Transcription
I'm your brain coach Jim Quick, and in this session, I'm going to share with you a power tool to help you to think clearer and be more creative, to be able to solve problems and really reach your goals.
Now, when I was 18 years old and I was really struggling, I was a freshman in college. I couldn't keep up. I didn't know how to learn. I didn't know how to focus. I didn't know how to study. I didn't know how to to think. So a friend of mine said, "Hey, before you quit school," because that's the point I was at, I was ready to tell my family I was going to quit college, "said why don't you get some perspective?" And we talk about the power of perspective with our thinking, that when you could change your point of view, you could look at something with a new fresh eyes and take a new approach and not be stuck to a limited amount of options.
So I go to visit the family, and the family is pretty pretty well off. And the father walks me around his property before dinner and asks me a very innocent question, which is the worst question you could ask me at that time. Says, "Jim, how's school?" Right? And I just break down in front of this complete stranger and tell him my whole story. The boy with a broken brain, learning challenges, I'm ready to quit school. And he says, "Stop. Why are you in school? What do you want to be? What do you want to do? What do you want to have? What do you want to share?" And notice that his process for achievement is asking me new questions, because ask a new question, get a new answer. Changing perspective, place people, allows me a new point of view. So you see these principles always showing up with quality thinkers.
And when I go to answer them, what I want to do and be and have and share with the world, he says, "Stop." And he pulls out of his pocket a journal, like a notebook, and he tears out a couple of sheets and makes me write it down. And this is the principle I want to talk to you about in this lesson. So if you want to transform your thinking, you need to be able to transform your ability to write things down and make something physical. Because the act of taking the invisible, your imagination, your goals, your vision, and making it a reality, one of the best things you could do is to write it down and make a physical motion. So you actually create created something from your thought, from your thinking, into reality. So that's the first step.
So I wrote down my my bucket list of all the things I wanted to be, do, have, and share. And this became my drive. This became my why. Why to learn? Why to read? Why to do well in school? And that's why we always talk about those three questions: Asking yourself, "How can I use this?" "Why must I use this?" "When will I use this?" So you'll notice in history, some of the most incredible geniuses, men and women throughout history, kept journals. Right? The journals of Leonardo da Vinci, Marie Curie, Einstein. They're invaluable. They are priceless. And the question I've always wondered is, is it because they're geniuses that they're journaling all the time and they're making notes all the time, or is it because they're journaling all the time that they become geniuses? I would argue for the latter.
So in this session, I'm going to share with you exactly how I capture and create notes and how I journal each day to capture my thoughts. If you want expert high-level thinking, you need to be able to capture this in a journal.
So the first thing you need to do is you need to get a journal or get a notebook. And I'm very big into physically writing your notes and writing in your journal as opposed to typing it out. Now, living in a digital age, I see the convenience of being able to share and store information digitally. I'm going to ask you through this process to actually handwrite it. And there are certain advantages to handwriting your notes and handwriting your journals. First of all, as you're taking notes, as we're having this conversation, you can maybe type as fast as somebody can speak, but you certainly can't write that fast. So by writing it down, it forces you to think about what you're listening to, and you start to filter and qualify the information before you write it down, because you you can't possibly write as fast as someone can speak. So in studies that have tested people from handwriting notes and typing out notes, the people that handwrite notes did better on test scores, maybe for this very reason that they're capturing only the important parts, because the worst way of taking notes actually was full transcripts or full dictation.
Now, the question is, how do you handwrite notes? What I would suggest is this: You have a piece of paper. Take your pen and put a line right down the middle of the page. So on the left side, you're writing down the lessons. On the right side, you can be creative and ask the three questions: "How can I use this?" and then write it down. "Why must I use it?" and then write it down. "When will I use it?" and write it down. These are wonderful ways to not only take notes but also to make notes. And by making notes, you create a feedback loop. And this is very good for advanced thinkers to train your thinking ability. You're taking your thoughts, you're putting it on paper, you're organizing them, and it allows you to use critical thinking skills and some of the skills you're going to learn in this program right in front of you.
So you have your notebook, you're capturing, and you're creating. And I would have a dedicated notebook for this program. And on top of having a notebook, a dedicated notebook for your learning in this process, you could also have a journal. Some people have a life journal, some people people have a dream journal. In this journal, you could capture your your day-to-days, your visions, the things that you're struggling with, the things that you're reflecting upon. So one of the benefits of having a journal is you go back and re-read and review some of those entries. I have journals that date back years and years and years, and it's wonderful to be able to revisit. It gives you this thing called perspective. Perspective is a very powerful tool when it comes to your learning, when it comes to your thinking.
So your assignment in this lesson is: Have a dedicated notebook and use the capture-create method. The second thing is, have a journal, a dedicated life journal, where you're journaling the things you're grateful for, where you're building out your vision, and you're taking your thoughts and you're sharing it in an intimate way with yourself to see your thoughts on paper, much like I was doing when I first got started with my early mentor. You'll find that geniuses take journaling and note-taking very seriously. It allows them to see their thoughts and be able to lay out their problems, see everything in front of them. So if you are not journaling, this is your call to action to start journaling and taking notes. If you're already doing that, think about ways that you could enhance your process. How can you make this process more enjoyable? How can you make this process more meaningful? How can you make this process more consistent? Because consistency is key. If you're going to do it every morning, you do it every morning. If you're going to do it at the night time, set the schedule or set your alarm, set these habits and these triggers of when you're actually going to do those activities and write it down in your own words. You don't have to use my words, use your own words so they become personal and customized for you.
So what's your assignment? Get a notebook, a dedicated notebook for our journey together, and have a journal and write in it every single day. Even if it's one sentence, just check check in with yourself because it builds your metacognition. It focuses you on your own thinking. It builds that self-awareness, and self-awareness is a superpower.
And I'm personally curious, do you journal each day? What do you journal about? Is it your dreams? Do you have a gratitude journal? Are you taking notes right now? I'm personally curious. Put those answers in the comments. I'm your brain coach Jim Quick, and I'll see you in our next lesson.