Author Unknown

Did you know that people compete every year to win the U.S. Memory Championship? To attain the rank of grand master of memory, you must be able to memorize 1,000 digits in under an hour, the exact order of 10 shuffled decks of playing cards in under an hour, and one shuffled deck in less than two minutes.

To this day, there are only 36 grand masters of memory in the world.

And while you may not be interested in memorizing digits and playing cards, I’m sure all of us would like to increase our mental brain power. Whether you want to quickly memorize the periodic table, learn a new language, recite the names of each president forwards and backwards, or cut down on your studying time, the following memory techniques will help you do it.

The brain wasn’t designed to remember abstract symbols like numbers and miscellaneous facts. However, if you can translate those symbols into vivid visual images and associations, even the dullest list of dates can become as memorable as your own telephone number. The key is to develop a system that allows for quick encoding and easy recall.....Read more »

Written by Fadzil Dolmani

Fear and reward are two most commonly used methods to build motivation in someone. But, these methods are temporary. The only lasting thing is self motivation. Motivation actually is the enthusiasm of doing something. It refers to inner feeling, strong desires, and expectation about something. You may sometimes loose the necessary level of the inner drive to get something done. Self motivation is what you need to boost the level of your inner drive to achieve your goals.

Self motivation is a form of self encouragement. You will say to yourself that you have the capacity to do better and eventually get whatever you want in your life. This inner enthusiasm will push you forward until you achieve your set goals. You may not even be aware of any reward in the beginning but you keep working on it. You work on it because your inner strength says that you can attain your goals. This is your will power - the driving force behind your self motivation. Self motivation is a combination of will power, goals and ability to continue attaining the highest level of your success.....Read more »

Written by Anne Warfield

Negotiating does not have to be a sweat session. Matter of fact, if you use these key principles, negotiating becomes a fun event. The four key things are:

1. your attitude going in to the negotiation
2. your focus on an outcome instead of the process
3. your ability to read the other person’s thoughts through their body language
4. and your ability to speak and think positively from the other person’s perspective.

In the article we are going to look at how to plan a negotiation since that affects your attitude going in and it affects the outcome you work towards. Whether you are negotiating for a raise, a job promotion, with a client or with a coworker, you need to know what you want to get out of the negotiation. And you need to know this from the other person’s perspective, not yours. You might be thinking, what are you saying???....Read more »

The winter is truly over. Spring is well and truly here — there are daffodils in my gardens, the sun is shining and I am sat writing this on my balcony watching the waves of the sea rolling in.

At the time of writing this, this weekend was the time when I had to do the longest of my training runs prior to London Marathon in a couple of weeks’ time — 22 miles across the sea front and the New Forest, and the beautiful weather helped me lift my feet in those latter miles.

Adam gets nostalgic and uses sci-fi for personal development, yet again!

I had lunch with a friend of mine that I went to school with at the weekend, and he was pulling my leg, laughing and speaking about how I used to be an avid sci-fi film and TV buff when I was at school and that I used to profess to my ridiculing friends that it was far more educational than anything they watched.....Read more »