6 Tips to Learn Better and Faster

I'm here because in 1978 I had a traumatic brain injury, and because of it I had processing issues and learning difficulties. It took me 3 or 4 years longer to learn how to read like all the other kids, and I was known throughout school— in elementary school, middle school, junior high, high school— as the boy with the broken brain. And that was my label. Shortly after I had my accident, 2 years later, my grandmother passed of Alzheimer's. And so I'm very passionate about this thing, talking about the brain and mental training. I think if there's one skill to master in the 21st century, it's your ability to learn rapidly and translate that learning into action. And that's what I'm gonna talk about now. I'm gonna give you very quickly 6 tips to learn faster. And these are tips, it's not like a training. We have the largest accelerated learning training company platform in the world. But these are things that you could use immediately. So I want everyone to write down, if you're taking notes, an acronym, BE FAST. BE FAST. And these represent the 6 keys that could help you to learn faster and absorb more information over the next few days. So the B stands for believe. And I have to address mindset first, because if you believe you can or believe you can't, either way, what? You're right. You're right, right? Henry Ford said that. Let me show you what a belief is for me. I'd like you to stand up, please. Stand up. You're like, oh, he's one of those guys. And just make some distance from the person next to you. And if you went like this, you wouldn't touch the person. So spread out a little bit. All right, shake out your body. And what I want you to do is keep your feet stationary. And I'd like you to point forward with your right hand, your right hand. And without moving your feet, I want you to turn clockwise to your right. As far as you could go, and notice where you're pointing. Take a screenshot of where you're pointing in your mind. All right, come back center and put your arms by your side. Empty your hands. Don't put them in your pockets. Just put them by your side. Take a deep breath and close your eyes and breathe normally. I'm gonna walk you through a 30-second exercise about the power of your mind, right? This is all about mind training. And I want you to imagine in your mind's eye you're pointing forward again. With your right hand, imagine you're doing that. But this time, I want you to see and feel yourself turning twice as far as you did the first time. See and feel yourself turning twice as far. Imagine that. What does that feel like? And even if you can't imagine it, imagine you can imagine it. And then again, with your eyes closed, see and feel yourself turning 3 times around. Like you're getting— it's very pleasurable. You're getting a great stretch, like you're made out of rubber. And then one more time with a big smile on your face, thinking, what does this have to do with mind training? See and feel yourself going around 4 times. 1, 2, 3, 4. All right, watch this. Everyone open your eyes. Now point forward with your right hand. Now watch this. Turn as far as you can now go. Wow. Clap if you went further the second time. Clap, clap if you went further the second time. Clap. Have a seat. So my question for you, and I'm watching here, some of you went 25, a few of you went 50% further. Now my question is, were you physically capable of turning that far the first time? Like nobody took a yoga class and my eyes were closed, right? You're physically capable. Where was the limitation if there was one? You know, in your mind. And so you didn't work harder. And the metaphor is, in what areas of your life can you go 25, 50% further because we're not being held back by a limiting belief, right? Yeah. The E in BE FAST is exercise. And actually, I do mean physical exercise. Moving throughout the day is so very important. And there are 2 exercises that I do with people. So stand up again, please. What I want you to do is take your hand or your elbow and just touch the opposite knee and just go back and forth. So this is something out of educational kinesiology, popularized by a brand called Brain Gym. These are cross crawls. And as you're crossing the midline, You have these connections between your left and right brain. It's a wonderful way to prime yourself to learn and to be able to focus. Do this. Massage your earlobe with your opposite hand, and then do the other one. And inhale and squat. Exhale and come on up. Are we getting this on camera? Inhale, go down. Exhale, come on up. And then one more time. Inhale, go down. And exhale, come on up. All right, shake out your body and have a seat. So the E is exercise. Remember, the primary reason you have a brain is to control your movement. And as your body moves, your brain grooves. As your body moves, your brain grooves. It's tough though, because sometimes we're sitting down, they say, behind screens all day, and they say sitting is the new smoking. But I encourage people to take these brain breaks, even while you're here, to be able to move your body. All right? Now, going into this really quickly, FAST, the F is forget. And as a memory expert, it's interesting, in order to learn something new, Today, tomorrow, the next day. If you feel like you know it already, you're not going to learn it, right? So temporarily forget what you know about this subject because your mind is like a parachute. It only works when it's opened, right? The A— everyone do this. Shake out your hand. Shake out your hand. Make a fist. Put it to your chin. Now everybody, where's your chin? All right, the A is really being active. with your attention, right? A lot of times you're not forgetting someone's name, you're just not hearing the name, right? The art of learning is the art of attention and being active in your learning, right? Taking notes, asking questions. You know, 3 questions I ask throughout the day that help me take knowledge and turn it into action are, how can I use this? I'm obsessed with this question. How can I use what I'm hearing? Why must I use this? When will I use this? I think for every hour you spend learning something, you have to spend an equal hour applying it, right? The S in FAST is state. And what I mean by that is all learning is state dependent, your emotional state. Your middle brain, you have your hippocampus, memory, and it's connected, looks like a seahorse, it's connected to this almond-shaped part of your brain called the amygdala, which is processing emotions. We remember things that touch us emotionally. And so, like right now, if you learn something in a bored state, you're not gonna retain it. 'Cause the key is information times emotion becomes a long-term memory, right? Like right now, do this exercise. Sit the way you'd be sitting if you're very excited about me speaking to you today. Sit the way you'd be sitting. Now, why do you even have to move? But you know you can control your emotional state by changing your posture, your breathing, your facial expressions. Your physiology affects your psychology. So the next few days, be conscious that if you're in this kind of State here, you know, bored state, you're not gonna retain that information. And you control your state, right? You have state regulation, you have agency. And finally, the last tip here, the T, is teach. There's something called the explanation effect. And that states that when you have an intention, when you're learning something, to learn it to teach it to somebody else, you're gonna learn it better. That just makes sense, right? Like if you had to give a TEDx talk next week on what the highlights of what you learned in the next few days, Would you focus better? Yes or no? Yes, right? Would you take better notes? Would you ask more questions during the break? So when you teach something, you get to learn it twice. All right? So I just want everybody to presence those 6 things. You know, I believe that if knowledge is power, then learning really is your superpower. Thank you very much. Thank you.