Challenge Yourself
by Alan Pritt
Challenges are great, because they are a test of how techniques work in the real world. They also show you where you have major weaknesses; giving you the opportunity to work on these first.
If you've never set a challenge for yourself before, you will probably find quite a few stumbling blocks. Some of these may be expected; others will be less obvious.
For example: when I tried to learn German, I had expected memory difficulties and difficulties with grammar, but I wasn't expecting discipline problems. Discipline really slowed down my progress, and I've still got some work to do to improve it. But the great news is: something like discipline will serve me in everything I do... for life. As a result, everything else I learn in the future will be that little bit easier.
There are some caveats to challenges. Many techniques need to be practiced as techniques before they become usable in a challenge. For this reason you may find that they slow down the accomplishment of your challenge before they start to speed it up.
Also, until you've practiced a technique it can be difficult to fully understand its uses. This makes it difficult to know challenges you should apply it to.
Finally many of the methods for improving intelligence have to be trained separately. Sensory development or health improvements, for example, are not really techniques but will help you out as well. Think of it as the difference between practicing your tennis serve, and working out in the gym.
Still, challenges are a great way to get started; and you can always fill in the gaps later.
Choosing the Challenge
First thing to consider is the fact that you may already be involved in some kind of challenge. You may be studying for exams, or have reports to write, or you may be learning a language, or some other intellectual goal. If this is the case, you probably don't want to burden yourself by taking on more intellectual pursuits. So use your existing challenge.If you're not currently challenging yourself in some way, then you're going to have to pick something.
Depending on your individual circumstances there will be different goals that will be most beneficial to you. If you're in sales you may want to challenge yourself to remember more of your customer's names, preferences and desires. If you are about to go on holiday, you may like to spend a week learning a little about the language and the customs. If you are studying for a physics degree you may like to get a genuine understanding of the theory of relativity.
Usually it is best to choose a challenge which will bring you the greatest reward or benefit. But such goals can often be too daunting. If this is the case, go for something smaller, build up your confidence and then take on something bigger next time.
If you've never really tested yourself before, I highly recommend you go for something smaller. You may find it takes you a lot longer than you predict. Unexpected problems can arise, and slow your progress considerably. So start with something you think will take you a day, then move up to a week, a month and then 3 months.
My progression has been something like this:
(There were more challenges in between, but this should make my point.)
If you are going for a large challenge (like gaining a degree, or learning a musical instrument), it makes sense to break it into smaller steps first anyway. These steps should be useful in their own right, so that in case you decide to change direction, the work you've done will still be of use.
Make a plan
Make a plan of how you are going to accomplish the task and what techniques you think may help. You may find that other techniques are needed as you go along, but just give yourself a rough plan to start with.Don't spend too long on this. Don't research it too much to begin with. You can always improve your plan later; the main thing is for you to get started.
Get started
As you progress through your challenge you will probably meet some hurdles. If you don't, you've given yourself an easy challenge. When you find something easy to learn, you're gaining more knowledge, but you are not stretching yourself and improving your intelligence. There's nothing wrong with that, but it is worth bearing in mind.You may also find that some of the techniques seem to impede your learning. If you find yourself slowing down, either you are using the wrong method for the task, or you just need to become better at using a particuarly method. Sometimes you have to have a little faith and keep trying.
One example of this is touch typing. A couple of years ago I decided to learn to touch type and found that it dramatically slowed down my typing speed. But I persevered because I had faith that eventually it would make me a lot faster. The rewards of perseverance are now paying off. It would have been easy for me to go back to my old method, but in the long term it would have cost me a lot of time.
Remember that you are investing in the future. Once you know the technique you will be able to use it in a variety of situations in the future - making life considerably easier.
Encountering Problems
Problems and sticking points in your learning are to be looked at positively. These are the moments when you really begin to grow. Overcoming those problems will bring great rewards and make learning in the future easier.When you find something is particularly difficult to learn, try approaching it from different angles. The techniques on this site are here to give you different ideas for approaching a learning task. Not everything can be covered, however, so your task is to fill the gaps where outside advice can't help. Usually you are on your own and you have to figure out everything for yourself. This site's aim is to give you methods for tackling the most difficult learning problems.
If you find you are having problems with a particular technique on this site, treat that as a challenge. While not all techniques are good for all situations, they should all work well in their suggested situations. If they are not, keep persisting with them and you'll find out how to get them to work. Everybody is different and will apply the techniques in their own unique way. This is why I can't address every scenario specifically.
Finish Line
When you complete your challenge, you will not only have achieved your goal; you will also have made conquering new challenges that little bit easier in the future. The more you learn, the easier you will find it to learn. If you struggle through things you find particularly difficult, you will be enhancing that skill all the more. The more difficult something is, the more it will boost your intelligence.With enough persistence, you will eventually figure out all the techniques you need to learn anything. Your in-build ability to figure out how to learn new things will fill the gaps that myself or others don't (or can't) fill. My writings will simply make the process faster, by saving you the trouble of working everything out for yourself. It will save you reinventing all those training wheels!
When you get to that finish line, and complete your challenge, you will have the same euphoria that you will get at the end of a race. You will have won, your life will be that much better for it, and you will have a true sense of accomplishment. And the next challenge will be easier.
