On Purpose with Jay Shetty - The 4 Ways Your Mind Learns & How To Strengthen Your Focus, Memory & Attention

Episode Date: June 26, 2020

Are you feeling bored, unsettled, or stuck in a rut? Jay Shetty shares his #1 secret for combating boredom. Learning how to learn is the most effective step towards forward progress & growth. Yet learning is harder than it looks. When people know and feel comfortable about their learning style, they are able to plug into that so they can learn faster and better. Today you'll discover which learning style fits you best & how to retain the knowledge long-term. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Munga Shatekler and it turns out astrology is way more widespread than any of us want to believe. You can find it in major league baseball, international banks, kpop groups, even the White House. But just when I thought I had a handle on this subject, something completely unbelievable happened to me and my whole view on astrology changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, give me a few minutes because I think your ideas are about to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. Hi, I'm Brendan Francis Nunehm, I'm a journalist, a wanderer, and a bit of a bon vivant, but mostly a human just trying to figure out what it's all about. And not lost is my new podcast about all those things. It's a travel show where each week I go with a friend to a new place and to really understand it, try to get invited to a local's house for dinner where kind of trying to get invited to a dinner party,

it doesn't always work out. Ooh, I have to get back to you. Listen to not lost on the iHeart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Our 20s are often seen as this golden decade. Our time to be carefree, make mistakes, and figure out our lives. But what can psychology teach us about this time? I'm Gemma Speg, the host of the psychology of your 20s. Each week we take a deep dive into a unique aspect of our 20s, from career anxiety, mental health,

heartbreak, money and much more to explore the science behind our experiences, the psychology of your 20s hosted by me, Gemma Speg. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. How many times do you have to tell your partner to take out the trash every single week? So you're trying to teach them through an auditory memory. You're hoping that they're going to learn by hearing your voice. But let's say they're a visual learner. So you might think that they don't listen.

And the truth is, they are listening. That's just not how they remember. That's just not how they learn. And so you keep reminding them every single week you feel unheard, you feel like they don't care about you. You have to know they're learning stuff. Hey everyone, welcome back to on purpose, the number one health podcast in the world, thanks to each and every single one of you.

Now I wanna say a big thank you to everyone who has left a review. We have over 12,000 reviews. Now, it's incredible. If you have a moment, it would mean so much to me. If you go in and leave a review for us, it makes such a big difference to having new people come and find the podcast and listen to it and making sure that people know about the incredible conversations we have here every single week. Now, today's podcast and listen to it and making sure that people know about the incredible conversations we have here every single week. Now today's podcast and episode is all about learning, learning, learning, learning. And I really believe that learning is such a huge, huge, huge part of our lives.

And there are some incredible thoughts that I wanna share with you about learning today, because it's funny that we try to learn about a lot of things, but we never learn how to learn. We try and learn a lot of things, but we never figure out how to learn better. We've never learned how to learn. And that in and of itself becomes a big, big challenge. Now, one of my favorite statements from Alvin Toffler is this,

the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. There is such an emphasis here on the process of learning, unlearning, and relearning from Alvin Toffler. And I absolutely love that quote, which is think about that for a moment. Through our whole lives, we've been expected to learn, we've been expected to learn fast, but we never learn how to

learn. Now, why is learning important? Right now, you might be thinking, Jay, why do we have to talk about learning? I'm going to skip this podcast. I'm about to turn it off. I'm about to switch it off. Well, I will convince you in the next 20 seconds that you need to listen to the whole of this podcast. So listen to this. I was reading the CCSU continued education website. And what I like to do is,

if I'm trying to tell you why I think it's important to learn, rather than tell you the benefits of learning, I want to actually share with you the disadvantages of not learning. Because often when we learn about what might go wrong, it actually enthuses us and energizes us more than learning about what might go right. It's a weird psychological thing that we have in the mind, right? We're triggered by that response of like, oh, I don't want it to go badly, so I'm going to do it right.

So listen to this from the CCSU continued education. It says, a British research study showed that being bored, which occurs when you don't learn new things very often, and I'll come back to that, can be dangerous to your health. People in the study who reported being bored over a long period of time had heart disease rates more than twice as high as those who did not report boredom. We've already learned something huge. What have we learned? The opposite of learning is boredom. The opposite of boredom is learning. So if you're like, you haven't been feeling bored,

maybe you've even heard that song on board in the house and I'm in the house bored, right? If you've been using TikTok at this time. So many people today are bored, or we're procrastinating, or we're overthinking. And all of that is because of lack of learning. See, if you notice something about being bored,

it feels like you're stagnant, and it feels you're like you're stuck, and it feels like you're stagnant and it feels you're like you're stuck and it feels like you're trapped in the moment. How many of you agree with that? Right, how many of you agree that when you're bored, it kind of feels like you're stopped, like you're blocked, right? You feel you feel stuck. And if you notice procrastination or overthinking as well, it kind of feels like you're just

going through a spiral Learning cuts right through that learning is about movement learnings about momentum learnings about pushing forward and So boredom the antidote to boredom is actually learning and also recognize here. It's dangerous to your health to not learn It's dangerous to your health and your mind and your brain. And we're talking about heart disease rates more than twice as high as those who do not report boredom. Now, an in-gratical by Brian Wong, and the same, he's also looking at a study

in the CCSU business and development. And this is what he finds that practicing a new skill increases the density of your myelin or the white matter in your brain that helps improve performance on a number of tasks. It goes on to say, additionally, learning new skills stimulates neurons in the brain, which forms more neural pathways and allows

electrical impulses to travel faster across them. The combination of these two things help you learn better and it can even help you stay away from dementia. And this is the challenge that we find that especially as we get older, we stop learning. If you think about it when we were at school, we learned every day. Then if you went to college or you started a new job, you were learning every day.

But as we get older and older and older, we actually stop learning. Think about the last time you learned something new. Think about the last time you learned something for the first time. It's rare that we continue to learn, and yet there is such a need for us to learn every single day from our careers, to our relationships. There is a need to learn more all the time.

Technology is advancing so fast. Careers are changing every single day. There's so many careers that exist today that will disappear in the next 10 years. And it's not just things like farming or agricultural work. It also includes telephone operators, computer processes, typists. People even talk about legal and accounting work. It's incredible to think of how technology will replace so many roles and jobs as well. So there is such a need for us to be continuous learners. It's so important. Now, you may be sitting there just going like, Jay, you know what? I've tried. I've really tried in my time to learn more. I've really tried in my

time to understand more. And I really struggled, right? You're like, Jay, I don't like reading. You know, it's really not my thing. Now, I remember when I was at primary school, we were always having to read fiction books. And I remember some of the most popular fiction books when I was young were Goosebumps. And you may remember Goosebumps and the TV show as well. And I enjoyed watching the TV show as okay, but I didn't really get into the books, but I remember they had cool covers. And I remember trying to read them,

but just never feeling connected. And then I remember also being exposed, of course, when I was at Harry Potter was huge. And again, like, I never really got into the books, and I know that's really deep for some of you to accept, but it's true. And so, so many of us might be thinking right now, like, yeah, just don't like learning. I don't like reading. And the thing we say is, instead of saying we don't like reading or we don't like writing or we don't like a specific type, we just say, I don't like reading or we don't like writing or we don't like a specific type, we just say I don't like learning or I don't enjoy learning. And a lot

of this comes because we associate the word learning with school or college. Now, think about this really, really honestly and reflect really openly on this. How many of you struggled at school or college? Like how many of you genuinely did not like going to class, right? You hated going to the classroom, you probably never got along with your teachers or maybe even if you got along with them, you never learned anything. And maybe some of you are like, wow, I studied three languages and now I don't remember even how to say hello in that language, right? Or I studied so much about this subject and it wasn't even useful.

And that's usually how a lot of us feel about education that even those of us who went to college or went to school, we look back and we just think, well, what do I use from that? And how many of you feel like you don't even remember it or you don't even apply it today? Why this is a challenge is because of course, our relationship with learning

was built with our relationship with school because school was the place we learned. But you'll find that people who had parents who traveled with them or parents who taught them about general knowledge or parents who listened to music and spoke about artists at home. You'll find that because their learning was also linked to a parent, they actually are inspired by learning. They're engaged in the learning process, but for a lot of us who connected learning just to school, it's actually quite limiting. Now one of the biggest reasons for this, and when I understood this myself, I just realized

how many limiting beliefs I had because I didn't have an awareness of what learning truly was. And what I realized is that school was not built for different learning styles. In the same way that people write differently, just in the same way as people speak differently, just in the same way as people speak differently, just in the same way as people think differently. Guess what? People learn differently. You learn differently.

And I don't even know if you've ever stopped to think about what your learning style is. I don't know if you've ever even stopped to recognize how you learn better so that you can learn more, remember more, apply more, make a difference more, or whether you just try and follow along. Right? Now, chances are that if you listen to the podcast regularly which I'm really grateful that you do,

there's a specific style of learning that you really thrive of, and that's really, really powerful. And that's why we also see the rise in audiobooks now. So there are a lot of people who don't read books, but they'll listen to books or some people like reading a book while they listen to a book. I personally like doing that. It's a fun process. But it's incredible that we think we're not smart because we don't do something with the right awareness. We think we don't like something because we haven't really, truly explored it. So, psychology shows that

there are four types of learning styles, four different types. And when I was looking into this, some of you may already know this, some of you may have heard this before, but the question I would ask you is not whether you know this, it's whether you know your learning style deeply, and I'm going to go deeper today, and whether you understand, if you're a teacher, if you know this, it's whether you know your learning style deeply, and I'm going to go deeper today, and whether you understand, if you're a teacher, if you know the learning styles of your students, if you're a coach, or you're a guide, or you're a fitness trainer, or you're a speaker, and if you're on to Pneur, do you know the learning style of your client, right?

If you're working in an office, do you know the learning style of your colleagues? Do you know the learning style of your boss? Notice how knowing someone's learning style yours and someone else's is not just about whether you can learn more or not. It's whether you can be a better communicator at work. It's whether you're going to make things easier for your boss or your manager and for the people that work with you. There is so much more to it than just knowing the learning styles. Even if you've heard this before, open up your mind, realize that unless you know how to apply this in multiple areas of your life, you are limiting yourself consistently.

So here are the four learning styles. The first learning styles, and this comes in the form of the acronym VARC as its known. I didn't come up with this. It's a psychological breakdown of different learning styles. It's V-A-R-K. The V stands for visual learners. Learners who like to look at charts and graphs

and doodles and drawings and images. People who need to see something to learn and remember it. Often we talk about something like a photographic memory where if you see a page, you can remember that page and you learn better through seeing things visually, right? And you think about it in school, a lot of us didn't really get much visual learning. And if you remember what you do remember from class,

it might have been visual, right? There might have been visuals in what you remember things. And notice why when you try and remember something visually that you saw, you close your eyes, you're like, oh, what did it look like? No, it's like, what did you just close your eyes and you're like, what did it look like?

Oh yeah, that's what it looked like. And you can see it when you close your eyes, because you always have to stop triggering that sense to be able to visualize something from the past. But a lot of us have visual learners. And the thing about learning styles is not that we just have one and we don't use others. The point is we can strengthen what we learn.

So some of you may write down and make notes while you do it, so you can look at something after the podcast is over. Some of you may get a screenshot and write a quote on top of it, right? Some of you may stick it on your walls to make it visual. I know that at one point in time, and I'm definitely visual as a big part of mine, I used to put like things stuck on my wall, things that inspired me, paragraphs, inspirational quotes, chapters of a book, whatever it was, I'd photocopy the pages and stick them on my wall when I was younger

so that they would be front of mind for me. So that's visual learners. If they ask yourself on a scale of one to 10, how much do you think you're a visual learner? On a scale of one to 10, where would you put yourself? Okay, and I want you to do this practically. Get a pen out right now, write it down. If you don't write it down, this is not going to stick with you, right? Write it down, visual. A good way to learn about a place is to talk to the people that live there.

There's just this sexy vibe and Montreal, this pulse, this energy. But what has been seen as a very snotty city, people call it Bose-Angulous. New Orleans is a town that never forgets its pay. A great way to get to know a place is to get invited to a dinner party. Hi, I'm Brendan Francis Newdum, and not lost as my new travel podcast,

where a friend and I go places, see the sights, and try to finagle our way into a dinner party. We're kind of trying to get invited to a dinner party. It doesn't always work out. I would love that, but I have like a Cholala who is aggressive towards strangers. I love the dogs. We learn about the places we're visiting, yes, but we also learn about ourselves. I don't spend as much time thinking about how I'm going to die alone when I'm traveling,

but I get to travel with someone I love. Oh, see, I love you too. And also, we get to eat as much time thinking about how I'm going to die alone when I'm traveling. But I get to travel with someone I love. Oh, see, I love you too. And also, we get to eat as much... It's very sincere. I love you too. It makes a lot of therapy goes behind that. You're so white, I love it. Listen to Nut Lost on the I-Hard Radio App or wherever you get your podcasts.

In the 1680s, a feisty opera singer burned down an unnery and stole away with her secret lover. In 1810, a pirate queen negotiated her cruiseway to total freedom, with all their loot. During World War II, a flirtatious gambling double agent helped keep D-Day a secret from the Germans. What are these stories having common? They're all about real women who were left out of your history books. from the Germans. What are these stories having common? They're all about real women who were left out of your history books. If you're tired of missing out, check out the Womanica podcast, a daily women's history

podcast highlighting women you may not have heard of, but definitely should know about. I'm your host, Jenny Kaplan, and for me, diving into these stories is the best part of my day. I learned something new about women from around the world and leave feeling amazed, inspired, and sometimes shocked. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I am MiYAMLA and on my podcast, The R-Spot, we're having inspirational, educational, and sometimes difficult and challenging conversations about relationships.

They may not have the capacity to give you what you need. And insisting means that you are abusing yourself now. You human! That means that you're crazy as hell. Just like the rest of us. When a relationship breaks down, I take copious notes and I want to share them with you. Anybody with two eyes and a brain knows that too much Alfredo sauce is just no good for you. But if you're going to eat it, they're not going to stop you. So he's going to continue to give you the Alfredo sauce and put it even on your grits if you don't stop him. Listen to the art spot on the iHeart Video app Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to

podcasts. Okay, the second is auditory. So this is what I meant. If you listen to podcasts regularly, if you like audible regularly, you probably like learning through listening. And I think learning through listening is an incredible technique because listening is something you can do while running. You can do while cooking. You can do while driving. It's a really, really powerful way to learn and grow.

And it's also powerful because it's kind of happening and you can kind of latch on to a point that really has an impact on you or that really connects with you, especially if the person sharing the message is really enthusiastic about what they're sharing, but auditory makes sense. It's basically like you learn from listening and that's why audiobooks, podcasts, are becoming so popular today because people realize that they actually like doing something with their hands, like whether they're driving or they're working out or whether they're cooking, but then they can still learn. So you probably have a high auditory again on a scale of one to ten, which level are you

at? And some of you may even say, you know, sometimes they're listening to your podcasts twice. Like, I listened to the video that you made or the podcast that you made twice or three times. That shows that you're a key in auditory listener and learner. It's really powerful to remember that. And also, it's really important to remember when you're the best auditory. Like, I see myself as quite an auditory person.

But if I've got my phone in my hat, and my auditory sense is really inactive. So then, if my wife or my team is trying to say something to me, it may not register as much because I'm so engaged. So it's really important to recognize, if you're an auditory learner, and what level are you on at scale of one to ten. Now the third one is reading and writing. How many of you need to make notes when you're listening right now?

Notice how you can still learn by listening, but you like to read and write. You have to put something down, pen and paper when you're listening, and that strengthens your ability. So you may be an auditory learner, but you're also a reading and writing learner. How many of you need to scribble stuff down? How many of you need to write to I know for a fact that when I write something down, it stays with me longer. So even speaking it, and that's auditory too, auditory is listening and speaking.

When you speak something that also means you hold on to it. Obviously, you're going to be all of these, but I want you to rank again reading and writing on a scale of one to ten. And where are you on that? So when you're reading a book, you may highlight. You may underline. You may copy something out of that book. That puts you in the reading writing category.

And right now, you may be listening to this and going, Jay, I don't do any of these. Like, I just, I literally just watch stuff. Or I just listen, but I don't go further. And that's the part that will improve your learning. And finally, you have kinesthetic, like interactive learners. People have to mess around with something, play something, it's like a Rubik's cube,

it's like pottery, it's like problem solving, like crystal maze, like you actually have to do something with your hands and your feet and your mind and interactively be involved to see it make a difference. And a lot of these things obviously include things like learning instruments or learning how to dance, but also even problem solving skills or math. Like, I don't know if you've seen those viral videos of the teachers who teach the degrees and angles based on where the door is when you're walking in to a classroom, like things like that, where is so interactive. Right, it kind of brings it all together. It's a kinesthetic learners.

And you may be thinking, wow, I'm really lacking that kinesthetic learning in my life. And that's what I'm hoping that when you're listening to this, you're like, oh, no, wonder I thought I didn't like learning because I just keep like reading. And I really struggle with it. It doesn't do it for me. Or, you know, all I do is listen, but then I don't write it down or I don't make a visual. So those are the four types of visual auditory reading, kinesthetic, it's known as the VARC model. And I would really make sure that you know yours and you know the people

around you. How many times do you have to tell your partner to take out the trash every single week and you have to tell them, guess what out the trash every single week? And you have to tell them. Guess what? So you're trying to teach them through an auditory memory. You're hoping that they're going to learn by hearing your voice. But let's say they're a visual learner. They need a visual cue above the trash. They need a visual cue next to the dining table or the kitchen, wherever it is.

They need a visual reminder. So you dining table or the kitchen, wherever it is. They need a visual reminder. So you may think that they don't listen. And the truth is, they are listening. That's just not how they remember. That's just not how they learn. And so you keep reminding them every single week, you feel unheard, you feel like they don't care about you. You have to know their learning stuff, right?

You have to know their learning stuff, right? You have to know they're learning stuff. Or for example, you may find that you keep visual cues from your partner around the house, like you may give them a calendar invite or a diary, which is kind of like them being reading or writing, but actually they need a kinesthetic reminder, which means that they may need a reminder where they have to actively read and write it down. They may need to actually do the writing. They're trying to do it for them, but they actually need to be physically involved. So actually, they remember when they read and write, not when you put it in their calendar

for them, but when they put it in their calendar themselves. Notice how learning styles is beyond just having good memory. This is far more than just, I read a book and I remember what's inside it. This is practical life skills as to why we make mistakes every single day that don't change, right? You may be wondering why your partner just doesn't change,

why your colleague just doesn't change. It's because you don't know their learning style and I really want you to help them explore it and explore it yourself as well. Now, there are two additional types of learning style that I think apply across the board. So they almost are ways of dividing it. So you are either VARK in a specific order and you gave yourself a rank. So your rank is the order that you are. So I want you to write it down. So V, what were you one have 10?

If you have really a visual thinker, then you're 10, if you're not, then you're one. Same with auditory, same with reading, same with kinesthetic. What is your order of learning? So remember, you learn in all stars, but what's your order? Are you K-R-A-V? Are you V-A-R-K?

Which order are you in? It's really important to know that. I'm Eva Longoria. I'm Maite Gomes-Rajón. We're so excited to introduce you to our new podcast. Hungry for history! On every episode, we're exploring some of our favorite dishes, ingredients, beverages, from our Mexican culture.

We'll share personal memories and family stories, decode culinary customs, and even provide a recipe or two for you to try at home. Corner flower. Both. Oh, you can't decide. I can't decide. I love both. You know, I'm a flower tortilla flower. Your team flower? I'm team flower. I need a shirt. Team flower, team core. Join us as we explore surprising and lesser known corners of Latinx culinary history and traditions. I mean, these are these legends, right? Apparently, this guy Juan Mendes.

He was making these tacos wrapped in these huge tortillas to keep it warm, and he was transporting them in a burro, hence the name the burritos. Listen to Hungry for History with Ivalangoria and Mate Gómez Rejón as part of the Micoltura Podcast Network available on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Conquer your New Year's resolution to be more productive with the before breakfast podcast. In each bite-sized daily episode, time management and productivity expert, Laura Vandercam, teaches you how to make the most of your time, both at work and at home.

These are the practical suggestions you need to get more done with your day. Just as lifting weights keeps our bodies strong as we age, learning new skills is the mental equivalent of pumping iron. Listen to Before Breakfast on the I Heart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Danny Shapiro, host of Family Secrets. It's hard to believe we're entering our eighth season. And yet, we're constantly discovering new secrets. The depths of them, the variety of them, continues to be astonishing. I can't wait to share ten incredible stories with you, stories of tenacity, resilience, and the profoundly necessary excavation of long-held family secrets.

When I realized this is not just happening to me, this is who and what I am. I needed her to help me. If something was gnawing at me that I couldn't put my finger on, that I just felt somehow that there was a piece missing. Why not restart? Look at all the things that were going wrong. I hope you'll join me and my

extraordinary guests for this new season of Family Secrets. Listen to season 8 of Family Secrets on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Now the last question you have to ask yourself is, are you a solitary learner or are you a social learner? Remember, this is not about being an introvert or an extrovert, it's about where you learn better. Do you learn in groups or do you learn one-to-one or in silence? So I know that I will learn really, really well with private tuition, like one-on-one personal trainer, fitness trainer coaches. I really appreciate that one-to-one training, but a lot of people, and this is important

because it's an order again, need community, need to be around other people to learn, right? They need that connection. I also learn a lot when I'm sitting on my own and learning. So it's really important. Are you a solitary learner alone or are you a social learner? Do you learn better with people? Again, this is just high self awareness and really important awareness for your team as well because you might find that they're not learning, right? Because you always ask them to learn things on their own. Just like, go ahead, go learn on your own. As opposed to learning in a group with a brainstorm. I really want to understand that like I said, so you're either a solitary learner or a social learner.

Now, how do you know? Ask yourself when you felt like you really understood something, were you learning it, when you were just reading on your own, you were reflecting, you were maybe a nature, or did you hold on to it better because you were discussing it. You remember that last conversation you had over dinner or on a Zoom call, or, you know, when you were speaking with a bunch of people about an issue and it really left a impression on your mind. Again, really powerful to reflect on when you learn more. See what this does is it builds your confidence in making you realize that you are a learner, you just learn differently to other people. Although we all grew up believing,

oh, I'm academic or I'm not academic. And it's like, academic is the wrong word because we all need to learn. There's no one in the world who doesn't need to learn, but knowing how you learn makes it really easy for you. Now, I've been reading a book called The Psychology Book. It's great. I really enjoy it. And there's a psychologist named Herman Ebbinghaus who said that 24 hours after learning

something, we forget two thirds of it. And you may be thinking, well, why would I ever choose to learn then? Why would I ever choose to learn? But listen to this carefully. Items forgotten. This is what his research suggested from the Psychology book. Items forgotten can be relearned faster than new ones, which means that if you read something and forgot it, but read it again, you're more likely to remember it.

So the process is repetition. This is why repetition and practice are so important. It's said that we need to read something seven times before we remember it. It's why often the number seven is used in advertising, where you'll find that it is in seven different places. It will be on a billboard, a TV ad, a mobile ad, a social media ad.

It will be announced by your favorite celebrity and it will be on the sidewalk, right? You'll see it in seven places which will confirm that you want to make that purchase. So that's why the repetition of something is so powerful for you. So you don't need to think, oh well, I didn't remember it last time.

So there's no point in me looking at it again. Actually, your repeat attendance is what makes you remember it. So don't think of repetition as a failure. Think of repetition as strengthening. We think of repetition as like, oh, I failed last time. That's why I'm having to do it again. Actually, if you really want to remember it,

then keep doing it again makes it powerful. He also found that mastering, like, overlearning means you remembered longer. So it's not that your memory is weak if you don't learn the first time. For most of us to really remember something, we have to do it multiple times. So we have the wrong perception or learning. We think if we to really remember something, we have to do it multiple times. So we have the wrong perception or our own learning.

We think if we don't learn something the first time after we hear it, then that means our memory is weak. It means that we're not smart. It means that it's not meant for us. It means that we're not passionate about it. That's not true. The truth is repetition is what creates long-term memory. So don't think of that.

And that's mind-blowing for me right now as I'm sharing that with you. Do not think that because you didn't get something straight away, that it's not for you. So items forgotten can be relearned faster than new ones. Overlearning makes you remember it longer. And here's something really fascinating that he found. This is Herman Ebbinghaus in the Psychology book. Meaningful things are remembered 10 times longer. If someone has the same name as your niece or your daughter or your son, if someone has the same birthday as yours, if someone is the same star sign as you,

if someone worked at the same company as you, all of those things because they're meaningful, you remember them more. So my task for you next time you want to remember something is how can you make it meaningful? How can you make it meaningful? What adds meaning to that? How does it become personally connected to you? How does it become personally connected to you? How does it become personally intertwined with you? So when I'm reading a book,

or I'm reading about a particular event, or a particular theme, I'm trying to apply that to something in my life. For example, I read about this concept called Satisficing, which is where you simplify your life in a way so that you can do an activity with more focus. So the example that's given in that book, the organized mind by Daniel Levittin, is of Warren Buffett, and how when he's investing in stocks, he'll simplify his life

from living in a apartment in New York. He'll only drink milk and cookies and he'll be learning about stocks all week or researching that all week. So he simplifies his life so he can focus. So that story I remember and I asked myself, well, when have I done that? So I think about writing my book last year, I think about sometimes researching for my podcast, like all that time and then you can remember that theme because it's connected to something meaningful to you. Right? So ask yourself, how can I make this meaningful? How can I connect it to my mom, my dad, my brother, my sister?

How can I connect it to my best friend? How can I connect it to a name or a number? All of those things are going to make it easier to remember something. And finally, applied learning is the best learning. When you share something that you've learned, when you teach it, when you live it and apply it, you remember it much, much, much more. And that's what I'm always asking myself. When I learn something new, I'm like, how can I test this for the next week? So I learn it even more and learn it even deeper

and learn it even better. So that's how I want you to approach the learning process. I know that a lot of people are feeling bored right now, I know a lot of people are not feeling inspired, are not feeling inspired, are not feeling passionate, and it all comes back down to learning. That's the womb, that's the beginning point of all of it, is learning and curiosity. So, if you're like, I don't know what my passion is, I don't know what my purpose is.

Those are far off. But learning and curiosity is where it starts. Learning and curiosity is where it starts. And Leonardo da Vinci said, learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets. Right? And Albert Einstein said, once you stop learning, you start dying. Such powerful statements from some of the most powerful minds in the world about learning. Not about learning something specific,

but about learning in general. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of On Purpose. I want you to share your biggest takeaway on Instagram, tag me at Jay Shelley, I can't wait to see what you've learned from this podcast all about learning. Thank you so much for listening, please leave a review, it makes a huge difference to the podcast, I hope you've subscribed as well and share this with a friend so that you two can learn together.

Thanks so much for listening everyone, take care and I'll see you again next week for an incredibly exciting guest. I am Yom Le Van Zant and I'll be your host for The R Spot. Each week listeners will call me live to discuss their relationship issues. Nothing will tear a relationship down faster than two people with no vision. Does your all are just flopping around like fish out of water? Mommy, Daddy, your ex, I'll be talking about those things and so much more. Check out the R-Spot on the iHeart video app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Conquer your New Year's resolution to be more productive with the Before Breakfast Podcast.

In each bite-sized daily episode, time management and productivity expert, Laura Vandercam, teaches you how to make mental health, personal development, and all of the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves. I'm your host, Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia, and I can't wait for you to join the conversation every Wednesday. Listen to the Therapy for Black Girls podcast on the iHart Radio app Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast take good care