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In fiction and journalism people use the terms "charming
personality", "charismatic personality",
"electrifying personality"
"a
milk-toast personality"
, and so on. These
phrases/terms, however, do not use the scientific
principles of vocabulary.
The term personality has been
derived from Latin persona, a mask worn by actors
in classical dramas. Behaviorist psychologists
feel that if a person has some kind of impact,
makes a certain impression on others, it must
be because of his actions. The simplest possible
way to explain the meaning of personality, therefore,
is "the pattern of responses" which
characterizes the individual. Contrary to the
general idea that good personality refers to good
physical features or trendy looking individual,
the fact is the personality includes many other
more important behavioral and mental features.
Think of a boy who is not handsome
and attractive apparently, not even tall or robust,
yet he has a commanding verbal influence which
makes him a successful army officer. Think of
Mahatma Gandhi for example. Most people did not
find him to be attractive or impressive as far
as his physical make - up was concerned. Short,
meek looking, bard, dhoti - clad old looking man
moved the whole India behind him. Even today he
is known his 'Personality' which had its impact,
and force with an everlasting impression on the
people around him that made him the man of world
- fame. Personality is the sum total of
all physical, mental and emotional attitudes,
values, interests and motivational factors. Personality
is the core potential that determines one's success
in life and career.
If you feel depressed or disheartened
because you think that you are born with weak
personality - stop thinking negatively. Personality
make - up of yours is not only (totally) determined
by heredity. There is another important
factor that determines (influences) your personality
- environment. It is the environment that
can be manipulated to get the desirable positive
effects in shaping the personality. Well known
psychologist Watson (a behaviorist) emphasized
the importance of environment in shaping personality
of the child so much that he declared, "
give me a dozen mentally healthy infects, well
formed, and my own specified world to bring them
up in
and I will guarantee to make any one
at random and train him to be any type of specialist
I desire - doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant
...,
even beggar man or thief!" This is obviously
an extreme view that some behaviorists have taken
to focus on the role of environment in personality
development. The fact remains that enriching the
environment of the individual does show significant
improvement in developing your personality. At
the same time, however, do not get blindly influenced
by some non-standard, cheap publicity stunts of
some people who sell their "personality-development"
courses just to make quick money. You must use
your brain and understanding before you join such
courses.
Improving your personality requires
a strong will and determination to achieve healthy
growth. Any one of you who aspires for self-improvement
should make an objective evaluation about himself.
Then he must look into his positive potentials
and also (confess) weaknesses. On this basis of
this information, an objective self-evaluation
may be carried.
At the same time it is also
essential to counteract all negative
and pessimistic thoughts. These negative
thoughts/forces destroy many potential abilities
of human beings. Brooding, self-debasement, feeling
of inferiority, hate and jealousy are all negative
and damaging emotions. One must face and tactfully
weaken these negative forces to emerge as successful.
You should not be fatalistic in your approach
to life. Never feel you are at mercy of others.
So what if you have failed repeatedly?
With all your intelligence, wisdom, and vigor
make your positive potentials to grow. Reveal
yourself with truth and you will find that there
is a storehouse of virtues within you. You don't
have to expect chances of miracles, just decide
to move in a determined and positive direction,
and move.
Social Development
is an important aspect of ideal personality development.
Closed room with open books, may help you to fetch
higher marks in certain exam, however, for a full
and complete growth of personality, one must be
able to expose himself to the social realities
of life. Interaction with people around you may
give you pain or pleasure but it certainly adds
to your personality growth if taken from healthy
frame of mind.
A school or university is just
not a cramming machine. You may study at home
too. The value of lectures over reading is that
you get a sense of participation with other like
you. Such a situation is also suitable for development
of the personality. The class - room situation
encourages debags and discussions and thus broaden
the horizons of mind. There is always a need to
socialize - mix with fellow colleagues to know
them, feel them and understand them to grow socially
(socially educated). There is a natural (social)
need to know if other are like you or different.
Some people are more social than others. Sociability
is an art which should be cultivated to grow into
effective personality.
Extrovert is a
person whose basic orientation is towards external
world. Such persons are outgoing (going out and
socially mixing with others), sociable, rather
impulsive and require constant stimulations from
the environment. The psychological research shows
that their (extreme extraverts) academic performance
tends to be lower than that of introverts, because
(mostly) concentration is not one of their strong
points.
Introvert is a
person who may be described at the other continuum
of the bipolar scale, as hesitant, reflective,
withdrawn
.., reserved etc. None of you fall
on the extreme of the bipolar scale. Infact, most
of the people have various degrees of the two
types combined. At times you feel you are introvert
and sometimes you feel you are extrovert. In reality
most of us are ambivert - the mixture of
two. The degree of the two sets of characteristics
varies from person to person and that is what
makes you different from others.
In case you find that you are
basically an introvert but in peace and comfortable
with yourself, fine! Don't push yourself out and
out to be like extreme extroverts. You will have
your own merits of uniqueness. Making fun, giggling,
over-laughing or teasing, talking more are not
the goals to be achieved by modeling others or
practice. By asking you to socialize with people
I don't mean to suggest that you become a joker
or chirping bird.
The whole essence of social
development as a part of personality improvement
reminds us of the fact that we are social by nature.
Total isolation from others is against the basic
principles of social living - of which you and
me are the part. Emotions, empathy, co-operation,
competition, group working, group cohesiveness,
being one like the others and yet unique in
the whole world should be the outcome of healthy
personality development. Have positive attitude
towards people in general. It is wrong to think
of people as always striving to side on one another's
back. The natural urge is towards co-operation.
Such attitudes always help you to cultivate stronger
and healthy personality. Another interesting area
of personality research has highlighted two types
of personality - Type A and type B personalities.
The individuals who are like Type A personality,
are action - emotion oriented that can be observed
in any person who is aggressively involved in
a chronic, incessant struggle to achieve more
and more in less and less time, and if required
to do so, against the opposing efforts of other
things or other persons. It may also be seen as
a temperament characterized by excessive drive
and competitiveness, unrealistic sense of time
urgency, inappropriate ambition, reluctance to
provide self - evaluation and a tendency to emphasize
quantity of output over quality. Such people are
believed to have greater chances of coronary disease.
In contrast, Type B persons are characterized
by a relaxed, easygoing approach to life. They
focus on quality over quantity have low competitiveness
and a tendency for self - reflection. A word of
caution into a 'type' - don't fall into type
fallacy. None of the above types are mutually
exclusive or bipolar, in the sense that you need
not label yourself at one or the other extreme.
You may have the characteristics of both the types
i.e., Introversion - Extraversion; type A - type
B, and all the qualities have their virtues if
used in a balanced and mature way at appropriate
place.
Effective Learning
You may like it or not,
the fact is that in order to be successful, one
have to study at least up to some level. Even
if you ultimately decide to avoid studies by joining
some vocational/professional course, you are required
to study at least some minimum. And yes (if your
objective is to become a doctor, an engineer,
professor, scientist or administrative officer
or a manager, you have to study and study very
hard.
It is easy to sit down and look at the book. Real
study, however, is a concentrated attack on the
book or other resources of information until (a)
you understand it (b) you have learned as much
the information as you wish to learn. Many students
despite being intelligent, may find that the hardest
part of the study is settling down to it - - i.e.
the beginning. Very often a student decides to
become serious about his studies from the next
morning. And when the alarm rings he gently presses
the button (of the alarm) and honestly re-decides
to work in the evening and so on. And the process
continues. If you happen to be one of such students
Don't worry. Follow some tips to start studying
and learning the subjects efficiently.
Work out a schedule for yourself. It acts
as a challenge and as a guide. It is better to
begin with a general schedule which is flexible.
After following it for a few days, you will know
which subjects require the greatest allotment
of time and then you adjust your schedule accordingly.
Try to spread out your time allocation in a rational
way. With more and more experience you will be
your best judge: you may then re-schedule your
timing, depending on your weakness or strength
in various subjects.
If your study is interrupted every ten
minutes to attend to something for your comfort,
you will loose concentration, break the threads
of argument and waste a great deal of energy.
Therefore before settling to the spell of hard
study, adjust the window to you liking, get a
drink if you are thirsty, keep a bottle of water
with you, and attend to any other small physical
matter that may otherwise distract you later.
At the same time never try to be over comfortable:
don't study on the beds using pillows, always
use a table and chair and keep your back upright.
Try to use natural day light rather than artificial.
Learning is an active effortful
process. Just to read the words passively is ineffective.
You must have interest in the matter and should
get involved in the task actively. Retention of
the subject matter will be better if reading is
supplemented by self-recitation. If a psychological
research it was found that when the students devoted
all their time to reading, recall (memory) of
the five biographies averaged 16% after four hours.
However, when 3/5th to 4/5th of the learning time
was devoted to self-recitation, recall after four
hours was nearly twice as great. The advantage
of recitation over passive reading is that the
student is forced to react to the subject matter
rather than merely trying to absorb it.
Improving The Will
To begin with do something
that you do not want to do, at least once every
day. It could be writing a letter, getting up
early from bed, taking the dog for a walk
..
Let it be something that normally you would avoid.
Increasing its frequency gradually and tell yourself,
"If I want I can do it." Visualize yourself
as being a person of strong will. Tell yourself
proudly: hour-by-hour, day-by-day "my will
power is getting stronger and stronger. Thus by
your strong will power the concentration will
increase. If you are lazy by nature, don't feel
bad about it. We all try to avoid physical and
mental effort if at all possible. When confronted
with something that is a little difficult, all
thoughts tend to shoot off to what is easy and
pleasant. Will power and interest again come to
focus. What is helpful in such a situation is
to develop the attitude, which regards difficulties
as a challenge and an opportunity. Instead
of running away from them, your combative instinct
will release fresh energies. Laziness feeds on
discouragement, and this often arises from dwelling
too much on the enormity of the task you have
set for yourself. The solution is to breakdown
the task into manageable parts. Cross your bridges
one at a time. Do not be discouraged by looking
at the final examinations while you have not yet
passed the preliminaries.
To live a full and varied existence
is an admirable thing but when you have an objective
in view, then concentration is the order of the
day, and you must restrict your activities. If
you participate in number of activities (like
football, debating, acting, tuition taking etc.)
better restrict the field of your activities in
priority order. It is always safe and secure way
to win one front than loose on a dozen.
What differentiates the other
animal kingdom from human species is perhaps for
more superior 'intelligence' that we posses. You
must have gone through many articles or write-ups
about intelligence. Some titles like 'test
your intelligence' and improve your intelligence
are quite popular and common for general masses.
At times, you may wonder whether intelligence
can be measured by something like weighing machine
or what kind of vitamins and tonics can improve
it?
You may be one of unlucky persons
to feel sorry for thinking that you are less intelligent
than some others. Worst of all you may develop
an inferiority complex after going through
some questions given by the author (to test IQ)
because you are unable to answer many of them
correctly. Let me make it clear to you that intelligence
is not IQ. Intelligence quotient (IQ) is an
index of intelligence. It is the unit of measuring
intelligence. And most of the tests (claiming
to be intelligence/aptitude tests) published in
common magazines or books are not reliable and
valid for measuring what they loudly claim. Your
ability in answering or in not answering a few
questions does not measure your intelligence.
There is no need for despondency or feeling sad
if you were unable to score high on such non-serious
tests, jut made for publicity. The myths about
intelligence usually misguide the students and
in many cases create psychological fallouts.
Time Management
Once you have set your
goals and targets to be achieved and drawn a schedule
to follow, learn to manage the time at your disposal
effectively. You must seek some satisfaction in
doing whatever task you undertake. You should
see the days work in some perspective. To achieve
these purposes, you can make a list of the things
you wish to do during the day, and take a good
look at it. One effect of such an exercise would
be that a 'mental scheme' of the work to
be done is achieved. You will become clear about
the number of activities and their kinds which
will help you in scheduling and executing the
chain of linked activities.
Then as each task is competed,
you can cross it off the list. The act of crossing
it off will give you just the small satisfaction
and a feeling of achievement. Finally, when you
look at the list, you can modify or alter your
plans according to the need of the hour. Such
an exercise may be done at a piece of paper or
a diary. Later this may become just a part of
your mental habit.
Honestly speaking, most of the
students sabotage their working day by too long
pottering in the bedroom, or breakfast, or over
newspaper. Get up early, dress up briskly, finish
breakfast without lingering and then attack the
day's work. There are some very obvious priorities.
You should tackle first those tasks that can least
afford to wait. Being a student competing with
lakhs of others, you have to decide and plan the
schedule of the day on priority basis. Should
you do mathematics or English; or should you go
for chemistry or G.K. book
or should you finish
with exercise that your teacher gave
choice
is yours. But do not quickly change your mind
impulsively or because you like X subject better
than Y - after all you have to score well in all
the subjects.
Tackle one job at a time. There
is so much to be done that one is likely to get
confused as to what to do first and from where
to begin it. Consequently on any of the tasks
for fear of not finishing the other in
time, and finally do nothing. These are times
when you have to do many things at a time. Decision
ought to be yours. It is your life. It is your
day. And it will be your achievement. Think with
a cool mind and take up the job of top priority
first. Most things require attention - and
you are capable of attending one thing at a time.
So, don't let your attention be split or diverted,
come what may. If you tackle most obviously urgent
task first, and let others wait, then tackle the
other in whatever order (you think is appropriate),
you will be surprised at the amount of work you
can do. Remember, "panic paralyses and
calm can strengthen us."
It is equally important that
you do not overwork yourself and become
fatigued - mentally or physically. As some jobs
are finished and provide satisfaction to you,
take rest period also - not to forget the next
job but to be better prepared for it. A few minutes
to splash an aching brow with cold water or work
in fresh air will be helpful. To avoid/reduce
fatigue you may also alternate sedentary jobs
and active jobs, because a change is as good
as rest. If you have been doing mathematics for
hours, better do some gardening for some time
and shift back to your studies later. This will
give you a fresh frame of mind and strength. Comparative
freshness of new occupation helps us to concentrate
and makes work more interesting.
The Expanding And
Spiritual Quotient (SQ)
To begin with let me confess
that the terms Spirit and Spiritual Quotient are
not the part of scientific vocabulary yet. And
still you hear more and more about the terms like:
Spiritual intelligence, Spiritual quotient, Spiritual
relation quotient, Soul's intelligence, Cosmic
intelligence, Self-actualization and so on. Man's
interest in extra sensory process has always been
multiplying despite his scientific bent of mind
coupled with well-focused empirical zeal. Religion
and Spiritualism have always involved greater
number of believers and followers than non-believers:
it is to say that the number of believers has
always been higher than others, throughout the
world.
Greatest scientists and
scholars at some stage of their life have recognized
the existence of some kind of intelligence',
which cannot be measured or touched, perhaps referring
to Spiritual Intelligence.
We may talk and reason all our lives, but cannot
understand a word of Truth unless we Experience
it ourselves.
The neurologists and other scientists know that
the greatest power is lodged in fine,
not in the coarse. In his words Swami Vivekananda
said, "we see a man taking up a huge weight,
we see his muscles swell, and all over his body
we see signs of exertion, and we think muscles
are more powerful things. But it is thin thread-like
structures, the neurons that bring power to the
muscles. The moment one of these tiny looking
neurons is cut off from reaching the muscles from
brain, the muscles will not be able to move. These
neurons actually bring the power from something
finer still-- thought, and so on". Thus,
it is the finer that is really the seat of power.
We can see the movements in gross but cannot
see the movements in finer, as too subtle these
are in order to be perceived. Perhaps our senses
are not that sharp or keen to be able to notice
the subtle world. Neurologists, psychologists
and other scientists are working in such directions,
with the hope that one-day humans (at least some
of them), may be trained to work at very subtle
level of the existence. Some familiar terms in
this context are Extra Sensory Perception (ESP),
Distance seeing or Remote viewing etc. After all
we talk so much about mind but who has seen
it? Who has touched or tasted it?
SQ-- The Spiritual Quotient - IQ and
EQ are the integral part of Spiritual Quotient
(SQ). Spiritual intelligence is not necessarily
related to religion. According to Zohar, Spiritual
intelligence is about the human need and talent
for finding meaning in experience. She says"
it is our access to and use of meaning, vision,
and value in the way that we think and the decision
that we make" SQ can not be quantified or
measured, whereas IQ and EQ may be assessed. The
reason being that the very essence of spiritual
intelligence lies in its seeking a bigger and
broader, ever growing perspective. SQ
may also be seen as the highest and ever growing
need in the mankind.
Basically all the human beings are spiritual in
their nature. They may differ in their evolution
of such a need and hence work at different levels
of "need satisfaction". Abraham
Maslow, a great psychologist and existentialist,
classified such needs of the man in five categories
in a hierarchical order:
The lowest needs in such hierarchy
are Biological, such as hunger, thirst and sex.
Next are the Safety needs that include security,
stability and order. Then come belongingness such
as affiliation, affection, and identification.
Thereafter Self-esteem needs follows that include
prestige, success, and self respect. Finally at
the top in hierarchy comes the need for Self-actualization
that refers to person's need to develop
his full potentialities in whatever field
he works.
The beauty and essence of
Self-actualization is that it is spirally cyclic in
nature: more and more a person gets satisfied, more and
more he seeks such satisfaction. It's parallel is seen
in Indian concept of Self-realization and Atma
darashana. Vedanta refers to "Ananda", that keeps on
multiplying and ever evolving that finally merges into
Parmananda the Universal Self.
In today's materialistic and
highly competitive world man seem to be loosing his
identity and direction both. Fast growing technological
changes have put a lot of pressure on him that blinds
his vision for other alternatives of growth and
survival.
Man seems to have become machine
forgetting his true essence and original needs with
which he comes to earth. Career, Competition, jobs, more
money, higher status, etc. are the slogans of the day.
Breath a moment, give a chance to your self for
self-reflection. You may find some relevance of
spiritualism not only with your
career and career planning, but also with your life and
success.
It gives you an opportunity to
uncondition your mind and look for a different,
unstressed and relaxed way of life even in career
planning. It also provides you careers-- don't forget
people do teach yoga, astrology, ayurveda, and other
healing techniques throughout the world. As a matter of
fact even though I personally don't like calling it
Industry, billions of dollars flow in market that gives
some kind of relief to the people from the stress and
agony being produced by the present style of living.
Acupuncture is so widely being used in western and south
Asian countries that people do make their career in this
line too.
Why struggle only for English
style of medicine and surgery only. Remember, you need
to be creative in order to find new solutions of the
chronic problems-- be it anything.
Creativity
You may be aware of
the words 'Eureka
. Eureka
', and yet
unaware about its relation with creativity.
King Hiero decided to place
a golden crown in the temple as a gesture of thanks
- offering to Gods after he won the throne of
Syracuse. He made a contact at a fixed price and
weighed out the gold for the contractor at the
royal scale. The contractor worked on the given
gold and delivered a beautiful crown equal to
the weight of the gold given to him. Later, a
charge was made that the contractor had removed
the gold and added silver instead, to keep the
weight equal. The king became furious and asked
Archimedes to find out the facts.
It was a big problem for Archimedes
as he knew little about the ways to answer this
problem of the king. Yet he kept on thinking about
some kind of solution to establish if the contractor
had stolen the gold. While he was working on the
problem in his mind he happened to go into a bath
and noticed that when he got into the bath-tub,
exactly the same amount of water flowed over the
side as the volume of his body that was under
water. This (accidental) observation gave him
a clue to the solution. He jumped out of tub and
in a rush of joy, he ran naked, shouting loudly
'Eureka
Eureka
' (i.e., I have found it
, I have found it
.).
Archimedes could scientifically
prove that the contractor had cheated the king.
The silver in the crown, having a larger volume
than an equal weight of gold, made the crown displaced
more water than it would have, had it been made
of pure gold.
Archimedes seemed to have found
the novel and unique solution magically (all of
sudden), but the truth is that even in bath tub,
he was working on the problem (unconsciously)
without being aware of it. In this example the
process of Creativity (Creative thinking)
is clearly seen. It refers to mental process that
leads to solutions, ideas, artistic forms,
theories or products that are novel and unique.
Creative thinking involves the manipulation of
images and other symbolic elements; the elements
are rearranged (bypass) to achieve some goal in
such a way that the pattern of symbols is totally
new. It may be surprising how many great principles
and ideas were achieved in buses, bathrooms, and
bedrooms. Obviously, these are the places where
the individual is relaxed and under little pressure.
Usually, even though it seems
that creative solution to a problem has emerged
all of a sudden, it is not so. Creative process
takes (quite often) certain sequential step: (i)
problem recognition (ii) preparation (iii) inculcation
(iv) illumination (v) verification and evaluation.
If for instance the solution to the problem does
not stand verification, one goes back (unconsciously)
to the beginning (step I) and repeats the process
or else the final solution is accepted.
One may improve
creativity by:
Providing specific instruction in creative
thinking as divergent thinking is in focus of
such a process.
Fostering openness to new experiences.
Providing consigned and favorable social environment.
You may also improve your creativity
by putting your thoughts and mind to proper use.
For such achievement, you apply wings to your
thoughts but not to wonder around and day-dream.
Practice to think in divergent manners and unique
ways to solve your problems. Diversion does not
necessarily imply perversion or revolt. It only
provides bigger challenge and more stimulation
to your brain to work more independently. Remember,
everyone has this potential. What you have
to do is to put yourself in the situations where
you have no common solution to the problem. Give
your mind some exercise - the only way to be Creative
is to think Creatively.
Power of Concentration
No matter how long you sit with open
eyes looking at the open book, hardly anything
is registered in your brain unless you make meaning
out of the text.
Concentration is
the process of selecting certain inputs for inclusion
in the focus of experience. Whenever an individual
tries to focus his concentration on an object,
idea or text the process of attention divides
the field of his experience into a focus and a
margin. While trying to concentrate, one ties
to bring the information (e.g., a text) under
focus of attention. While trying to focus your
attention on relevant (text) material, you are
filtering all other irrelevant, marginal and unwanted
information to the margin. If you succeed in doing
so you will definitely understand the (text or
spoken) material and not complain about lack of
concentration.
Many great persons are known
for their power of concentration. While it is
common for many students not to be able to concentrate,
it is in their interest to develop their power
of concentration.
When we read a thrilling novel
or magazine of our interest, we are usually not
troubled with the problem of concentration. At
times, you don't even notice a person entering
the room. What is important to you is to arouse
and maintain interest in various subjects of your
studies. Some subject/s would definitely not interest
you but you have to remember and remind yourself
about the goals you want to achieve.
Mudit, a student at undergraduate
level wanted to be fully qualified and successful
in his perspective career. He wanted the prestige,
the security, and the satisfaction that his career
would bring to him. This was his ambition, his
supreme desire. Mudit resolved to begin studying
for the series of examinations which would give
him his heart's desire. During his intensive studies,
there were times when he faltered a little in
his resolve, and frequently there were evenings
when his mind would wander from some of the textbooks.
After consulting me about his problems, Mudit
discovered that the secret of concentration lay
in quickening his original desire, in re-kindling
his interest. When he found his attention to be
wandering seriously, he would visualize himself
as having gained his much desired qualifications.
He would remind himself of the increased income
it would bring and many exciting and worthwhile
things he could do with that bigger salary and
higher status. After this little excursion into
a very possible future, Mudit found that he returned
to his studies with great zeal and enthusiasm.
This resolve to succeed thus strengthened and
improved his concentration. You may find your
own ways and techniques to improve the concentration.
Nothing else could interest you so much as negotiating
your present difficulty, and irrelevant thoughts
will cease to obtrude.
Strong Will-power is
a necessary condition, especially for academically
oriented subjects. The person of weak will would
have spent all the evening in day dreaming, without
doing anything to make his dreams come true. How
about you? You might say "that's
what I lack-will-power
. I just can't bring
myself to act
"
Power of Mind
Everything speaks of expansion
in the contemporary world. Through the expansion
of knowledge in psychology, a new era of mental
power is emerging. There are many discoveries
in the field of psychology that can help us to
realize our mental potentials the mental powers.
The medical science acknowledges
that in case of many functional diseases, the
troubles are caused, not so much by physical factors,
but primarily by emotional factors in the mind
of the sufferer. A rash for instance, might be
caused by a guilty conscience, a headache might
appear as a consequence of the emergence of an
intolerable memory.
Mind The Master:
- Just imagine you may cure asthma,
peptic ulcer, high blood pressure, allergic troubles
and many such ordered by a part of the mind you
are not conscious of. This (unconscious) part
of the mind is at work, both while you are awake
and when you are sleeping. And it never tires.
You ought to realize that there
are much healthier ways of dealing with day to
day problems, worries and anxieties. You may do
so by training your mind consciously. Tell yourself
that you are going to keep well. Every time the
temptation comes to suggest to yourself that you
are not so well, counter it with the suggestions
of health, success and well being. An hour before
you go to bed, get a pencil and a paper, write
down your problem and possible answers to it.
Quietly feed your mind with the problem asking
your unconscious mind to deal with it during the
quiet hours of the night. Give assurance to yourself
that the right answer will be delivered to you
when you get up the next morning
In the morning, give a few minutes
to yourself mediating before the day's work.
Come back to your problem and you may realize
that everyone has sufficient mental power but
a few use it to the maximum possible extent. Be
one of the latter.
The mind waits to serve you
and has the capacity much greater than what you
realize. There are no limits to the mental power.
You must stop putting limits to yourself. Stop
allowing self-pity to rule your mind. Stop believing
the arguments like, I never had a chance,
..
It is all the fault of my parents
.. if only
the things had been different Remove such phrases
and notions from your vocabulary for all practical
purposes. Know that you have your chance by work
and study. You have the power to settle your destiny.
And if you really wish it, with diligence and
good heart, you can climb to the top of the ladder.
Improving The IQ
Those of you know that
intelligence is not one ability but aggregate
of many abilities have a reason to be optimistic.
There is always a hope that one can improve some
of his abilities and thereby can achieve better
IQ grades. Intelligence is something with which
we have been programmed at the time of birth.
Intelligence is like a seed. The seed will determine
the quality of the plant, its height, strength,
flowers and fruits. However, the seed can become
that plant (or a tree) only if it is nurtured
by its environment. No matter how fine (quality)
a seed you have, unless it gets good soil, good
sun, minerals, water etc. it will not result in
the best of its quality in terms of size and amount
of flower or fruits. On the other hand, even if
the quality of the seed is just average and it
gets optimal environmental support, the resultant
plant may be better at least comparable to the
better quality seed not nurtured properly. This
precisely is the case with intelligence.
Your friend may be more intelligent than you.
But you have no reason to feel depressed
about your own self. A little insight in the whole
process and some efforts on your part can easily
bring you at par with him. Obviously you will
ask, how? "How do I improve my results or
outcome and make it at par with those who have
inherited better capacity than me?" the answer
is simple: enrich your environment.
The character of enriched environment is that
it gives more than usual opportunities for learning
through experience. Recent psychological research
shows that one can improve his IQ by enriching
his environment. It does not mean that those who
are economically rich are having enriched environment
naturally, and those who are poor lack it.
Any one who wants to improve his measured intelligence
or IQ can do it without spending a single penny.
He can do it without spending geniuses come from
environments rich in interaction between the developing
persons and older (experienced) people. Talk to
people who interest you, listen to them, try to
analyze and understand them; see their positive
aspects and try to gain from them. Surprisingly,
you learn a great deal, lot more with such interactions
than from reading volumes of books for months.
If you feel your earlier achievements
have not been satisfactory due to some reasons
other than your potentials you ought to recognize
your environment. Your friends, books, TV programs
that you see, and the kind of people you interact
with constitute your environment. It also includes
kind of magazines you read, the articles and the
radio programs you listen to. Reading more books
and articles are good but not sufficient for growth.
One must expose one self to various kind of people
and situations. You have to be very careful as
to what kind of discussions you do and its content.
Then analyze them and give feedback to yourself
to improve further. Real friendship or good company
is not just to spend time; rather it should add
to your intellectual growth. Thus, one always
grows with continuous interaction with his environment.
That is why your environment should be carefully
organized in tune with your goal.
If you are poor in particular
language, expose yourself more to people who speak
that language. If you are not able to solve arithmetic
problems with ease and accurately, do more practice
with such problems. Remember failure is the first
step towards success. Practice makes a man perfect.
Those who become IAS or engineers or even doctors
are mostly of the same intelligence as you have
- it is just that they practice more and work
harder for their goals. There is no substitute
to work. Everyday of living brings you opportunity
of self - improvement - just use them and by doing
so you can improve your IQ (measured intelligence).
Initiative
The emperor-philosopher
Marcus Aurelius anticipated the findings of modern
psychology that the general tenor of our thoughts
determines the kind of our thoughts, which determines
the kind of person we actually become. This is
true not only in the realms of social accomplishment,
moral development, and material success, but also
in that of health. If your health has been poor,
don't accept that condition as a life sentence.
So is true if you failed in making your career
in the desired field. Take initiative in various
possible fields.
In the field of education, ordinary
people tend to rest content with what was handed
out to them in school or college. But ambitious
people are increasingly taking the initiative
and doing something to remedy the gaps in their
education. They join coaching classes, read educative
magazines, participate in academic activities,
and try to reach the latest and most informative
ways to gain knowledge. They use such knowledge
to improve the abilities and personality. They
plan their career and work for it with an all
out effort.
You should not expect the career
of your dreams to be handed to you on a plate.
Make up your mind exactly what you want to do
and then go after it like a hound after a hare'.
Achievement involves much patience and hard work,
and the effort will be amply rewarded. Within
reasonable limits, hardly anything is impossible
to the man who really makes up his mind. Determination
and enthusiasm can overcome the most formidable
obstacles. The chemist of May and Baker produced
the drug for pneumonia it was called M and
B 693 because it was produced only after six
hundred ninety three experiments. Thomas Edison,
who invented electric bulb after more than fifteen
hundred experiments, said I never allow myself
to be discouraged under any circumstances.
Once you begin showing initiative,
even the most terrifying circumstances will shrivel
and slink away, acknowledging your supremacy.
With courage and initiative, you can start changing
your circumstances in the desired direction.
Improving Memory
Memory is a fundamental
power without which there could be no other intellectual
operation. The present examination and education
system in India gives much weightage to memory.
Thus it becomes all the more important to those
who aspire to score higher ranks in examinations.
It does not, however, mean that memory is the
sole factor in determining the examination performance.
Nevertheless, it remains the focus of primary
importance for nothing can be expressed if one
does not remember, no matter how well one has
learned the material without memory there can
be no learning, and without learning each of us
would remain as helpless as in the hour of birth.
Many students forget quite a bit
of their learned material in the examination hall.
And a soon as the examination is over, one says,
"Oh I forgot it in the examination, but now
I remember it very well
". Perhaps, it
was due to some kind of stress that inhibited
with your recall during examination, and when
the situation of stress (duration of examination)
was over, the memory came to your conscious stream
of mind. Good memory results from deeper, more
elaborate processing (understanding) of the material.
It is, however, not always important for a person
to process information deeply. For example while
going to school it is not important for you to
process much information while driving your vehicle
or sitting in a bus. But if you want to achieve
good grade in examination, you must go into depth
of the lessons and other relevant contents for
otherwise your memory may fade.
No matter how confident you are about your
understanding of the material, unless at times
you repeat (rehearse) the material it is likely
to deceive you. Rehearsal is not a parrot. If
involves 'Keeping information' at the center of
attention. Most effective way of rehearsal is
elaboration. It means degree to which incoming
information (e.g., text) is processed so that
it can be tied or linked with the existing memories
in the form of images or figures.
You may also use Mnemonics to
improve your memory. Most of these techniques
are based on the linking or association of the
material to be remembered, with systematic and
organized set of images or words that are already
firmly established in long-term-memory and therefore
can serve as reminder cues. Thus, the fact can
be woven into a jingle which makes them easy to
memorize. For example, many of you remember the
order of colors in the spectrum of visible light
- VIBGYOR - violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow,
orange, red. Friends, you will be surprised to
know that people can remember unbelievably well
the things you don't even make attempts for. Very
often, their secret lies in memories. You may
just make little fun by remembering the poem here
and in a matter of few minutes, you may realize
that you have remembered forty-two names of the
presidents of United States.
Intelligence
Though there is no perfect
way in which intelligence can be defined, psychologists
have given emphasis on different aspects of intelligence.
For example some place emphasis on ability to
learn, others define intelligence as the ability
to carry on logical thinking. And yet some other
psychologists focus on ability to adjust or adaptation
of individual to his total environment. Thus it
is logical to assume that a person who can recognize
and apply what he has acquired for the purpose
of dealing with varied and novel situation is
more intelligent than a person who is capable
of little beyond repeating what he had previously
acquired. So friends! if someone has memorized
a standard answer to the question asked and got
more marks than you, it does not show that he
is more intelligent than you. But yes, he has
put efforts in memorizing for which he has been
rewarded. Memory is definitely an asset and it
also adds to intelligence. However, it cannot
be solely equated with intelligence. As a matter
of fact intelligence is just not one ability.
Intelligence is a global capacity of the individual
to act purposefully, to think rationally, and
to deal effectively with environment. Therefore
we observe that intelligence consists of number
of abilities of an individual. Then, how can your
inability to answer some questions on mathematics
or general knowledge make you less intelligent?
The problem with most available cheap literature
in the market is that in zeal of selling psychology
quickly, they give wrong prescriptions to increase
your intelligence quickly. Alas! This is not possible.
Intelligence is not something like weight that
can be altered easily. But yes, by exposing yourself
to 'enriched environment you can certainly improve
your IQ by a few points. But certainly not by
merely reading a book.
Psychologists have also distinguished
several kids of intelligence. There are three
kind of intelligence: social intelligence, concrete
intelligence and abstract intelligence. Social
intelligence involves the abilities to understand
to deal with persons; concrete intelligence involves
the abilities to understand and deal with the
things (e.g., scientific appliances); abstract
intelligence involves the abilities to understand
and deal with verbal and mathematical symbols.
If you happen to be poor in one kind of intelligence,
it does not mean that you are low in overall intelligence.
Take the example of a boy who is not good at talking
to people or even understanding the verbal and
mathematical symbols; he, however, may be very
good in dealing with machines and thus can be
an excellent mechanic for cars, scooter or even
aeroplanes. Similarly you do not have to worry
if you find yourself to be poor in understanding
the scientific appliances etc., as you may be
good in some other kind of intelligence e.g.,
in social or abstract.
Coming back to the meaning of
intelligence, remember, "intelligence is
not one ability, it consists of many abilities
put together." So if you happen to score
low on dimension of intelligence you are likely
to compensate it by scoring high on some other
dimension. Then why you should be told that you
have lower intelligence? In fact you are not below
average by failing on some best items. You rather
ask yourself as to what there items are measuring?
Most of the tests that you see in various magazines/newspapers
and books are the tests of reasoning or mathematics
which is just a part of intelligence. Moreover,
such tests are usually not standardized tests
- they may lack the required validity and reliability.
It does not mean that you don't practice with
these tests or throw them away. Just remember
that these items are tapping 'some' kind of ability
of your and not what is technically called intelligence.
What if you repeatedly cannot
score high on such tests in order to be successful
in some exam? Don't worry. It takes some time
for you to understand the basics behind such items
are practice; even when you fail again. It will
take time - less for some and more for others.
But you will grasp the things ultimately and within
few months you will be surprised by your own progress.
It does not mean, however, that your intelligence
has improved.
Can we improve
intelligence - Now many of you
may ask: Can we improve our intelligence? 'Yes'
and 'No'. For answering these questions we should
pose another question: Is intelligence inherited
or derived from environment? Why people differ
in their intelligence? Most psychologists and
other experts agree that at least some aspects
of intelligence are inherited, but opinions differ
to the relative contribution of heredity and environment.
The idea is that if intelligence is inherited
absolutely then it is rather difficult to improve
it.However, if it happens to be on environment,
then one could perhaps improve his intelligence
by bringing certain changes in the environment.
The evidence bearing on the inheritance of intelligence
comes from the studies correlating IQs between
persons of various degrees of genetic relationships.
In a survey of more than 100 such studies, it
was found that the average correlation between
IQs of parents and their children in +0.40. It
means that intelligent parents are likely to have
intelligent children. The correlation between
the IQs of identical twins is very high i.e.,
+0.86. it is because the identical twins develop
from single egg and share precisely the same heredity.
In contrast of this, correlation between the IQs
of foster parents and their children is very low
i.e., +0.31. all these findings seem to suggest
that heredity plays a very important role in determining
the intelligence. Although genetic determinants
of intelligence are strong, there studies also
indicate that environment is also important. For
example, when siblings are reared together - in
the same home environment - their IQ similarity
(correlations) increases. There stands always
a good chance of improving intelligence, as the
kind of environmental influence, we live in, usually
inhibit the full - capacity - use of intelligence.
And if we can organize the environment in such
a way so that it facilitates the abilities associated
with intelligence, it will result in apparently
enhanced intelligence. Practically such exposure
to environment results in increased IQ on a test.
So you can definitely improve your ID even through
in reality the intelligence can only be improved
up to what you have come with i.e., true intelligence.
How could we enrich our environment to improve
the IQ?
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