Dr. John A. King explains George Miller's 1956 discovery that working memory holds about seven items at once. Your mindset shifts this capacity up or down: positive thinking pushes toward nine items, negative thinking toward five. This mental flexibility, King argues, matters more than education for how much you can think through at once.
Did you know that you literally control how much you're capable of processing or thinking about at any one time? There is a principle and we talk about it, we'll be talking about it over the next couple of weeks that was discovered that your brain has a capacity to literally hold at any one time 7 plus or minus 2 things. It can hold 7 plus 2 thoughts, or it can hold 7 minus 2 thoughts. So your mind's capacity to be able to hold thoughts and ideas isn't static. And in fact, you control how much your mind can actually contain at any one time. Point in time. Whether or not you can hold 7 plus 2 or 7 plus 5 isn't determined upon your education or your training, but upon your attitude in life. If you're positive, your mind can hold 7 plus 2. If you're thinking negative about life and yourself, you can only focus on 7 plus 2. minus 2 things. You see, thoughts are things. This very simple principle that was discovered in 1956 by George Miller proves the fact that there is no secret to success. We'll be talking about this and many other principles over the coming weeks. I look forward to seeing you next week.
