You know the one I am talking about. It's the little voice that offers a running commentary when you are listening to someone. It's the voice that brings up your own opinion about the information being provided. It is too easy to pay more attention to the inner voice than the actual speaker. That voice often keeps you from listening openly for good information and can often make you shut down before you have heard the entire premise. Focus less on what your brain has to say and more on the speaker. You may be surprised at what you hear.
2. Argue With Yourself
If you can't quiet the inner voice, then at least use it to your advantage. Every time you hear yourself contradicting the speaker, stop and take the other point of view. Suggest to your brain all the reasons why the speaker may be correct and you may be wrong. In the best case you may open yourself to the information being provided. Failing that, you will at least strengthen your own argument.
3. Act Like You Are Curious
Some people are naturally curious and others are not. No matter which category you are in you can benefit from behaving like a curious person. Next time you are listening to information, make up and write down three to five relevant questions. If you are in a lecture, Google them after for answers. If you are in a conversation you can ask the other person. Either way you'll likely learn more, and the action of thinking up questions will help encode the concepts in your brain. As long as you're not a cat you should benefit from these actions of curiosity.
4. Find the Kernel of Truth
No concept or theory comes out of thin air. Somewhere in the elaborate concept that sounds like complete malarkey there is some aspect that is based upon fact. Even if you don't buy into the idea, you should at least identify the little bit of truth from whence it came. Play like a detective and build your own extrapolation. You'll enhance your skills of deduction and may even improve the concept beyond the speaker's original idea.
5. Focus on the Message Not the Messenger
Often people shut out learning due to the person delivering the material. Whether it's a boring lecturer, someone physically unappealing, or a member of the opposite political party, the communicator can impact your learning. Even friends can disrupt the learning process since there may be too much history and familiarity to see them as an authority on a topic. Separate the material from the provider. Pretend you don't know the person or their beliefs so you can hear the information objectively. As for the boring person, focus on tip two, three, or four as if it were a game, thereby creating your own entertainment.
5. Show The Poker Face
Sometimes smart people don’t even like to act like they’re smart just to test out the mental capacity of the people they are dealing with. They will usually put on their poker face and pretend like they are just passively observing just to see what their audience’s interpretation of the “truth” is. They use this tactic to study the nature of the people they are doing business with and forming a long term relationship with. This way, they can come up with the most effective method of sounding like they know what they are talking about without offering something too unfamiliar or complicated for their peers to comprehend.
6. Understand The Concept Of Time
Smart people never allow distractions or mental unrest to waste their time in trying to figure something out. They are able to recognize what is conducive to their thought process and their journey to accomplish their goals as opposed to what is only pushing them farther away from working their hardest and staying on track.
A smart person is aware that the average human being runs into several pointless distractions every day that only serve a negative purpose in their life. They know how to ignore these imposters of “truth” and focus on using the best of their abilities to be productive for their own well-being.
Ever felt like you wish you could just disappear? Or fall
asleep and never wake up? Have you ever thought about not being here anymore,
or that the world would be better off without you in it? If you have had
thoughts like these, you are not alone. Although these types of thoughts are
common, most people who have these thoughts do not end their lives. However,
suicide among young adults is a very real concern—it is the third-leading cause
of death among young people ages 15 to 24. If you are struggling with these
thoughts and feelings, please read on.
I'm sad, hurt, confused, lonely, unloved, judged, missunderstood, brokenfine
Depressionis a painful experience; when depressed, you feel
hopeless and helpless, and it can become difficult to see how things will get
better. When people have suicidal thoughts, it is because they just want the
pain to stop and are looking for a way out of the hole they’re in. Usually,
they don’t really want to die—they just don’t want to feel the way they do.
They feel like things will never get better.
Things you can do to help yourself :
Talk to Someone, a friend or mentor you trust, about what is
going on. As hard as this might be, don’t keep it to yourself. Tell your
therapist if you are seeing one.
Make a Contact List of all the people (and their phone
numbers) you can reach out to when you are feeling distressed or suicidal.
Include the people who mean the most to you and give you reasons to live.
Include people you can can trust to help you and keep you
safe. List people who make you smile or cheer you up just by talking to them.
Keep this list close by and make sure it has more than one person in case the
first person you call isn’t available. When you’re feeling really down and
alone, this list will remind you that there are people you can turn to and make
it easy for you to contact them.
Make a Reasons for Living List. Do this when your mood is
better because when you’re really down, it’s difficult to think of positive
things. Think hard—there are a lot of reasons—write any and all of them down:
your family, your friends, your little cousin who looks up to you, your pet,
graduating high school, the new episode of your favorite show, finishing the novel,
etc. Write them all down and keep the list close by so that you can look at it
when you’re feeling that you have nothing to look forward to
Create a List of
Activities That Make You Feel Better, things that you can do when you
feel down or have suicidal thoughts. What things can you do to boost your
mood—even if it’s only temporarily? Take a walk, take a relaxing bath, watch a
silly movie, go golfing, play with your pet, call your Great Aunt Betty, listen
to your favorite song, decorate your bedroom, go for a drive, bake a cake—anything and everything
you can think of that can help you relieve some of your distress. Then use the
list and when you’re feeling low.
Maybe life is hard but you can do something that makes you feel BETTER!:)
“Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is beauty, admire it. Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it. Life is a duty, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise, fulfill it. Life is sorrow, overcome it. Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life is an adventure, dare it. Life is luck, make it. Life is too precious, do not destroy it. Life is life, fight for it.”
―
Mother Teresa
