WEEK FORTY-FIVE. Hello and welcome to Week Forty-Five of Your Life Success Plan.

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1 WEEK FORTY-FIVE Hello and welcome to Week Forty-Five of Your Life Success Plan. Exercising those daily learning muscles! We all know the principle of how the habit of consistent exercising and weight-lifting will build muscles and endurance. But for some reason, most adults do not subscribe to the same principle and awareness of how the same is true for learning. Learning begets more learning. New skills beget new skills. It is so true that it is never too late to learn; learn a new language, learn a new hobby, learn to play a new instrument, learn a new skill. Also, in order to inspire kids to want to learn, it is important to have a home where adults want to learn, are trying new things, being fascinated by new opportunities and insights and who love to improve. This week as Jim discusses the six stages of learning and Chris covers finding your unique learning styles, this is a great time to embrace the opportunity of discovering new ideas, insights and activities. So go ahead, set a goal to learn a new language, wipe the dust off of your guitar or tennis racket (or go buy one and sign up for lessons), buy a telescope and study the night sky or read that book on parenting or finance that has been on your "to read" list for over a year. Just as exercising gives your body new energy and vitality, learning will do the same and create a spark that will start to show up in your conversations, your view points and your excitement about life! Have a great week! Donna Get over the idea that only children should spend their time in study. Be a student so long as you still have something to learn, and this will mean all your life. -- Henry Doherty Copyright Victory Management, Inc with JRI 2004,

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3 MEMORY/SPEED READING The Eleventh Essential for Life Success: Memory/Speed Reading, Part Two - Six Stages of Learning Hi, Jim Rohn here. This month our focus is accelerating our learning processes. And here's what is exciting, learning is the beginning of wealth. Learning is the beginning of health. Learning is the beginning of spirituality. Searching and learning is where the miracle process all begins. First, we need to understand that we possess the ability to improve and accelerate our learning curve. Because if you step up the self-education curve, you will come up with more answers than you can use. Then second, this creates the potential of what we can continue to become. Wow! So let's get started. Here is an overview of the month. 1. You are a Genius! In week one, we discussed ways to unlock and tap into the incredible powerful potential you have in your mind. We also covered the attitudes of successful learners and showed how your attitude about learning will determine how far you go in your life and career. 2. Six Stages of Learning. This week we will talk about how to accelerate your learning and discover what your unique learning strengths and weaknesses are. We will also cover the topic of finding your particular learning style, and how to best tailor your learning to fit your unique needs. 3. Improve Your Memory. Next week we will talk about how the mind and memory works and how to train it to remember more. We will also cover basic speed reading techniques and show you the importance of reading and how to develop a basic reading plan. 4. Life-long Learning. In week four we will discuss the importance and benefits of being a lifetime learner. In addition, we will talk briefly about a basic plan for life-long learning and how to keep your mind tuned for success, as well as how to win the battles of thought that take place in our minds. So let's talk about the topics for this week! Six Stages of Learning My good friend Brian Tracy, who is a part of this program with his Success Mastery Series, shows us (along with co-author Colin Rose) what he calls the Six Stages of Learning in his program entitled Accelerated Learning. I want to give you these six stages as Brian calls them, and then my thoughts on each section. It is important for us to understand this process so we know what direction to go. Once we understand the process, then we can learn to accelerate the process. Copyright Victory Management, Inc. with JRI 2004,

4 Here are the six stages: 1. State of mind 2. Intake of information 3. Explore the subject 4. Memorize the information 5. Show you know 6. Reflect on how you learn Here are my thoughts on each: 1. State of Mind - It is so very important for us to have our minds in the right state before we train to learn. A good analogy would be if you were going to paint your home. You wouldn't just go buy paint and then paint it. No, first you would prepare the home because you want the paint to stick! If you do not prepare the home, the paint is less likely to last. So you would pressure wash it, sand it, cover the windows, etc. You prepare so the paint will last. The same is true with learning. The mind must be prepared. We must be in a state of learning. We must be in an atmosphere that is conducive to learning. We should demonstrate the attitudes that Chris talked about last week. All of this is necessary preparation. Once your mind is prepared, then you can go to the next stage. Yes, you could have skipped the preparation stage beforehand, but preparation will enhance your chances of having a successful learning experience. 2. Intake of Information - The fact is that you have to take in information. This can be through a variety of ways--listening, reading, watching and action--and all at various times. When your mind is prepared, it is then open to the intake of information. You allow that information to stick. A good balanced plan of learning includes using a variety of learning opportunities, although as Chris shares later, you will have a predominant style of learning. The key is to regularly take information in. A person serious about learning should be a reader. They should read good books. They should be a listener. They should listen to cd's and to people. All with the goal of learning. They should observe people and see what other successful people do. They should try many new things and learn from those experiences. All of this will help your intake. 3. Explore the Subject - It is one thing to know that Mr. Jones drives an $80,000 car and lives in a $1,000,000 home. That is surface knowledge. It is quite another to know exactly how Mr. Jones became a successful person and to be able to apply that learning in your own life. One is easily seen and acquired. The other takes exploration. It is one thing to know basic addition and subtraction. It is another thing altogether to know advanced trigonometry! So we must explore, read different books, listen to different viewpoints and try different things so we can learn at a deeper level. Copyright Victory Management, Inc. with JRI 2004,

5 4. Memorize the Information - We will cover this more in detail next week, but repetition plays a large role in memorization. There is also association work here, but let's stick with repetition for now. Have you ever sat in a coffee shop and watched the person behind the counter? Or perhaps a waiter in a restaurant? This is a place you wouldn't expect to see the wonders of the mind, but you can if you listen closely. Recently during my travels, I sat in a coffee shop as customer after customer came by and the person making the drinks knew many of the orders in great detail, before the customer even ordered. This person was using this incredible mental tool to recall intricate detail for scores of people each day. Why? Because he is a super-brilliant rocket scientist in training? No, because he was using the tool that all of us have available, which was trained by massive repetition. Each and every day, these folks come in and order the same drink. Slowly, without the person even trying to (I doubt he says to himself, "Now tomorrow I must remember Mrs. Jackson's drink preference"), he memorizes the details. We all do this, don't we? We repeat things until we learn them. Do you know your home phone number? Of course you do. But when you first moved in, you probably had to carry it with you until you had called it enough or repeated it enough to others to remember it. 5. Show You Know - This is what we call the old "test." You have to test your knowledge to make sure that you really know it. The idea of learning is to master information so we can apply it long term, not just brush up against it from time to time. Think about it: If there is a classic book sitting on your coffee table, you can look at it sitting there and never be the better for it. But then you could also quickly peruse it, maybe look at the table of contents. That wouldn't benefit you much more. Or, you could take a good slow read through the book and stop to reflect on the truths you learn. Now that would be good. Then you could be out and about and come across a situation that you read about - that's when you apply it. And you can only apply it if you know it! That is the test! Do you know your stuff? 6. Reflect on How You Learn - Reflection is something that doesn't happen much anymore. Reflection is deeper thought about what we know and what we do. It is where we seek meaning. It is where we take our time to find the purpose and examine what we have learned and what we have lived. This is why I promote journaling so passionately. We can take in information, then apply it because we know it, but it shouldn't stop there. We must take regular times to review what we know and what we experience so we can see if it is right, to see if it is applicable, to see if there is a better way, or shorter way or more efficient way. This only comes when we take the time to go back and think and reflect about what we have learned. So set aside the valuable time to reflect, to gather your knowledge and experience and invest them into your future. So, let's repeat the process to ourselves (that's the way we learn you know!): 1. Get your mind in the right state 2. Take in the information Copyright Victory Management, Inc. with JRI 2004,

6 3. Explore the subject deeply 4. Memorize the information 5. Test yourself to show that you really know it 6. Take time to reflect Now let's take a brief look at how to accelerate your learning: Here are five tips for accelerating your learning. 1. Apply the sequence of the process above. That is the key. Use these proven steps to put you on track for learning. 2. Make your learning regular. That is, do it on schedule. Your mind will get used to learning and become extremely efficient at it if you will train your mind to learn. 3. Be methodical. The best way to accelerate your learning is to do it every day. The person who progressively learns something every day for 30 days, applying the process above will be much better off than the person who learns nothing for 27 days and then crams for 3 days. As Robert Schuler says, "Inch by inch it is a cinch." True words. 4. Focus on doing most of the learning in your main learning style. That is your strength. Chris will talk about this below, but it is safe to say that when you are learning in the way you learn best, you will learn faster. 5. Work with a partner. Learn together. Challenge one another. Stretch one another. Compete with one another. Test one another. And of course, encourage one another. You can accelerate your learning. It just takes a little practice and learning of some new skills. Be encouraged, your mind is capable of tremendous things, and when you get into the flow of learning, you will grow in ways you have never grown before! Next, Chris is going to talk about finding your unique learning styles. Until next week, let's do something remarkable! Jim Rohn The great breakthrough in your life comes when you realize that you can learn anything you need to learn to accomplish any goal that you set for yourself. This means there are no limits on what you can be, have, or do. -- Brian Tracy Copyright Victory Management, Inc. with JRI 2004,

7 Hi there, Chris Widener here. This week I want to talk with you about finding your unique learning styles. We live in an incredible time in human history! Never before has learning had so many opportunities! Think about it for a moment--1,000 years ago, a man wakes up in a rural village and decides that he wants to learn something. What were his options? Not many! Read one of the few books in the village - if there even were any and only if he could read. Maybe he could sit at the feet of the smartest man in the village - who knew about as much about the world as the average third grader does now. Yes, we live in an incredible world: Books Tapes and CD's DVD's and videos Radio Television Educational institutions Internet And on and on... There are just so many places to get information. But there is another key that is very important and one that I want to touch briefly on-- learning styles. It is imperative that you identify your learning style because your dominate learning style will help you learn much more quickly and deeply. For example, if you learn in one way and yet you take in a certain bit of information using a different learning style, then you will not learn the information as well as if you had utilized your strongest learning style. Let me explain. There are two points I want to take us through: 1. When do you learn best? 2. How do you learn best? First, when do you learn best? Some people learn best in the morning (me for example). We like to get up at 5 or 6 and do lots of work in the morning! By ten at night I couldn't learn how to unfold a paper bag. Some people learn best at mid-day. That is when their minds are ticking right. These are the Goldilocks of learners: Not too early, not too late, but juuuuust right. And some people - the crazy people I might add - learn best at two in the morning. This is my web developer for example. He will sit and read 600-page books on how to cut code (that's geek speak for programming) at times most of us are hitting the first cycle of REM sleep. At two in the morning I can barely remember my way to the bathroom! But this really works for some people - and that's okay! Copyright Victory Management, Inc. with JRI 2004,

8 The key is to find what time you learn best and go with it. Now, what about people in school? They go primarily in the middle of the day. That's okay. Just make sure that you are doing the deep work of learning in the time when your mind is most efficient at it. Secondly, I want to talk to you a bit about how you learn. There are four predominant styles: Some people learn best from reading. Give them a book and they can learn it. Some people learn best from listening. Let them hear it and they can learn it. Some people learn best from watching. Let them see it and they can learn it. Some people learn best from doing. Let them do it - feel it - and they can learn it. It is important that you know which is your strongest style. Now yes, there will be times that you are called upon to read, but if you learn best from watching, then by all means do what you can by watching. For example, when I was in college, I would try to watch movies rather than read the books. I remember one time in college watching the movie of "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" rather than reading the book. I got an A- on the test, thank you very much... though I suffered through a four hour movie! The point is to find the way that you learn and master information best -and then pursue it! Learning is too important to use only the default learning style. It is important enough to do some research, find a book on the topic and then develop a plan for learning, which will help you become an awesome learner! Have a great week! Chris Widener If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn t need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around. -- Jim Rohn Copyright Victory Management, Inc. with JRI 2004,

9 Questions for Reflection:: Q. Do you develop your state of mind for learning as Jim discussed? How so? What could you improve? Q. How deeply do you explore your subjects? What can you do to make sure you go deep enough? Q. Do you take time for reflection? How do you think that affects you? Q. Do you know your learning style? What is it? Do you know the time of day when you learn best? When is it? Copyright Victory Management, Inc. with JRI 2004,

10 Action Steps This Week:: 1. Take some time this week to go through the learning cycle with a topic. Decide what you want to learn and then go through the cycle. Write comments here. 2. Take some time this week and specifically try to remember information through repetition so you know it inside and out. Write comments here. 3. Take some time this week to reflect and journal the things you have been learning. 4. Take some time this week to figure out your predominant learning style and then take at least one specific thing and try to learn it utilizing that style. Give an example. Copyright Victory Management, Inc. with JRI 2004,

11 Review of Brian Tracy's CD Twelve Personal strategic planning for the high performer Your income and sales goals Your overarching goal Long-time perspective Short-time perspective Three rules for financial freedom A Look Forward:: This week we will be listening to CD 13 of Brian Tracy s Success Mastery Academy. Achieving financial independence The roles of financial independence Analyzing investments The law of accumulation Two great principles of wealth Frugality and patience and More! See you next week, Chris Widener Copyright Victory Management, Inc. with JRI 2004,

12 Notes for CD Thirteen from Brian Tracy s Success Mastery Academy:: Copyright Victory Management, Inc. with JRI 2004,

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