One of my most rewarding experiences of reading widely, and reading deeply, as well as reading differently, over a board array of books and other mediums is picking up gems or mining gold.

Here's one for sharing:

"Every change leader needs bifocal vision."

It comes from business consultant Karl Albrecht's 'The Northbound Train: Finding the Purpose, Setting the Direction, Shaping the Destiny of Your Organization'.

As I read, it's the ability to perceive accurately things happening further out toward the horizon that will inevitably affect our lives as well as the ability to focus on the more immediate, pressing events in our environment.

This ability to see the faraway field as well as the nearby field, and to deal comfortably with both is relatively rare. Indeed it is often not easy thing to do.

However, from personal experience, it can be learned and improved upon with deliberate practice.

To me, this assertion from the author resonates in many ways with what creativity guru Edward de bono has often encouraged us to do:

"... to adopt fluidity of perception as well as multiple perceptions in our view of the world at large..."

In a nut shell, he means to constantly enhance our perceptual sensitivity to what's happening in our environment.

In summing up, strategically and tactically, perceptual sensitivity is often the "driving force" behind our creativity innovation.

More precisely, possibility thinking or opportunity scanning starts where we see the horizon, far and near.

What's your thought?

My response to a question posed by Michael Simmons of the Learning How to Learn FB Group:

Frankly, without the capacity or capability of knowing exactly the WHY you are learning, its significant implications on your life or work or business, all the seven skills you have listed look good only on paper.

Just remember, goals and priorities come from your headspace, but purpose (or WHY?) comes from your heart, which supersedes everything else!

In fact, it's the driving force behind everything!

"... 7 Skills That Make Up Learning How To Learn

What do you think of this list? What's missing from this list?

Behavior management (habits). Consistently finding time in your busy schedule for deliberate learning.

Value and goal setting. Ability to get clarity on what's important and then narrow down to the "one thing" right now that matters enough for you to learn.

Emotional management. Ability to step back from the frustration, fear, insecurity, and pain triggered by challenges and productively reflect on lessons.

Information management. The ability to search for and filter people, information, and experiences so you can learn the most.

Metacognition. Ability to digest and reflect upon information in order to extra deeper lessons and models.

Experimentation. Ability to select what's worth taking action on and actually take action.

Feedback. Ability to identify and eliminate blindspots. Ability to collect, structure, and analyze information you get from taking action in order to learn the most..."

My take on a question in Quora:

Why do we forget? Why do those with perfect memory not forget anything?

Frankly, you shouldn’t get hung up on this phenomenon which psychologists often call, the “Forgetting Curve”.

According to science. “forgetting” is a natural phenomenon. It’s a vital part of the brain’s natural process of consolidation and diagnostics.

As a matter of fact, “memory” is essentially an active, dynamic process of the brain from our initial selective perceptual capture of sensory impressions of our physical environment, our subsequent processing of what is important from the impressions, particularly in terms of conceptual coherency and personal relevancy, all the way to our so-called long term memory storage.

Throughout this seemingly elaborate process, almost all our 100 billion brain cells are firing on all cylinders.

That’s to say, learning transfer is basically a hardwired bio-electro-chemical activity.

More importantly, it’s always subjective, due to our prevailing expectations, biases, prejudices, fears, hopes and even frustrations.

As I have understood, based on my decades of exploring the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of the human mind, at the physical core of our brain, there is actually no physical entity of “our memories”.

Our recall of “memories” is always reconstructed through the firing synapses of the brain’s vast neural networks.

That’s why as a student, in order to beat this deadly impact of the what is now known as the Ebbinghaus Effect, or better known to most folks as the ‘Forgetting Curve’, we need to do a number of things while learning/studying:

- make sure that we have an interest in learning new things, as interest permeates all learning endeavours;

- make sure that we pay attention while learning/studying;

- make sure that we understand a new concept thoroughly at the very beginning of learning/studying;

make sure that we do a 3 R’s Strategy: Recap, Review and Reinforce, - for deeper processing of what we have just learned to allow better and faster recall when needed, especially during test/exam time;

- make sure we institute a Spaced and Distributed Practice in lesson revisions/rehearsals, within 24 hours, failing which about 80% will be lost; within the next 7 days / next 30 days/ next 6o days/ next 90 days until test/exam time;

- make sure that we remain stress-free and relaxed during learning/studying, and more importantly, before and during test/exam time, as stress is considered a fight-flight response by our reptilian brain, which is one of the major gateways to our learning/thinking brain, or better known as our cerebral cortex;

By the way, there is no such thing as a perfect memory. Only a trained memory.

Hopefully all these cogitations will now make sense to you. 

The harsh reality as I see it:

Remember that not all people in our social circle are meant to stick with us

Sometimes, we need to protect our sanity and the only way to do it is to stay away from those negative people.

Whatever reason lies behind negativity, it is not our responsibility to fix it or tolerate it.

We have to make our own life choices, and whilst it might feel sad to have to walk away from a relationship, we do not have to justify it.

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According to Strategic Coach (Dan Sullivan), there are many benefits to having strategic thought partners.

Thought partners are peers you can reach out to who are professional, capable, and trustworthy. They are incredibly beneficial when you’re uncertain and are great people to connect with when you have provocative questions or pressing challenges. Theirs are also often the first names that come to mind when opportunities for collaboration arise.

“Don't speak negatively about yourself, even as a joke. Your body doesn't know the difference. Words are energy and they cast spells, that's why it's called spelling. Change the way you speak about yourself, and you can change your life.”

Interestingly, the legendary martial-artist-actor and philosopher Bruce Lee captured the essence of what Tony Robbins has often termed as Transformational Vocabulary very well. 

There's indeed power in words and oftentimes, when you change the word you use, you change your mindset completely.

It's very true!

Also think about this parallel thought, that comes to mind:

"One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular."

~ Tony Robbins;