How would you like an easy to apply technique to help you learn How to Pay Attention in Class & School, and help you improve your ability to focus?
Negative thoughts hurt your ability to focus
I’m pretty sure you’ve been in those situations, maybe in a classroom or maybe in a job setting where you’re about to learn something new and you’re just saying to yourself, “This is hard!” “This is difficult.” “I don’t know if I’ll be able to learn this.”
If you keep saying that in your mind, it’s not very uplifting and you are just blocking information from getting into your brain. Imagine that your mind wants to receive new information and it wants to learn, but every time you say, “This is hard,” “I don’t think I’m going to be able to do this,” “Maybe it’s easy for you, but I’m just dumb,” every time that you say these negative words, it’s like you’re just building up a wall. Every new negative word is like putting an extra layer on that wall, on that brick wall, on that brick wall, and new information is trying to get in, but it’s butting against that brick wall of negative thoughts, negative ideas, negative labels that you’re placing on yourself.
So what you want to do is tear down that wall so you can allow new information to easily penetrate and flow into your mind. Instead of saying those negative things, say positive things to yourself, when you’re about to learn something new.
Learn How to Pay Attention in Class
Let’s say you’re in a classroom and you’re about to learn to chemistry or physics.
Instead of being like: “man, all these math formulas, all these different ideas, Newton’s laws are hard.” Say this: “It’s pretty easy! You know what? I’m smart! You know what? I’m a genius!” Start building yourself up. Start building more confidence in yourself that you can absorb that information and that’s how you tear down that wall. So that new information can easily be absorbed.
Now I’m not saying that it’s still not difficult. I’m not saying that it’s not going to be a challenge, but what I’m saying is if you want to make it easier for you to absorb that information, every time you say a negative word, negative phrase, you’re just going to make it much more of a challenge to take in that knowledge. So make it easier on yourself to learn and pay attention. Make that difficult learning experience, a little bit easier of a flow by just saying more positive and more confident ideas.
How I used this paying attention technique in school
A quick example of this, is when I used to take engineering classes and learning about current, DC and AC electricity. It is kind of challenging at first, and there were a lot of other students there. A lot of students struggle with grasping these ideas. For me it seemed pretty easy. I was thinking to myself, “why is it so easy for me?” It’s because of the fact that I would be saying: “This is easy!” “I can learn this!” “I’ve done more difficult things in the past!”
Even if it was a little challenging, I was still saying: “I can do this!” “I can learn this!” “I’m pretty smart!” “I know I can absorb this information!”
When I was there listening to the teacher, would take a lot of notes. I would turn to see my classmates, and they would be messing around, tapping the pencil on the desk, or just daydreaming. They had automatically put up that wall. They put up that wall that this was difficult for them.
What I did, was to instantly tear down the wall for myself. I then started telling them to say, “it’s easy, even if it’s not, even if you don’t totally believe it. Just say that it’s easy. I’m pretty sure you absorb more of that information.”
Some of them started to do it and they were saying, This is pretty easy. You know, I can learn this information. They started being more confident in themselves.
Call to action for you
Allow your mind, your brain, to condition yourself, to start saying things like, I am confident. I am smart. I can learn anything that I want to learn and put positive labels on yourself instead of saying, I’m stupid. I can’t learn anything. Flip the switch and say the opposite. Save positive, empowering things. Put positive labels on yourself.
You are smart! You’re a genius. You can learn anything that he wants to learn.
Let me know what are some of the strategies that you implement in your life to help you naturally stay focused.
