A friend of mine read the article, How to Use the Power of Words to Your Benefit, and dryly made the comment, "So what?" At first it didn't concern me, but a few days later I began thinking about his comment. I had obviously not made the point clear, and therefore I decided to expand on this concept. And that is what you are reading here. Words, as such, have no value apart from communicating an idea, belief, or instruction to our readers. But, combine words with the mental capacity only we humans have, and the power of words become awesome. Ok, what am I on about here? In my first article, I briefly touched on the concept of spaced repetition. This is such a powerful and useful technique that I will expand on it here. I came across spaced repetition early in high school, and used it throughout my high school career. It works like this: you read something (for not more than 45 minutes), then you take a break, with something totally unrelated; then you return and re-read the same material. You alternate this with reading different material, or doing something totally different, and you will be amazed at what your retention level is. I never studied for a single exam throughout high school! I only used spaced repetition. Back to the power of words, and using spaced repetition. It is fair to say that we do not like to be negative, or feel depressed. By taking something as simple as a quote, we can improve our mental state, and thus our attitude. Reading this with spaced repetition, it becomes ingrained in our memory, and when the situation warrants it, we practically automatically retrieve it from memory. Similar to this exercise, we can use words in the pursuit of our goals. One of the first instructions we are given by the motivational masters is write down our goal. But, what many of them forget to tell us, is how we should use this written goal. Some say we should read it at least once a day, or that we should place it where we will see it regularly. Use your written goal with spaced repetition, and success is practically guaranteed. I read somewhere that Anthony Robbins says more than half the people who buy his material, do not even open it! What an absolute waste. Having such valuable material in your hands, and then not even opening it, not to mention not using it. It is a known fact that affirmations (auto-suggestion, self-suggestion) have produced incredible results by persons who use this technique. All that this is, is repeating something to yourself spaced over a period of time. Using words with spaced repetition has an awesome power, whether it is to motivate us, encourage us, or help us reach our goal. Make it your goal to... Choose a quote, write (or type) it out, and make it your affirmation. Try this for 21 days and see what happens. It must be 21 days though, and don't skip a day. |
