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Do You Know How to Figure Things Out? 

8/27/2015

17 Comments

 
PictureWhat's Behind Your Mind's Door #1?
Learn-2-Learn Series (Part 4 – Sensing and Intuitive Learning Techniques)

Many people learn differently. Some learn by Sensing and others by Intuition.  These are the most basic of the learning styles in that they are the ones people use most and find themselves using in almost every learning situation. Either through theory or real world application.

We will go over the techniques for these learning styles, but remember… to become a true meta-learner, you must learn to learn beyond the techniques that make you feel comfortable. 

*Note – Techniques used by each style can work and be useful to the other styles. Just because one may statistically be better for one does not mean it won’t work for you. Try them all and experiment a little.

How to Use Sensing Techniques to Learn

Sensors learn through practical exercises. If it doesn’t have anything to do with the real world or be useful in a way they can use it in the real world. They will tune it out and consider it a waste of time to learn.  Because of this, as a Sensing Learner, it is imperative to get exercises using methods, processes, formulas, and actual examples of its use in the real world. Therefore, when learning find how something you learn fits in the practical knowledge of what you do every day.

How?

Find Real World Professionals Using the Knowledge You’re Learning Today.

This can be done by interviewing, working with, or even just watching videos of how people do what they do in the real world. This allows you to see the practical knowledge in the mess of theory and concepts.

Find practical exercises you can do on how to physically do something like sew, program code, or anything else you’re trying to learn.

Look online or in person for practical exercises on how to learn a skill you want.

Want to learn to sew? Sew a blanket.

Want to learn to build a house? Build a dog house and learn the basics.

Want to learn to program? Develop a program, application, or tool that you can use.

The idea is to not learn something useless, but how to actually ‘DO” something. Not the concept of how to do something.

Figure out how to input the new information into what you do every day.

This is my favorite technique as it entails you to actually understand your life and how you work within it. Because if you know the inner workings of your life, you are easily able to input new information into your inner workings and instead of having to rebuild your life around it, you simply apply it into the grand scheme of what you’re already doing.   

This can be easily done if you keep a Day Journal.

A day journal can be an important part of any person’s life by logging all your accomplishments, your botch-ups, and everything in-between.

Why is it so important?

Because a day journal helps you track the things you do. Letting you know which are helping you with what you want to do with your life, and those that aren’t.  By identifying the things that went right. You can continue them and understand why they went right and how to keep them right.

For example, being able to get to the end of the day and seeing the things you actually accomplished is inspiring and gets you pumped up for tomorrow. For me, being able to see that I wrote my weekly blog post t as well as went to the gym inspires me to keep succeeding.   It lets me sleep, knowing that I was productive and had many everyday victories.

Going in the opposite direction.

It allows you to see places in your life where you would like to improve. As it is more easy to see the patterns as they emerge and eliminate them before they become too much of a problem. This can go to understand your bad patterns such as sleeping-in too much. Allowing you to think up a solution such as moving your alarm clock out of arm’s length to get you out of bed and more likely to not sleep in as a result.

How to Use Intuitive Learning Techniques

Intuitive Learners learn through interpretations or theories that link to facts. This is helpful in establishing the way things can work and when combined in finding how they do. The key for Intuitives is to be able to easily learn the concepts and theories of how things work through connecting the information.

How?

Find out how to put Two and Two Together.

For every theory or concept, you need to be able to look and find connections from theories to real life. This entails being able to put two and two together by asking questions, being able to see how things connect in general, and following the trail of clues. This makes learning in this style a lot harder as many of the ways to learn this way comes from a general knowledge of how things work in universally and applying them to a multitude of situations. However, anyone can learn to harness its power in varying degrees, now let’s get started. How to Put Two and Two Together and Build Theories Yourself.

First: Asking Questions Will Lead to Answers

Asking questions is the best way to get answers. Which is why asking questions to professors, professionals, or anyone who has information you seek. Having all the information is the first step to being able to connect it.

Second: Find Clues

After you’re done asking questions, it’s time to find clues of how things work by looking at real life situations such as the methods, processes, and formulas of people, events, and scenarios. The more you know, the more dots you will have to connect. This can include research. To find the information, you can look at newspapers, reports, and other material to build information off. You can also experiment to verify information.

Third: Connect the Dots

To connect the dots, you have to have a map of the information you’re trying to combine. Each piece of information has to be connected to see the big picture. This can be drawn out. Knowing the connections will allow you to remember the storyline of the concept or theory. These roads between information is the best way to lead one piece of information to another.

Fourth: Look for Patterns.

While looking over data and other information, learn to look for patterns as everything biological eventually starts to form patterns/habits. For example, DNA comes in patterns of 4 proteins, matter comes in patterns of atoms, and people create habits and rituals they do every day to every year. The ability to see patterns will allow you to see the general system that everything runs on. This will allow you to begin to become a meta-learner and general systems logician.

Learn more on how to become a Meta-Learner and General Systems Theorist?

Then contact me at [email protected].

17 Comments

#3: Learn-2-Learn Series (Part 3 – Visual and Verbal Learning Techniques)

8/14/2015

14 Comments

 
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Many People Learn in many different ways. Sometimes people prefer to learn through actually seeing the process in action (Visual) while others prefer to have it explained to them in finer detail and ask questions for immediate feedback (Verbal). Most of the time people want and need both as redundancy affects their ability to retain it. Which is why you need to know these techniques to better your ability to learn as both a visual and verbal meta-learner.

*Note – Techniques used by each style can work and be useful to the other styles. Just because one may statistically be better for one does not mean it won’t work for you. Try them all and experiment a little.


Visual Learners  have Two Options to Learn

#1: Find a Visual that helps you remember best.

Visual Learners learn by seeing.

For them, it is easier to actually see how the process works by seeing it done. This is similar being told ten thousand times how to tie a knot and you not understanding how to tie it, but if you were shown physically how to tie the knot, you would understand quickly how it’s done and be able to tie it yourself.

This translates to going out and finding try to find diagrams, sketches, schematics, photographs, flow charts, or any other visuals that help you understand the information you are trying to learn. You should be able to find videotapes or CD-ROM displays of anything you want to learn.

But if you can’t find what you’re looking for…

#2: Build Your Own

Can’t find a visual. It’s time to build your own using a myriad of different styles of visualization tools. Although there are a billion different ways to build diagrams, tables, and charts. Here are 3 commonly used ones that will help build your visuals from a general way to a specific until finally you’re lost in the details.  They are…

1.      Mind Mapping – Spider Diagram (General)

Mind Maps are the very useful in summarizing information. They along with other diagrams can be used to build information in a non-sequential way and instead in the way your mind works so it’s personable to you and only you.

How to build a Mind Map

1.     Start in the center with an image or word of the topic at hand

2.     Build out multiple branches from the topic using words, images, symbols, and codes

3.     Branch out using Upper or lower case letters depending on how important they are to the topic and limit them to a word or phrase to keep it easily memorable

4.     Continue to branch from the central image using lines that become thinner as they radiate out from the center.

5.     Use multiple colors to help encode the information and grouping it together.

6.     Develop your own style of map your mind.

7.     Emphasize and associate the words, images, depictions, and concepts to each other.

8.     Maintain a hierarchy to your topic and its subjects to embrace the most important parts of your branches.

See 10 great pictures of mind maps here.

To see more about how mind mapping works, do it yourself with this free software: https://www.mindmup.com/#m:new

2.      Flow Charts – Order Charts (Specific)

Flow Charts are great for showing how one step in a process leads to another. It is great for visualizing the steps in a process by having them go from point to point in a chart chart. Most of the time the information is not detailed on the nitty-gritty of how one step leads to another, but can be. Instead, people use schematic drawings more so to explain to the finest detail.

Here are a few examples.

3.      Schematics Drawing – Inner Workings Diagram (Detailed)

Schematic Drawings show all significant components, parts, or tasks (and their interconnections) and are the most detailed of all these visualizations. Some Examples are blueprints, maps, and more.

Here are a few examples.              

If you would like to know more about who a Visual Learner is follow the link: http://www.studygs.net/visual.htm

Verbal Learners – Find people to talk to who know what they’re talking about

Verbal Learners learn by being able to hear other people explain concepts and processes and then saying it themselves in their own words. Because of this, verbal learners learn best through other people. Because of this need for other people it’s imperative that you be able to find them and convince them to converse and discuss with you about the subjects and topics you want to learn.

1.      Find/Build a Group of Others that are trying to learn the same subject.

Therefore, find or build workgroups or study groups with coworkers, other students, professors, or any other subject matter expert. You can find like-minded people through meetup.com, going to school, or finding a mentor who is willing to take you on as a person to talk to and build on.  Once you have a group, understand the material by hearing other’s explanations and discussing them to get the whole picture and getting the information to click.

2.      Build a list of Questions to Ask an Expert

When learning a new subject through classes, self-study, or any other medium. It’s important for a Verbal Learner to not write down notes, but to build a list of questions that you want clarified by a subject matter expert. This could be a professor, expert in the field you know, coworker or peer who knows more about the subject, or mentor. The key is to have someone who can answer all your questions when you get stuck.

3.      Using word association to remember facts and lines.

Another great technique for verbal learners is to use past stories, concepts, and thoughts in conversation that describe a very similar system to the new information. This gives the new information a framework you already know. Allowing you to learn faster by inputting new information into old information and building from your foundation of knowledge rather than creating a new foundation every time. 



Therefore whenever someone is explaining how a process works. Explain the process back using an old system that you already use to remember information and let the concepts flow across the same frameworks. 

For example:

     Saving money when your broke is like saving water when you’re stranded.

     If I save water each day, I will have emergency water to drink when the stream runs      dry as I will have emergency money if my income runs dry. Therefore, saving and          conserving money is the same as saving and conserving other materials that could          become scarce. 



Following this example lets you simply think that saving money follows the sames patterns and rules as saving other finite resources. 


4.      Recording lectures, watching videos, getting audio tapes, and any other means to hear the information


If you can’t get the real thing (Someone to Discuss with), it’s time to get secondary auditory sources like recordings of lectures, watching videos, and/or audio tapes. Having these available will let you listen and learn anywhere you can take an audio player such as the car, the gym, work, and anywhere else.

 



14 Comments

Do you have a Shark Loan?

8/6/2015

34 Comments

 
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How to Build Your Life as a Business Series

You, whether you like it or not, are a business.

As a capitalist in a capitalist society, you must accept this one simple truth. 

Because the fundamental block of our society is that whether you know it or not, you are a business and are treated as such.

For example:

You are taxed like a business. Your profits are taxed (Income Tax) as well as your actions (Sales Tax).

You have costs (Rent, Food, and Clothing) and revenue (Income, Dividends, and other ROIs) like a business.

You are invested in just like a business. (Parents and government put money into you for education.)

You have liabilities like a business. (Taking a Consumer Loan is the exact same as any Business Liability.)

You make business decisions every day like a business. (Should I do this or this to increase my net worth or value as labor?)

Because you are a business, you need to be run like one.

You need to know the nuances of business as they are how the world operates. No matter what creed, ideology, or background, everything about being human is essentially run like a business. Even the most basic of our societies always evolve into monetary systems. How else are we supposed to function if we can’t trade any goods?

Because of this truth, I am starting the How to Build Your Life as Business Series to teach the nuances of how the practices in the real world and business world meet on not just a fundamental level, but a primitive level. Primitive in that it is engrained in the very nature of man.

So welcome.

Welcome to Your Life as a Business.

How to Build Your Life as a Business Series:

Episode 1 - Shark Loans – Why you’re keeping yourself poor by giving away your future wealth.

Today is the day you come to find the reasons why many people stay poor. As a part of Building Your Life as a Business, you have to understand a fundamental truth. That no matter what you do with your money, there is and will always be someone who is more than willing to liberate you of the burden of weight keeping it in your wallet.

Because of this truth, you need to be just as wary of the opposite. Which is anyone who is willing to lend you money. As borrowing money is one of the easiest ways for you to keep yourself poor as you continuously give away your future wealth for something nice now.

This profession of giving money to people to buy things they don’t need or can’t afford has been around for ages and still exists today. These Lenders are called sharks and the loans they give are shark loans. They are given such a name because of their predatory nature. Because the loans have too high of interest rates and other bad terms that take advantage of you and your ability to pay.

Let’s go over two bad examples of people who give shark loans:

Shark Loan One: (Based off a true story.)

You need a car.

You need one as soon as possible.

You walk onto a Used Car Lot.

You walk away with a $12,000 loan and a Used Car.

                You have a 4 year loan at $400 dollars a month.

                Which means you will pay $4,800 dollars per year for 4 years.

                Coming out to $19,200 for a car that is only worth $12,000.

Even worse, you drive it off the lot and it immediately loses $3,000 dollars in value. (As most cars do.)

So if you ran into money trouble and couldn’t make your car payment, you couldn’t even sell the car to cover the original loan amount.

You pay your car off for 2 years, and then something expensive breaks in the car. You have to pay it off because if you don’t you can’t go to work so you can keep making payments.

The extra expense ultimately affects your ability to pay your car payments, and you miss a few.

Your car is then repossessed and they demand all your past car payments plus current ones to get it back.

But you don’t have the money and even worse you need the car to get to work.

Because you can’t get to work, you lose your job, and the loan company sells your car to someone else. However the amount they sell it for isn’t enough to cover the loan and they still demand that you pay the rest of the loan. Even though you will no longer have a car and have no job. You are still legally liable to pay the loan back.

Shark Loan Two: (Based off a true story.)

                You go to college for an education.

                You take out $100,000 for a degree that isn’t in high demand.

                You get out of college and can’t find work.

                You end up taking a job offering low pay and is far below your education level.

You still can’t make the extremely high payments of a $100,000 shark loan and get a second low paying job.

You work 80 hours a week and still can barely make ends meet.

Because you have conventional loans, the bank won’t let you consolidate your loans or lower your payments without charging high interest and fees.

Even worse, your parents co-signed on the loan. Because you have been missing payments, you have ruined their credit. They cannot get refinanced when they hit hard times and need to lower their monthly payments. This causes them to not be able to make their payments a few months down the road and they end up losing the house.

The house becomes the exact same situation as the car loan. And they are still liable for any leftover loan.

In both these situations, you have loans that were given without concern of whether what you were buying would actually help you pay back the loans. No consideration was given to see if this decision would benefit you in the future. It was simply made to take your future wealth from your current income with no thought about the risk of you losing your job, having money trouble because a big expense came up, or another one of life’s little reminders that she hates you.   

What does this mean to you?

It means don’t go to college unless you know it is a valuable investment that will increase your income potential by 10x. That means researching to see that the job you want is in high demand and pays very, very well. The idea here is not that you go for your passion. The idea is to get work that pays, and once you’re financially sound, you pursue your passion. 

DON’T PURSUE YOUR PASSION USING SHARK LOANS UNLESS YOU KNOW THE MONEY IS THERE.

It means don’t buy nicer things now if you can’t afford it. Don’t buy a $20,000 car and make $500 payments a month when you only make $1000 a month. You’re creating a situation where your finances can be easily stressed if you have even one bump in the road.

DON’T SACRIFICE YOUR FUTURE FOR A SHORT-TERM PLEASURE SUCH AS A NICE CAR, HOUSE, OR ANYTHING THAT SHARKS WILL LEND YOU MONEY FOR.

In the end, ensure that any money you’re borrowing is an investment that will pay for itself.

For example:

                Buy a $150,000, 4 bedroom house with a mortgage payment of $850.

                Live in one of the rooms and rent out the other 3 for $400 each.

                Pay off the mortgage with the $1200 and enjoy your extra $350 a month.

Knowing that not only are you saving thousands a year by not paying rent, your making money as well as paying into a house you can resell for much, much more.

Building Your Life as a Business is the Series that if you are interested in any way in being successful, you need to follow. Unlike other series that tell you the type of person you have to be to be successful, this series tells you how the world works and the techniques and tools you need in your tool belt to face and/or avoid its pitfalls. 

As always, Welcome to Building Your Life as a Business. 


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    Author

    Lucas Thomas, professional writer, entrepreneur, and business owner. 

    Blogs to keep others up-to-date on new ways to develop your writing, business, or time. 



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Behind LT Copywriting

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Lucas Thomas.
 
Professional Writer. 
        +
Professional Editor.
         =  Professional  Copy.

        
    
                 I have been a professional writer for the last five years. Never thinking to become one until after receiving my very first writing project from my friend.
                 I didn't even want to do it because I didn't have the time. But as the story goes, he made me an offer I couldn't refuse. And on that day I fell into a job I knew would become my career.

For more... See my ABOUT ME!