Power Up Your Mind: Learn Faster, Work Smarter

Posted: maestro on Dec 24 | Personal E-Book

Product Details

Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing (October 25, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 185788275X
ISBN-13: 978-1857882759
Format: PDF

Book Description
Bill Lucas, a leading international expert on life-long learning, shows that while we have learned more about how the brain works in the last decade than we have ever known, only a fraction of this is grasped and applied by most people. Power Up Your Mind applies this practical knowledge for the first time and shows you how to learn. Drawing on research from a wide variety of subject areas, from neuroscience to psychology, from motivation theory to accelerated learning, from memory to diet, this book shows how everyone has the capacity to succeed and how most people use only a very small portion of their talents. For learning to be effective, an understanding of how the brain works is essential and unlike most of the recent thinking on the mind, Lucas connects an understanding of the brain with the reality of the workplace and translates what we know about the brain into useful insights for work. Much work-based training is a waste of time and money because the majority of people are neither emotionally ready nor practically inclined to apply their learning to the way they behave. Power Up Your Mind offers a new model of learning-READY, GO, STEADY-which will revolutionize the way you learn and perform.

About the Author
Bill Lucas is the founding CEO of the Campaign for Learning. A popular speaker, facilitator, strategist, and consultant, he advises such organizations as Lloyds TSB, Accenture, and the UK’s Department for Education and Employment on how to be more successful through learning. He is a regular contributor to the national and specialist press and the author and co-author of more than 20 books, including most recently THE FUTURE OF CORPORATE LEARNING and SCHOOLS IN THE LEARNING AGE.

Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
Part 1 Get READY to Learn: Going beneath the surface 6
1 Unpacking Your Mind 8
Taking your mind out of its box 9
Your three brains 11
Your divided brain 13
Close-up on your brain 16
Five key principles 18
Brain or mind? 21
Brain food 22
Laughter, music, and sleep 25
Nearly unpacked 28
A day in the life of Annie’s brain 29
Unpacking your mind—in a nutshell 33
2Getting Ready to Learn 34
Checking your emotional readiness 35
Curiosity and emotional state 36
A hierarchy of emotional needs 38
Reading your own moods 39
An emotionally confusing world 40
Raising self-esteem 43
Learned optimism and the three Ps 46
The joined-up revolution 48
Mens sana in corpore sano 49
Brain gym 50
Getting to the spiritual dimension 51
A new sixth sense? 53
Getting ready to learn—in a nutshell 54
3 Switching On Your Mind 55
Understanding your fundamental drives 57
Rewarding your own learning 59
A formula for motivation to learn 61
Motivation and the mind 63
Getting the big picture 64
Balancing challenge and threat 64
The importance of where you learn 67
Who you learn with 68
Getting your learning environment ready 69
The pressures of life 71
Overcoming barriers to learning 72
Switching on your mind—in a nutshell 75
Part II GO For It: Becoming a competent learner 76
4 Learnacy 78
Understanding yourself as a learner 81
Learning to use new techniques: the 5Rs 82
Learning about learning 83
The learning cycle 84
Different types of learning 86
Learnacy—in a nutshell 88
5 Understanding Yourself as a Learner 89
How you take in information 90
Dealing with information 95
Working out your learning style 96
Learning styles and information preferences 97
Learning styles and meetings 98
Understanding yourself as a learner—in a nutshell 101
6 Resourcefulness 102
Getting the big picture 103
Tuning in your mind 105
Breaking down your learning 106
Learning by imitation 108
Learning online 112
Extending your range 114
Resourcefulness—in a nutshell 116
7 Remembering 117
Understanding how your memory works 118
Types of memory 119
Key memory principles 121
Memory pegs 126
The importance of where you are 128
Muttering 129
Making regular deposits in your memory bank 130
Your sleeping mind 131
Remembering—in a nutshell 133
8 Resilience 134
Persistence 136
Being an adventurer 137
Dealing with difficulties 139
Handling confusion 141
Resilience—in a nutshell 143
9 Harnessing Your Creativity 144
Inspiration, ideas, and learning 147
The characteristics of creative people 149
The value of ideas 150
Multiple intelligences 152
The multiple intelligence workplace 158
Barriers to creativity 160
Making connections 163
Creative thinking 169
A world of possibility 179
Harnessing your creativity—in a nutshell 181
10 The Case for Learning at Work 182
Six reasons it pays to learn 184
The case for learning at work—in a nutshell 187
Part III STEADY As You Go: Putting learning into practice 188
11 Living and Learning 190
Putting learning into action 190
Change and the brain 192
Living and learning—in a nutshell 194
12R eflectiveness 195
The science of reflecting 197
The craft of reflecting 198
Making reflection normal 203
Overcoming the barriers to reflecting 204
A reflective world 207
Reflectiveness—in a nutshell 209
13 Responsiveness 210
The feelings of change 212
Responding to change 215
Responsive learning 217
Responsiveness—in a nutshell 219
14 Balancing Your Life 220
A life balance quiz 223
Controlling stress 226
A different kind of life planning 233
Balancing your life—in a nutshell 240
15 Making Time for Learning 241
Making learning normal 241
Why you need a learning practitioner 243
Making a personal learning action plan 245
Making time for learning—in a nutshell 248
Part IV Useful Information 249
An A–Z of brain-based approaches to life and work 250
Troubleshooting 253
Resources 258
Index 261