10/13/2010

Turbo Charge Your Personal Development - Part One

Get 90% more from your current and future personal development programs using a system that not only makes sure you listen and finish the program, but extracts the key points that will make the most impact in your life.

Let's say You have just purchased your next personal development program / book, so now what do you do? They say only 10% of the people even get past the first CD/ Tape/ chapter, let alone finish.

Would you like to know how to get at least 90% more from all of the personal development programs you have just purchased? And no, I won’t tell you to just listen to them 5 times.

Yes, that would increase your results, but not as much as what I am going to share. Besides who has the time to listen to their programs 5 times?

How about getting more out of the first time?

Let’s say you are one of the few people that actually gets to the end of one of those personal development programs. How would you like to have a system to guarantee that you implement all the great stuff you just learned? How many times have you heard some really great ideas, only to find yourself 4 weeks later not applying any of it?

Your first step is to setup a system to insure you actually finish the program. It will do you no good if you never hear the message. These steps might seem cumbersome, however in part Two of this article, I will introduce you to a tool that will make these steps easier.

The first step is to be Accountable to someone that you will finish the program. Now this is a very easy step to brush off, but committing to someone else will send a very powerful message to your subconscious mind and clear away a lot of the future mental hiccups.

Tell your Accountability Buddy when you will complete this program and that you will be giving them weekly updates on your progress. I will explain what you will put in those weekly progress reports below.

Now you have a system in place to give you the best chance of completing your personal development program. It's time to start. Choose a schedule of when you want to learn the program.

Each day you scheduled yourself to listen to the program, write down a Yes or No to the question, “Did I listen to my personal development program today?” Use a spiral bound steno-pad or notebook so that you don't lose your notes.

Next, write down the most important piece of information about the program you learned.

These two pieces of information are going to be what is in the progress reports you give your Accountability Buddy each week. Once you complete the program, review your progress reports and celebrate your victory with your Accountability Buddy.

Why does this work?

There are a couple of forces at play here. The first is being accountable to someone else. We all want to look good to our friends, so being on the hook to complete the program will definitely get us to extend ourselves. We might not be 100%, but we will definitely get much more done than if we didn’t employ our Accountability Buddy.

The next force at play is tracking what we are doing. No longer will life be a blur of events that get lost in the past. We will have a very specific history of where we are slipping and we will have the chance to make course corrections along the way.

We all make mistakes and slip up sometimes. It is only when we have no clue as to when it is happening that we can find ourselves in deep trouble.

Lastly, you are employing a system of super learning called spaced repetition to lock the new information into your long term memory. First, you listen to the material. Later that day, you write down the most important point anchoring that information in your mind.

Upon completion of the program, you lock the information in your long term memory with your final review, not to mention, it is always there if your need a quick refresh.


Part Two coming in the next post - look for it right here tomorrow.
... Richard

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