Teflon v CrazyGlue

Why does 99% of what we read, learn, hear and observe, slip away like our
brain is made of Teflon? Wanna know how to make new information stick, like
your brain took a bath in CrazyGlue?

What is Teflon?

It is a man-made plastic Polymer created in 1938 by chemists at DuPont.

Fact: Teflon is the #1 most slippery surface on the 3rd planet from our Sun.
It is used for more than keep eggs from sticking to the pan. It keeps your windshield
wipers from streaking. Teflon is a staple in electronics, architecture, the aerospace,
and communications industries.

Some manufacturers require Teflon to repel liquids, light bulbs not to shatter, and to double, even triple the speed of moving mechanical parts.

Attention-Span

If you had to guess - how many minutes of attention-span does the average college-
graduate have before they zone-out by distractions and boredom?

We asked this question of 250 students and adults at our SpeedLearning101 class
at One-Day-University. The typical response was between 45-60+ minutes.

Who Cares?

If you are in selling - which means 95% of us - because we all sell our goods or services for money whether you are an attorney, physician or clerk at Macy's - you must know how long you can keep the Attention of your prospect.

If you knew that high school students have an average Attention-Span of under
10 minutes, would you do a Talk-A-Thon for 60 minutes to sell them sporting goods
or cutesy tee-shirts? Nada.

U.S. college grads have a typical Attention-Span of 19-20 minutes. Are you going to
persuade, convince and influence them with a Dog-And-Pony show taking 40 minutes? Nada.

If you are a teacher in elementary or high school, or an instructor in college or
grad school, is it relevant students at each higher level have a different Attention-Span? What is good for Grad School (20 minutes) is N.G. for elementary and high school (10-12 minutes) right?

Maintaining or Raising Attention-Span
If you remember the scientific term Dopamine, (picture Dopey, one of the seven dwarfs) you will know what your brain craves and yearns for to produce more
Attention-Span. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter (chemical) known as the Pleasure
hormone.

So What

When your curiosity is aroused, your brain goes into its Zone (flow), when you
are deeply engrossed in a movie, books or lecture - Dopamine flows. When you are scared of failing a coming exam and told the answers are in this lecture - your Attention-Span expands and with it - Dopamine washes your brain.

For scientists only: Dopamine is produced by two brain structures: Ventral Tegmental Area and Nigra Substantia (pars compacta). It is a reward to you
when you are actively involved. What happens when you get rewarded?

Rewards program us to want to repeat the pleasurable activity. Punishment
programs us to avoid the activity and/or person.

What Are the Functions of Dopamine

Big D programs specific Behaviors, Cognition (thinking), Voluntary
Movements, Motivation (goals & desires), Mood, Attention, Learning, and Rewards.
The more we do of the aforementioned, the greater our pleasure because our brain -
specifically our PreFrontal Cortex - is awash with Dopamine.

How to Activate And Enlarged Your Attention-Span

If you are taking your SATs, LSAT (law school entrance exam), MCAT (medical School entrance exam), GRE, GMAT, Bar Exam or CPA exam - you need more
Attention-Span, right?

a) Diaphragmatic Breathing: would you do two-minutes of deep breathing
to almost double for Attention-Span to ace your exam?

Stand up, close your eyes, with your arms at your sides.
Inhale from your diaphragm (see your belly move) to a slow count of
one-one-thousand.

b) Simultaneously as you inhale, raise your arms over your head, and on a
slow exhalation, drop your arms to your sides, and slowly count- one-
one-thousand.

c) Do 10-15 repetitions to oxygenate your 3-pound coconut and bring Glucose (blood sugar energy) to your brain. You have activated your
prefrontal cortex (executive function of logic, reason and knowledge),
and triggered your hippocampus to retrieve (long-term memories) for the exam.

Three Elements of Memory - Use-It-Or-Lose-It - You Snooze, You Lose!

1. Create a Mental Image
2. Associate New Information With Old Knowledge in Memory
3. Give the new Information a name and title, so you can find again.

Step One: Summarizing the new information into Key-Words, ask yourself this
Question - What does this new knowledge REMIND me of?

Step Two: Find a link (connection), even if it is just a sound-alike syllable or word between the new knowledge, and something you already own, located in long-term memory. Now you have an Association to build on.

Step Three: Use your imagination to create a Pix or mental-movie linking the new
information (key-words) in a novel, ridiculous, out-of-proportion, weird way, with
something located in long-term memory.

Example: Dopamine

New Term to remember is DOPAMINE - the Pleasure Hormone.
Old long-term memory is the Disney Movie - Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs.

Imagine (mental image/mental movie) Dopey, who is not the smartest cookie in the
box, playing cards with Snow White and he has won all her chips. Snow White is broke and crying, and Dopey has all the Pleasure and Dopamine.

Step Four: Give it name. Baby-Easy to find again - we call it Dopamine.

Endwords

Would it help you be more competitive in school and your career to read and remember three (3) books, articles and reports, while your peer can hardly finish
one?

Call us now: ask us how to encode information in your brain in ten-seconds, and retrieve it at will. It is called SpeedLearning101.
See ya,

copyright © 2009
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------