Improving your mind revolves around enhancing your self-awareness, memory, and cognitive abilities. Together, these skills help you learn and use information to solve problems. Self-awareness tools and techniques make developing learning strategies easy.
We can identify ten core skill areas that affect the functioning of the mind. Enhancing these improves the cognitive processes of the mind. The right tools help us find and remove the roadblocks to our growth so we can achieve our full potential.
It is essential to raise everyone’s learning and cognitive abilities. The lower your level of functioning, the easier it is to control you. Many people and organizations want to control what we think to sell things. They want to keep people at the lowest level possible so they can manipulate them. So, developing learning strategies is a protective measure that makes us less vulnerable to harmful propaganda. All we need to do is use the proper self-awareness tools and techniques.
What Do Learning Skills Involve?
Without a doubt, learning skills are a necessity in today’s complex world. The best time to get them is in adolescence, from 10 to 19. Sadly, many people don’t get them during this period and then often suffer from poor decision-making as a result of their absence.
These skills are like trees. The best time to plant them was ten years ago. Since we can’t go back in time, today is the next best time, not tomorrow. You can start developing learning strategies today to fill in gaps or correct deficiencies.
Self-Awareness Tools And Techniques
The quality of decision-making depends on two things:
— Our level of awareness
— The capacity of memory
It is important to realize that if we have any bias and prejudice in our worldview have a negative effect on our thinking and awareness. The less bias and prejudice we have, the clearer our thinking. We can measure memory capacity by how much and what kinds of information we can memorize.
We can measure how quickly we learn and how accurately we recall information. If you increase memory capacity, you make better decisions. So, self-awareness tools and techniques focus on the skills that increase your capabilities.
Developing Learning Strategies
Most people can easily diagnose their weak learning skills by reading through the list of skills and methods. If you are honest with yourself, you’ll see where you have some gaps. There are more elaborate tests that can confirm what you need, but you don’t need this level of detail to know where you should start.
The learning skill with the least capability determines your general learning level—this is your learning blind spot. If you enhance your blind spot, you increase your overall learning ability. Here’s an alphabetical list of methods and skills that affect your thinking. With this in mind, read the following list of skills and find your blind spots, then design your own plan to fill in the gaps.
1) Abstract Thinking
Abstract thinking is the ability to think about complex concepts. Exercising abstract thinking is a higher thinking process that involves conceptual understanding. It often requires analysis, evaluation, and the synthesis of data to form conclusions.
It’s one of the most overlooked skills in the modern world because it is easy to find things using the internet. While the internet is useful for some things, it eliminates the need for abstract thought and problem-solving. It also reduces our use of memory. Because of this, abstract thinking is an important part of any core learning skills program. It involves understanding and using complex concepts where the causal connection is not apparent.
For example, we see aircraft in the sky every day, but few people can explain the formula for flight. Here are the basics. The maximum height of an object, given the initial launch angle and the initial velocity, is found with a simple formula. The formula is: (h=v2isin2θi2g h = v i 2 sin 2 θ i 2 g). Similarly, the time of flight of an object, given the initial launch angle and the initial velocity. We find this with the formula: (T=2visinθg T = 2 v i sin.)
You may not understand the above equations or the science behind other complex theories. Theories of evolution and climate change require an understanding of several disciplines. However, just because you don’t understand something doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Be mindful. Social media is full of uninformed or misinformed opinions about these subjects. When developing learning strategies, make sure you use accurate and reliable resources.
Creative Writing
Being creative, writing stories, creating art, music, and poems involves dealing with abstract concepts. This activity facilitates neuroplasticity and promotes mindfulness. It’s an age-old tool that works well today, especially in a culture that depends more and more on automation.
Puzzles and Brain Teasers
Jigsaw puzzles, crosswords, and Sudoku help sharpen our abstract problem-solving capabilities. They are fun pastimes with concrete benefits.
2) Adaptability
Adaptability is the ability to respond quickly to change. Successful people share this trait, which is why it is one of the most sought-after skills for employers. To be adaptable, one must be able to consider known and unknown variables.
In short, challenge yourself mentally and physically to improve your ability to adapt. Exercise the mind and the body. Learn a new language, try a new exercise routine.
Continuous Learning
Update your knowledge. Don’t just listen or read social media to consume. Use it to learn. Question what you hear and read. Stay open-minded.
Practice Mindfulness Meditation
Meditation helps us to be more adaptable because they connect us with our intuition and calm our minds. We are much more adaptable when we have a calm mindset.
Seek Ways to Challenge Your Thinking
Do things outside of your comfort zone. Challenge yourself by trying new food and hobbies.
3) Analytical Thinking Abilities
Analytical thinking is a common-sense approach to problem-solving. It is a skill set that involves analyzing data using simple math and logic.
Identify and Avoid Common Fallacies that Deceive
These skills help us identify and avoid the common fallacies used to deceive. They include learning how arguments are used and how to spot their misuse.
Leverage Critical Thinking and Intuitive Abilities
In addition, critical thinking skills leverage intuitive thinking skills. They enable one to brainstorm, detect patterns, and interpret data differently. The core of critical thinking focuses on logic and rational thinking.
4) Attention Control
Attention control is the ability to choose what to focus on and what to ignore. It is the ability to focus on complex tasks for long periods. Attention control is a key component of perception (1). It is the platform for decision-making that produces the best outcomes. Attention control has three levels: sustained, selective, and alternating.
This ability helps us sustain attention so we can concentrate on complex tasks for long periods. This skill also helps us ignore unnecessary data or distractions to maintain concentration.
There are also several practical exercises to increase attention control. These include physical exercise, mindfulness meditation, and memory enhancement techniques. Using smart goals for your daily routine can enhance your attention control.
5) Cultivate the Ability to Deal with Ambiguity
We don’t always have all the data or the time to find all the data, but we still need to make decisions that affect our lives. As we deal with life’s uncertainties and ambiguities, it helps us cope more effectively with change. We can handle risk and doubt and still make quality decisions.
Flexibility and adaptability are skills we can cultivate. Here, we must first identify and remove the barriers preventing clear thinking. Another key point we mentioned before, prejudice, bias, and racism, are barriers to thinking. Maintaining emotional equilibrium in stressful situations when dealing with ambiguity is crucial.
6) Use Strategies for Enhancing Memory
If we were to list these skills in order of importance, memory would be number one. After all, memory is the foundation of our core learning skills program. Several memory enhancement techniques enable us to create a memory palace. Learn how to create a memory pegboard system, and you’ll find it is well worth the time and effort.
Above all, daily practice is important. Even one minute of mental rehearsal with the tactics of the memory place has a huge effect. The most effective people practice strategies for enhancing memory.
7) Goal Setting and Planning
Goal setting and planning are skills of “follow-through.” A good planner learns to follow through with good intentions. Goal setting involves following through on a specific objective. You have a better chance of reaching any goal if you write it down, and you have a better chance of reaching your goal if you have a viable plan to get there.
Here are the secret formulas:
First, create written SMART goals with reasonable plans to accomplish them. SMART is an acronym for goal setting:
— Specific
— Measurable
— Achievable or Actionable
— Reasonable or Relevant and
— Time-sensitive
If your goals and your plan to achieve them have these elements, you are more likely to reach the ultimate objective. Second, by all means, break your big goals into smaller objectives and timeframes.
For example, if your educational goal is to get a Ph.D. in physics, start by making sure your goal is reasonable. Do you have an aptitude for physics? Can you have a strong background in algebra, trigonometry, and calculus? Do you have a strong background in scientific theory?
8) Inhibition Control
Inhibition control deals with our ability to control instinctual urges. It gives us the option to substitute healthy for unhealthy things. It involves observing and controlling thoughts, attention, and emotions. We are not trying to ignore these impulses but inhibit automatic responses.
It is one of the self-awareness tools and techniques companies use to train executives. You learn it, too. Sit with another person and get them to pretend they are angry. Then, you practice controlling your emotions and de-escalating the situation. It is, without a doubt, a valuable skill to learn.
With this in mind, practice hard job interview questions in a mirror. Learn to control nervousness and the use of filler language which detracts from your answer.
9) Self and Social Awareness
Self-awareness and social awareness enable us to leverage the benefits of a healthy mindset. When we increase our self-awareness, it illuminates those character traits we need to repair or replace. If you don’t know these defects exist, you cannot address them.
For this reason, increasing self-awareness helps us navigate the complexities of relationships. Healthy relationships make life more meaningful.
Practice Journaling for Self-Awareness
The practice of journaling has many benefits, and chances are there is at least one kind of journal that will enhance your life. When we conduct seminars, the journal is the first spiritual tool we recommend everyone have.
10) Sensory Learning Skills
We have five senses, along with our imagination, to expedite learning. Many learning platforms are based on auditory and visual input. We can learn to augment this by using our imagination to add kinesthetic, taste, and smell. The more connections we make to new information, the easier it is to learn and remember.
Sensory learning is a subset of memory enhancement. When emotion is added to the mix, we have a powerful learning system.
The five senses have physical limitations, but imagination has no limitations. Perceptual learning involves exercises to enhance observational skills.
Perceptual learning then refers to an increase in the ability to extract information from the environment, as a result of experience and practice, with stimulation coming from it. That the change should be in the direction of getting better information is a reasonable expectation, since man has evolved in the world and constantly interacts with it. Adaptive modification of perception should result in better correlation with events and objects that are sources of stimulation, as well as an increase in the capacity to utilize potential stimulation. — Gibson E.J. Century Psychology Series. Meredith Corporation; New York, NY: 1969. Principles of perceptual learning and development (2)
In Conclusion
It’s never too late to enhance one’s mind’s abilities. Pick the learning mode from the list above, which is your blind spot. If you can increase your blind spot, you increase your overall learning ability. When you learn, you improve your life.
References
(1) Fundamental components of attention. The National Library of Medicine.
(2) Principles of perceptual learning and development, Worldct.org