Sunday, March 7, 2010
Introduction to Speed Reading Techniques Part I
I bet you have always wanted to read faster and absorb more information at the same time. You can! It’s not a skill one has to be born with (although some people have natural talent to read fast), you can learn it by practicing simple speed reading techniques without losing retention of information. 
Most people continue to read the way they were taught as children: letter by letter or word by word, and some even continue to read out loud or by mouthing the words. Reading this way is extremely time-consuming and does not guarantee retention of the information. The average person reads about 200-300 words per minute, while a speed reader can get through 500-700 words per minute, or even more.
Just for a start…
The first thing to do when learning speed reading is to familiarize yourself with the material before you dive in and read it, and the easiest way to do this is to scan the back cover and the table of contexts. This way your brain has already absorbed key terminology, ideas and the order of information. Further, you should sit upright, have proper lighting, the right text size, no distractions around you and get your eyes checked out to make sure your vision is good.
Most speed readers automatically use a variety of methods in their endeavors, such as chunking (taking in blocks of text), skimming, meta guiding (reading with the aid of your hand, a pointer or a card) and most of all eliminating subvocalization (reading aloud or mouthing). Those who practice speed reading do not focus on each word nor read “aloud” in their minds, but rather scan the text with their eyes and allow the brain to absorb and comprehend the material.
Even if it sounds quite technical to you, these techniques are quite simple when implemented and practiced regularly. In the next part of this series I will guide you through some popular and effective speed reading techniques. Till soon than!
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Friday, February 12, 2010
Succeed in Business - start with the mindset
He keeps repeating: mindset is the key to everything! Change your thoughts - change your life. This is in many cases why some people seem to make money almost effortlessly while others struggle without seeing results. Often people who can’t seem to get ahead in life resign themselves to thinking that that is simply their lot in life, or that they’re just unlucky, or they could succeed if only they had the right connections. Clearly they don't have the right mindset!
He often says that the key is to:
- define what you want,
- take action,
- be persevering and
- overcome obstacles.
Do you want to learn from him? Who is he?
Wouldn’t it be great if you could actually be mentored by someone who has succeeded in business, someone who is wealthy and someone who is actually interested in sharing his knowledge and successes with other people?
Multimillionaire entrepreneur James Schramko is such a person. He offers advice and a mentoring program in which he shares his philosophy for succeeding in online business. He had a stable, secure job once but chose to build his new business from scratch to fulfill his dreams of freedom, doing what he wants, whenever he wants.
It was not easy.
The things that prevented him from giving up were absolute confidence and high self-esteem. That’s simple. It’s not the circumstances that make someone rich or successful, it’s his mindset.
If you are ready to implement a permanent change in your mindset and therefore your success, then you are one step away from achieving your dream. James Schramko's 3 day live event in Sydney will not only teach you how to overcome any obstacle and take action but he will reveal his ground breaking powerful strategies and techniques to make good money online.
The people who succeed in business have one thing in common: they have the utmost confidence in themselves and their abilities and have trained their mind to fully believe they can achieve success.
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Friday, January 15, 2010
Brainstorming Tools – powerful NLP ideas
If you could be, do and have anything you want in life, what would it be?
For many people, this question is shrouded in vagueness; they might actually be able to break through to success in their lives…if only they knew what their passion was. Unfortunately, far too many people settle for mediocrity in their jobs, their relationships, their health and their financial situation because they have learned a mindset that says “I can’t” instead of “I can”. They have never been given the tools to achieve greatness.
What if you had a Purpose-Driven Life?
When you love what you do, that opens a door that invites in success – in all aspects of your life. Success is not just about having a lot of money, it’s about living a fulfilling, rich and passionate life. You don’t consider Mother Teresa a failure because she doesn’t drive a BMW and live in a 52-room mansion.
The sad fact is that sometimes we can be our own worst enemy, unconsciously sabotaging our happiness and success. This goes back to the mindset. Without letting go of unresolved issues and life-long negative beliefs and attitudes, it is extremely hard to move forward and believe that we can achieve anything we want.
Why is it so hard to let go of an idea or attitude even when it no longer works for us?
The reason is very simple: our emotions create these limitations within us so effectively that we feel as though these inner restrictions are actually real external limitations. If you feel that you don’t deserve success – no matter how much you want it - then you will not be successful. We create what we focus on.
So… if you could be, do and have anything you want in life, what would it be…?
I hope not working from home stuffing envelopes ;)
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Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Laughing Yoga – is this a joke or remedy?
Laughing Yoga is a type of Laughter Therapy – a combination of laughing and yoga breathing. In fact, the word "yoga" means union, as in the integration of body and mind. Laughing (or Laughter) Yoga is a fairly new concept based on the idea that laughter is beneficial to your health and that anyone can laugh without external stimulus. It uses physical movement such as clapping and chanting, simple yoga postures like stretching, breathing exercises, voluntary laughing and positive affirmations. Performing this on a daily basis can help you boost your immune system, reduce stress, and feel more joy in your life.
NO JOKE
So how do you laugh without hearing a joke or watching a comedy? As adults we have been trained to laugh as a conditional, mental response. In other words, we hear a joke, process it in our minds to determine if we “get” it, and then decide to laugh as a result. Children’s laughter, on the other hand, is instinctual and mostly physiological. They don’t need a carefully constructed punchline to tap into humor; kids laugh when they’re playing, and because they don’t need a reason, they laugh up to 400 times a day. Adults, on the other hand, laugh only an average of 16 times a day. The idea of Laughing Yoga, therefore, is to re-teach adults to laugh without a reason and to cultivate the playfulness of childhood again.
HEALTH BENEFITS ARE OBVIOUS…
Breathing is vital to our health, not to mention our existence, and yet most people don’t breathe properly. They breathe so shallowly that carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs. But when you breathe deeply and slowly, you take in more oxygen which clears out the carbon dioxide and allows more oxygen to flow into your cells and your brain. Laughing Yoga incorporates two great ways to bring in more oxygen: yoga breathing and laughing.
Simply by doing these laughter exercises the brain will be tricked into thinking it’s happy and produce the same chemical reaction in your body that happens when you truly are happy. After a while this response will become habit and you will find yourself feeling happy more and more, regardless of your external circumstances.
To learn more about the Laughing Yoga founder Dr. Madan Kataria and to learn how to do the basic exercises get these laughing yoga ebooks and watch this incredible movie.
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Friday, December 18, 2009
The importance of good mentoring
I find mentoring as essential as eating or drinking. For me it is a way of quickly and efficiently developing the many aspects of my life. I've got a couple of mentors; sadly, one of them is not with us anymore but fortunately she left us with a couple of her great books.
Most popular sources describe a mentor as someone with experience, knowledge and/or skills in a specific area who is able, willing and available to share this information with another individual.
My definition of a mentor is broader because I've got some spiritual mentors who are not personally available to me. One of them is Ayn Rand. I value her approach to courage, values and individualism. In her books she describes strong personalities who, no matter the circumstance, always follow their passion in life. Of course, there are also those who act in opposition to this belief, and it's really interesting and even inspiring to read the implications of not following your passion.
My new mentor is Internet Marketing Speed founder James Schramko. He left his highly paid job to successfully develop internet marketing strategies and automated profit systems like affiliate marketing, list building, search engine optimization and traffic generation.
Not only is he my business coach but he is available to me! :) He is a relaxed, easy-going and extremely successful Aussie who is very positive and has fantastic new ideas all the time. A huge part of his nature is to share all his great wisdom with others and he always delivers what he promises.
In Poland it is minus 15 degrees Celsius right now but here he is talking about time management on the beaches of Sydney. What a life!
Check out this exclusive offer to enter his Coaching Forum, where I'm one of the lucky members. This is a private forum, which is by invitation only.
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Friday, December 4, 2009
My Top 10 quotes
I love reading, watching movies and getting to know other people, all of which allows me to come across extremely interesting expressions and ideas. I’ll share some of these with you here:
1. "To be like water." This is from the book The Art of War by Sun Tzu and is about flexibility, adaptability, responding to changes and not giving up. Just like water. When the water of a river runs into an obstacle, it adapts, changes course and finds a new way to its ultimate goal.
2. "If a thing is humanly possible, consider it within your reach" Marcus Aurelius.
3. "Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become"
Jim Rohn.
4. "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever" Gandhi.
5. "Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again more intelligently" Henry Ford.
6. "SWSWSWSW - some will, some won't, so what, someone's is waiting" Jack Canfield.
7. "I have lived a long life and had many troubles, most of which never happened" Mark Twain.
8. "You can never learn less; you can only learn more. The reason I know so much is because I have made so many mistakes" Buckminister Fuller.
9. "Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions" Albert Einstein. I would sum it up : see what you want - get what you see!!
10. "Seek first to understand, than to be understood" Stephen Covey.
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