IQ Adult is about extending your mind.

Now girls and boys we have a story about the Habit.

Habits are invisible creatures that grow in the maze of the magical Synaptic Mind Forest, a very spooky place that’s always growing and changing until it can’t find any more Stimuli, which it feeds on.

Stimuli wander in from the outside and are gobbled up by the Synapses to make more tentacles. They like their tentacles because they can ‘shake hands’ or make contact with other Synapses. When they do this; they get stronger, like a big social network. And that’s good.

The world wide web and internet is a big social network just like the Synapses built, but they did it first. And we couldn't have done it without them. In fact, we can’t do anything without them. Synapses rule. OK.

Now, the Habits come from the land of Potential (a very, very strange place). When Synapses join up they open the rabbit hole to Potential just a teensy bit. And every time they do, the Habits grow stronger.

Now, Synapses and Habits both have a stupid side to them. They eat any Stimulus that happens to be there. It doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad, they don’t care. So if you put bad Stimuli into your Mind the Synapses will grab them and help make the Habits stronger. And that’s not really wise.

“How come?” you say. That’s a Question and they’re great to have on your side but sometimes hurt when they’re thrown at you. Hit them with an Answer and they go away. There’s some sitting on the keyboard so have this one.

Good Habits make life easier by helping you do, or get whatever you want. Get enough of them and they’ll help you achieve anything that is possible. Yes, anything. You know they’re working because life is fulfilling and you feel happy and smile a lot. You also help other people achieve this. The more Stimuli you put in to strengthen the good Habits, the better you make your life. And the lives of those near you change too.

So what is possible? It’s very easy to say - far, far more than you know is possible. Honest. Nobody knows how much is possible.

The bad Habits work the same way but they make you feel good for a little while, but then turn on you to make you feel bad. They’re nasty critters. Some people don’t even get to feel good at all because the bad thinking Habits have taken over the Mind. Good thinking Stimuli don’t get a chance. They may come in but there are not enough of them to make a difference. Some people actually think being unhappy is normal so they make the most of it by feeding Complaints to the Habits.

They continually complain so people get annoyed and don’t want to see them, which is good for them because that’s something else to complain about. People who don’t want to see them sometime complain about them, which is making their bad Habits stronger.

The best idea is to delete them from your life and continue to associate with good Stimuli.

What can we do about this? We can starve the bad Habits and make the good Habits stronger. It’s easy to say but the bad Habits will fight back. The trick is to ignore them. When they come in say, “I know what they’re doing but I don’t want this bad Habit anymore.” That’s when you make a Stimulus for a good Habit. “Thinking makes it so”. Just by thinking about good Habits, you’re making Stimuli for them to grow. The more often you do it, the more effective they are. Keep reinforcing good Habits.

Visualize yourself bashing the bad Habit and turning to the good Habit to shake hands. Good Habits really are your friends.

What form do bad Habits take? Well Habits are invisible until they show themselves. The obvious ones like addiction, aggression are easy to see and come from unresolved conflict. Habits like low self esteem, saying “can’t”, demeaning other people, keeping nasty secrets or wanting to hurt people, and a lot more are slower to recognise but they're just as bad. The trick is to see them.

Part of an athletes practice involves visualizing the event they're training for. In essence it's making the act of winning a Habit as much as the physical training. Practice involves repetition until it becomes a strong Habit.

Use Habits because they're powerful, but make sure you make the right ones.

Housework.

Re the memory issue. I’ve been asked to say how to memorize a shopping list. It seems obvious. Visualize the shopping centre. Outside are people throwing EGGS at each other but you get past to walk through the strands of SPAGHETTI across the door. Inside, instead of checkout counters there are giant loaves of BREAD which you climb over to fall into a pool of MILK… It’s that simple.

Use the same idea for study keywords. Someone’s birth and death dates can be visualized on a tombstone with their name and a symbol of their fame. Use ‘cat’ for ‘catalyst’ etc. Most important is to USE IT often.

The free lesson on names with faces is still available at iqadult@gmail.com

I want to get you to make comments about the subjects covered here. YOU could be the very first. Let me know what you want to hear about. Only six people wrote for the free names/memory lesson but didn't post comments. Let us hear you.

The answer to last weeks puzzle is - Japan.

Puzzle - Adam wanted to go to the Sci Fi convention but he wanted to get there 10 min early. He thought his watch was 10 mins slow but it was really 15 mins fast.

How many minutes early or late was he, or did he get there on time?

IQ Adult is about extending your mind.

"I'll always remember what's her name." How many of us have done that?
Memory lapses are so common, but most people don't know that the memory can be improved with some very simple exercises.

The mind responds to training just like muscles do, only it's more fun. Could you remember 100 unrelated nouns in order, backwards and forwards or from any place in between? Impossible? You will in a few moments. Read these words;

man, tree, swimming pool, elephant, sandwich, briefcase, kettle, dollar, map, hat, nose, bus, fish, rope, moon, train, rain, egg, door, spaghetti, ball, shoe, brain, comb, poem.

Look away and repeat them. Now. Yes, now. Most people will get less than six.

The magic is in association and vividness. Associate 'man' and 'tree' in a silly graphic fashion. See a tree growing men like leaves, make them naked if you want, or a man frantically trying to get a tree off his back. Visualize this with action, movement and make it silly. Nobody is looking inside your brain so let imagination run free. Next, link 'tree' and 'pool'. See a tree taking a swim in a pool. Don't bother remembering 'man'. That's taken care of.

Now leave 'tree'. Go to a tiny 'pool' with an 'elephant' leaping into it. See the huge splash. Forget 'pool'. Think of an 'elephant sandwich'. Make it funny. Spend a little time doing these associations. They'll happen faster as you practice. Next is a business man carrying a 'sandwich' instead of a 'briefcase'. He opens it to take out a steaming 'kettle' (see the steam) that pours 'dollars'.

It's ok to use a story but if it ends without going anywhere, just leave it and go on with the last word association. Instead of 'dollars', people could be paying you in 'maps' which you make into a very fancy 'hat'. Women are wearing 'hats' shaped like 'noses'. It's the latest craze. See them.

Continue this with all the words but only two at a time. Leave the previous words. There's no need to think of them. They're already remembered.

When you've finished, write them down. 'Man' was the first.

Now you'll find you can easily recite them backward or from any place in between. Get a friend to test you. Amazing? You can remember 100 words in the same way. All you're doing is taking two words at a time. Review this tomorrow, in your head, and you've got them for a long time.

Now for the hard part. People learn this and don't use it. Crazy. Remember your shopping list; your study keywords; any list of words. As you keep doing it, it will become second nature.

Congratulations.

• LEARN TO MEMORIZE NAMES WITH FACES.
  
• Email me at iqadult@gmail.com Put "names" in the subject line.
  
• This is a free report.
  

PUZZLE. John has lived a third of his life in England, then a sixth of it in the USA, and twelve years in Japan. He then spent half the remainder of his time in Australia and the same amount of time as in the USA, in Africa.
Where was he on his 40th birthday? Answer next week.

Think about it.
Jay Ross.

IQ Adult is about enlarging your mind.

Welcome.

Last weeks' post stated we'd look at study techniques.

Beside the usual conditions of no distractions, a set time each day, access to reference material and space to do the job, you should always start a "discovery session" with a question. What am I trying to do? Set a purpose and aim for it. Is it to understand how something works, write a precis, sort through facts to a conclusion, remember figures? The idea is to establish relevance.

* We learn by linking to what we already know. If you want to teach or be understood, link (associate) with what your audience knows. Pluto? God of the underworld? Plutocracy? The Disney dopey dog? The planetoid? How many moons does the planetoid have? If you thought of the dog, imagine three balls going around the dogs' head like in cartoons. Tell someone Pluto has three balls. You've associated and learnt.

* Get an overview. Briefly read the beginning and end of your reference works and any headings in between. A student I know who consistantly does well, reads childrens' encyclopedia articles for the simple overview. Cleaver. There's a vast amount of info in precis form on the net. Fill in the details as your understanding demands.

* Ask how, when, where, why, what and who. Why did it happen? What drove them to do this?

* Study to tell somebody. Whether it's another student, family or examiner, it forces you to organise thoughts. Find an interesting part and build your knowledge around it. If you live with a student, ask them what they learnt today. It helps them organise and review the information.

* Review within 24 hours. Go over the subject and reinforce what you know. There'll be vague bits that you can clarify. Longer than a day lets the info fade. To be really sure, skim over the lot again within 7 days.

* Look for faults. In one week I read that the population of Sydney was 3.2, 3.8 and 5 million. I also read a maths textbook that had a glaring error in a simple probability lesson. Even teachers make mistakes.

* Visualise. Make "mind maps" or family trees of relationships between facts, events,characters.

* The more senses you use, the more will be remembered. "The Nile is the longest river but the Amazon has the greatest volume." If you say it and then look in an atlas, you'll know it. Use touch, sound, taste or smell wherever you can.

Next Friday you can increase your memory. There is no such thing as a bad memory; only an unused one. This is easy and fun and you can teach others to do it.

How many moons has Pluto? Now a link - One of them is almost half as big as Pluto!