repetitive and non-associative, that we learn in schools.

Don’t let yourself be blinded by words, I’ll explain. Follow me because what I am about to tell you could literally change your life and your results at least as much as eating gluten free changed Novak’s.

PRIMITIVE MAN, THE SABER-TOOTH TIGER AND THE INTERNET

What do: primitive man, the saber-tooth tiger and the internet have in common? Apparently, nothing at all. Well, actually as Joshua Foer, brilliant journalist and US Memory champ in 2006 explains, “our memory is not fit for our contemporary world. Memory like sight, language skills, the erect posture and every other biological characteristic of humans, has evolved thanks to a process of natural selection in a very different environment from the one we live in today.”

Foer reminds us that our brain evolved during the Pleistocene epoch where our ancestors’ problems were definitely not remembering the phone numbers of workmates and family by heart, or remembering the boss’s instruction to the tee, nor did they have to study page after page of written information. At that time their problems were remembering where the food was, where that quite unfriendly saber-tooth tiger usually roamed about, how to get home, what edible plants looked like, and which plants made them drop dead in a flash.

In other words, our mind evolved so as to store data by IMAGES, not long meaningless series of black marks written down on a white sheet of paper.

If you think about it, what is it in fact that most people do in the hope of remembering what they’ve studied more and better? Exactly! they highlight it in the hope of remembering more clearly what they’ve studied, they highlight with bright colors those meaningless lines of letters they need to learn. Unfortunately though, as you might have understood, it’s not that by turning a flat sheet of paper from “black and white” to “black, white and fluorescent yellow” things really change. Actually, all you’ve done is used up ink for no reason at all.

Underlining, or highlighting, “adding color” to the page in order to remember something better is only a pale and ineffective attempt at recreating those circumstances that, unknowingly each and every one of us in him most remote part of the mind knows this should be the best way to remember information: associating them to meaningful images.

So, even if you are armed with good will (we are not talking about those who really could care less!), even if you desire to give it all you’ve got, study and learn because you know you’ll need it e it’ll be useful or because you like what you are doing, but you keep on using your mind differently form how it was meant to work, you will never be able to achieve the results you deserve!

It’s a bit like wanting a Ferrari to go by filling the tank up with canola oil instead of fuel: you might actually even get to travel a mile or two, but it sure will not have the performances that it is meant to have if it ran on the fuel it was meant to be using.

The same thing happens to our mind: if you want to remember more and better, you need to make it work the way it was meant to work. This is like applying “intentional” exercises and not merely mechanical ones we were talking about earlier.

How can you do all this? Easier said than done.
If you are even just a bit curious and you think you might have enough determination to read the instructions on your own and applying them, you can look for a good book on effective learning techniques in your local bookstore.

We obviously advise you to buy ours: we know it’s a great text book, because it stems from tens of thousands of hours of experience with thousands of students from all around Italy and abroad, and from hundreds of thousands of hours spent tutoring, one-on-one coaching that only those in attendance at one of our courses receives in order to use the techniques in complete independence, like real champs.. 

If, on the other hand, you feel that it would take you forever doing it on your own, that the book would end up – like many others – needlessly collecting dust on a shelf  when you really are interested in changing your results for the better and press the turbo on your professional study situation, then we invite you to come visit us and get to personally get to know us in one of our 36 branches we have spread around the Northern Hemisphere: Italy, Switzerland, USA, Spain and England.

Click here to contact us and we will let you know how to enroll in our FREE course! 

 

PS: At any rate, allow me to remind you a fundamental truth: never allow that a small dose of poison, that can easily be eliminated from your life, stops you from becoming the champion you can be!

“Let’s be honest, memory isn’t that important” 

The phrase in our title is a classic one you hear nowadays. Many people think, “Now with mobile phones and voice recorders, isn’t better to leave your mind free from distractions and concentrate only on things that you really need your brain to do?”

As surprising as it may seem, I also believe this in many cases.

Nevertheless, there are circumstances where if you don’t know the right learning techniques, the results can vary a lot. What am I talking about? I’m talking about a difference in results that is very clear and that is not irrelevant.

Here is a list of some of these situations:

  1. When you meet someone you’ve met before and you don’t remember their name. In this case, you may feel embarrassed if you don’t remember their name.
  2. In a language class: For many people, aside from the fact that they would like to learn a new language, they decide not to study because they can’t remember all the things they need to memorize. It takes a lot of effort, dedication, and time.
  3. When we speak with someone who speaks a different language, we can’t find the words in the dictionary. It turns into a big effort and an embarrassing situation that we’d prefer to avoid. If we’re not able to speak another language, we may lose out on the chance to travel.
  4. There are other examples from daily life, such as knowing the PIN for our bank card or a certain password. How many times have you forgotten these things? It’s annoying, right?

These are just some examples why you should consider our rapid learning method and discover why a good memory is fundamental if you want to make a difference in your life.

Many people think it’s important to understand specific things, for example, a formula for math and science. In my opinion, that’s a fallacy. If I have to study 80 theorems, even if I understand them, it doesn’t mean much if I’m not able to reproduce them. I may be able to reproduce some of them if I’m sitting at my desk. However, if I’m in front of teachers, everything changes entirely.

However, in the Genius course, it’s not just about the memory techniques. I’m going to repeat something that will make any doubts go away:

This course teaches methods and systems of learning that take less time. These include:

  • A rapid study and learning method that is efficient and allows you to maximize your time
  • Mind maps. This is a method that helps you to organize information so you remember it better.
  • Relaxation and concentration techniques that you can use in different situations. For many people this is the point of weakness, and it affects your capacity to learn by causing mental stress. You need to confront this situation and resolve it for the long term.

The things that you need to remember over the long term can include many types of information, such as:

  • numbers for work
  • historical dates
  • telephone numbers
  • formulas for math or chemistry
  • and much, much more.

Nevertheless, with all of this, there’s the ultimate goal to retain important and useful information—and not lose bets with your friends!

Train Your Imagination

How many books have you read in the past year? 50? 10? 1? None?! More than half of the people in America haven’t read any books in the past 12 months. Not only that, but fewer than one in five have read at least one book a month, or 12 in a year.speed reading course denver

We all know what distractions may cause this lack of reading—we’re tired, we’re distracted by our TVs and our smartphones. Just so you know, there’s a correlation between the number of frequent readers in a country and its economic, cultural, and social well-being. Our speed reading course Denver builds these skills into something you are confident in.

Reading: The secret habit of successful people

Many times we are looking for a secret that can revolutionize our life and make a big change. We look for better techniques and methods, forgetting a simple reality:

“The people with success are accustomed to doing some things that other people are not doing.” Gray

The statistics leave little doubt in this area: Interviews, biographies, and autobiographies of successful people show that the majority of successful people are avid readers.

According to The New York Times, Steve Jobs was obsessed with English poets. Phil Knight, founder of the brand Nike, had a library, and guests were obligated to visit it barefoot. David Rubenstein, founder of the $154 billion (yes, billion) private equity firm The Carlyle Group, is known to read a dozen books each week! And let’s not forget Winston Churchill, the charismatic prime minister of England during World War II. He won the Nobel prize not for peace (as many believe) but for literature.

Do you think it’s a coincidence that all of these people devour books?

There are specific reasons why successful people read. These same reasons for reading turn these people into a successful person.

5 best reasons why people read

  1. Reading makes you more intelligent. Numerous studies have shown that habitually reading broadens your vocabulary, develops new synapses in the brain, and reinforces your ability to reason. It’s not a coincidence that reading (in particular rapid reading) is one of the instrumental clues to learn to prepare for exams in half the time.
  2. Reading makes you more creative. The best 10 ideas from the last 10 years have come from reading. The custom of reading allows you not only to learn new knowledge, it also lets you develop creative ideas and apply them in new and different ways.
  3. Reading makes you more attractive. It may sound absurd, but if you don’t care about being more intelligent or creative, you may want to find ways to be a better king or queen of seduction. Have you even been interested in someone but not found the words to express yourself? By reading more, you gain the words you need.
  4. Reading helps you fight stress. There was an interesting experiment led by neuropsychologist David Lewis at Sussex University. He showed that reading, even just 6 minutes a day, reduced stress by 68%. Reading is one of the best ways to fight stress.
  5. Reading is an excellent investment. According to billionaire Warren Buffett, our best investment is that which we make in ourselves. Over the last 80 years, Buffett has been obsessed with going to bed each night a little bit smarter than he was in the morning. Here are the exact words he said at a Berkshire Hathaway meeting: “Read whatever you can get in your hands. Be a sponge. Never stop learning.”

I hope that you’ve read until now and have been convinced of the power of reading more. But there’s one thing not discussed yet: How is it possible to read more? Form a daily habit of it? Here are some strategies that give you a place to start.

How to read more

Here are some simple suggestions to help you read more and more rapidly:

  • Follow an Iron Man media diet. You don’t have to burn your TV, but you can pick moments in your day to be without your smartphone and the internet. Liberate yourself from the TV, internet, and social media. Take a few valuable minutes to concentrate on personal projects and to just read. You’ll notice a difference in the number of inspiring and motivating ideas you come across, and you’ll notice a difference in your life.
  • Don’t lose out on the chance to read. Our days are full of dead time: trips to and from work or school, waiting at the bank or post office or supermarket, long lines of traffic, etc. Don’t lose these valuable moments of your life…read (or if you’re driving, listen to audiobooks). In place of obsessively checking your Facebook page…read. In place of checking your email once more…read. In place of playing with your phone…read.
  • Use an e-reader. If you’re a pure reader, you probably feel a heart attack coming on just by the word e-reader. I was like that too. After a while, I bought my first iPad, and that addition allowed me to develop a second love for reading. I can read anywhere and about anything. My mom had the same thing happen to her during a recent Christmas when she received a Kindle. Give an e-reader a try and watch how your reading habits grow.

Give more reading a try for a better life, and discover more about speed reading with techniques offered through the Genius course.

¡¡Pruébalo‼

Descubre más sobre el curso Genius

Memory Techniques are Learned

A group of cognitive neuroscientists scanned the brains of 23 “memory world champions” (yes, there really is a World Memory Championship). Their goal was to discover the characteristics behind their incredible memory techniques.

Each of these champions had the capacity to memorize the order of a mixed deck of cards in under a minute, remember numbers with 1,000 digits, or remember names associated with the faces of 100 people with whom they had simply shaken a hand for a second.

According to the scientific publication Neuron, during the study, the investigators at Radboud University in The Netherlands began with a structural MRI analysis of the brains’ biochemistry, to look for exceptional characteristics.Memory Techniques

Surprisingly, the scan found that the physical structure of the brains for these champions was no different than others. What they did notice, however, was a big difference in the ways the brain made connections. In particular, there was a group of 25 connections that looked very different in this group of memory champions.

All of these learning “athletes” confessed that they had learned memory techniques that helped them improve their memory capacity.

This led the investigators to think: Is it possible that any mind could make these same connections and obtain a “superhuman” memory?

They brought together 51 individuals with common memory capacities and began a “loci formation.” This technique is taken from the ancient Greeks and Romans. The word locimeans places.

The fundamental premise is to visualize a physical space, such as a street or park, and remember the places for certain words, objects, or concepts as if you’re “passing” by these spaces in your imagination.

The formation required 30 minutes of practice a day over 40 days. Before the formation, the individuals were able to remember about 25 words. After, they had remembered about 65 words. Their follow-up MRI showed that the same connections in their brain had changed and had become stronger.

The clearest result was a notable increase in connectivity in two brain regions: the medial prefrontal cortex and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. These regions were associated with the new learning developments.

“It’s logical that this formation had an impact on these connections,” according to Martin Dresler, assistant professor of cognitive neuroscience. “These are the exact things we saw that the subjects were using when they used the loci method for memorization.”

The concept is that aside from exceptional cases, no one is born with a super memory. But each of us can develop our memory and use powerful techniques that not only improve our capacity to learn but that also can change the structure of our brain to create new connections.

This study is just the latest in a large series of research to show what each student of the Genius course already knows. The method that we teach to learn and memorize is the best!

Don’t you think it’s time to see what you could do in the Genius course?

Ven a la presentación del curso

Today, it’s hard to buy something without first going to the internet and reading the opinions of others who have used the same product. Amazon, eBay, and other services provide reviews and testimonials from clients who have bought a particular product, be it a TV, a washing machine, a computer….or, in our case, a course.

More than ever before, younger people are choosing to begin their careers by studying in college, while others are taking specialization courses for trade jobs. Still others are learning languages for future careers and personal development. All of these courses require time, energy, and resources—and the desire to continue learning.

Another area that more people are studying is how to improve their mental capacity. This includes improving their memory, rapid reading, and memory maps. But what are the important indications to pursue this successfully? Before anything else, let’s talk about where you’ll learn these strategies: books, videos, or live courses.

At a library, you can find many books on the topic of memory and rapid reading. Unfortunately, many students have become disillusioned through this process. They’ve realized too late that learning about memory techniques and rapid reading through a text or video is not the same as learning this kind of information with a teacher present. The text or DVD doesn’t respond to questions. The mind remains full of doubt about new knowledge, and when you’re in a situation where you may want to apply your new knowledge, you feel more unsure.

There’s only one efficient way to learn new memory techniques, and that’s by participating in a live course.

So how to know which one to choose?

Opinions, opinions, opinions!

However! Not all testimonials are the same. Remain skeptical of opinions that don’t include a name behind them or from someone who makes it impossible to contact them.

Many businesses will write testimonials to promote their own businesses or to say something negative about competition. They’ll do this in a way that makes it impossible to get in touch with them.

For this reason, we will not share testimonials or opinions from students unless they sign their full name and provide a way you can contact them, so you can see that they are real.

Still, testimonials aren’t everything. How do you know if a course is really for you?

Very simple—consider a few characteristics. Today I’m going to demonstrate how to select the right course for you. Look for these characteristics in any course that claims to help you improve your memory and rapid reading.

  1. Look for a course that teaches the most efficient way of learning and provides innovative strategies, such as mnemonics, rapid reading, and mind maps. The Genius course will teach these strategies but will also cover relaxation, concentration, and ways to better approach work and study assignments.
  2. Ask about the ability to take the class again in the future. The ability to retake a class for free is an important part of choosing the right course for you.
  3. Expect guaranteed results. Course leaders should offer guaranteed results from their course. The Genius course gives the possibility to stop if students are not able to apply the techniques that they are using. This is an extremely important part of a course because it shows that instructors must stand behind their material…and students’ ability to learn it.
  4. Expect mastery of material. Probably the most important characteristic is the possibility to learn and become such an expert in the material that you can then go on to help future students learn the techniques and strategies. Many courses don’t offer this, and I warn you: Don’t trust them.
  5. Count popularity numbers. The experience and satisfaction of a large number of clients is the foundation of a solid course selection.  

 

If a course cannot offer these five characteristics, watch out!