Father Sez

Today’s installment is on “speed reading.” 

Whenever, I go through the Simple Dollar’s book reviews, I wonder how he gets the discipline, energy and time to be able to read and write an in depth review of one book a week.  

The Simple Dollar modestly says that “he has taught himself to read quite quickly.” Well, I say that, the Simple Dollar clearly seems to be an accomplished speed reader.

I like YourDictionary.com’s simple definition of speed reading as a technique for reading texts at an extremely rapid rate with adequate comprehension. 

MindTools.com, an online resource for management, leadership and career training has this to say about speed reading.

Speed Reading helps you to read and understand text more quickly. It is an essential skill in any environment where you have to master large volumes of information quickly, as is the norm in fast-moving professional environments. And it’s a key technique to learn if you suffer from “Information Overload.”

In most executive or management level jobs, there is an awful amount of things to read. Manuals, memos, office email, letters, reviews of our products, reviews of other people’s competing products, industry updates…..well, you get the idea. 

Then there is the need to stimulate our minds by reading non work related stuff such as autobiographies, history, current news, religious / spiritual reading, etc.  

Then comes the reading of “fun books / magazines / articles.” Reading about our hobbies and fiction novels come under this classification. 

Even for those of us who actually want to read, this would take an awful amount of time.  

It’s no wonder that, many of us just give up and this is shown in some of the available reading statistics. See here and here.

Maybe, just maybe, this also stops us from reading and understanding some really important stuff.

Why don’t we learn speed reading? Whilst this may not completely eliminate the pressure of reading the tons of stuff that comes our way, in this information overload society, this skill will at least reduce this pressure. (The other skill is of course, to send the useless bits to the waste paper basket immediately.)  

There are lots of resources available for us to learn speed reading. Some are free, like that offered by Wikihow, a free collaborative writing project to build the world’s largest and highest quality how-to manual. They have a section on “How to learn Speed Reading.” 

Others can be learnt from CD’s, books and audio tapes that you have to buy. 

This investment should bring about ROI’s that should make any VC drool.  

Yoga is already quite well known as an ancient Indian physical science that can help us in so many areas of our life, if practiced diligently.  

Here I want to talk about one particular aspect which I have experienced with great positive effect. We call it Yogic Sleep. 

We must also have heard about the power nap. 

Men’s Journal calls the power nap, an investment with the greatest return in the least amount of time. A kind of super efficient sleep that fits in nicely in a high pressure schedule, say between business meetings or in the minutes before a game.  

But just how do we fall sleep at will? Can we just “turn off a switch and go to sleep” or do we need another hour or so to “toss and turn” first. 

To all the “power nap challenged people”, I say, have no fear, a  solution is near.  

Ms. Bijoylaxmi Hota in her book “Yoga for Busy People” provides a great solution.  The book has a section on Yogic Sleep, in which she explains how deep relaxation and sound sleep which are essential for regeneration of body tissues can be achieved by yoganidra. This is a practice developed from an ancient tantric practice by her guru, Paramahamsa Swamy Satyananda Saraswati.  

I am listing the steps suggested by Ms. Hota. However, just reading these steps may not do justice to Ms. Hota. (I hope I am not infringing any copyright issues here.) 

Ms. Hota’s teachings are for us to :- 

a)                Lie down in the pose of Shavasana  

         i)                  Lie down on your back in a straight line

         ii)                Move legs one and a half feet apart

         iii)             Place hands on the floor,(palms facing up), away from the body,

         iv)              Close eyes,

          v)                Breathe naturally,

          vi)              Count twelve breaths backwards 

b)                Countdown 12 deep breaths while mentally saying, 

          i)      I am inhaling – twelve,

         ii)     I am exhaling – twelve,

         iii)             I am inhaling – eleven

         iv)              Etc until we reach - one 

c)                 Now breathe normally and repeat mentally “relax” after each exhalation, 

d)                Practice for 3 – 4 minutes, 

e)                Visualize each part of the body in the following sequence. Mentally repeat its name and imagine it relaxing. Do not move the said body part. “Right hand thumb, index finger, middle finger, ring finger, little finger, palm, wrist, elbow, shoulder, armpit, hip, thigh, knee, calf, ankle, heel, sole, the big toe, second, third, fourth and the fifth. 

f)                  Repeat with the left side, 

g)                Back – back of the head, top of the head, forehead, right eyebrow, left eyebrow, right eye, left eye, middle of the eyebrows, right cheek, left cheek, right nostril, left nostril, upper lip, lower lip, chin, neck, chest, stomach and abdomen.  

She has also some further suggestions that we should make a short positive resolution such as “I will attain and maintain perfect health, or I am perfectly healthy in body and mind.” And imagining ourselves to be near a pleasant and relaxing environment such as a waterfall, a calm lake or a sea beach etc. 

I have always fallen asleep somewhere between (f) and (g). 

I bought this book a few years ago in an airport in India. Yogic Sleep is the only section that I have tried and it works.

Even if you feel that you are not going to fall asleep for the next 3 or 4 hours, practicing the simple steps listed by Ms. Hota just “switches you off” and instantly sends you to slumberland. Try it and see for yourself. 

PS:   Incidentally, sleep deprivation has been identified as one of the trends facing us today. Would keeping these people  awake be the next business opportunity or would it be helping them take naps at will, every chance they get?   

The picture above was taken from a really cool story on a dream written by Ms. NN in the Digital Journal. You have to read it yourself. The powerful impact of dreams and when do dreams happen…..when we sleep, of course…..

Sweet Dreams! 

Thinking back about all the years I spent in school and university, supposedly getting myself an education to help me in life, I wonder. 

I have always wondered why educators stuff so much technical thingies into us, stuff they themselves must know that is never ever used, other than for teaching others. 

I am not knocking the education I received. I am grateful for it, but I wish it was a lot more skewed towards practical use. I am not alone. In fact, I wrote about this after I read a passionate article in Brian Kim’s Invest in Yourself and Make it Happen.  

In that post, I wrote about 5 skills that, (as also stated by Brian), should be taught in schools. Skills that would have made a very positive impact in our adult lives.  

Even after school, we should pick up some skills to make our lives more productive, useful and / or pleasant. 

I am happy to report that some people do seem to agree with me.  

See this very interesting thread of comments, to “I can’t do one quarter of the things my Father can” featured in October 07’s Popular Mechanics.  

Then there is Anarchangel, who has had, and is having a rich and extremely varied life. He seems to have skills that Rambo or McGyver  would drool over. 

RateItAll, an online community and social network built upon a diverse range of online databases, has posted a list by one of its members on useful skills to have. He invites readers to rate these skills “on their usefulness in this crazy world.”  

We shall over the next few days and weeks, post our stand and views on some of these skills that we should learn. 

What is your take on these additional useful life skills that we should try to learn, or habits that we should form.  See Melissa’s list of 10 classes to, (as she says hopefully), fix her life.

Harrison Loke of Journey to Financial Freedom, has written on Levels of Financial Security. 

He classifies these levels as :- 

a)    Debts,

b)    Break Even

c)     Financial Security

d)    Financially comfortable

e)    Financial Freedom and

f)      Rich 

Harrison puts forward his arguments to define each of these levels, and also explains the steps we should focus to resolve as we work to get to the next level. 

It is paramount for us to know where we currently are, before we can realistically plan to go where we want to be. 

I am totally in agreement with Harrison on the need to know our present position. However, personally, I like the 4 levels as defined by Adam Khoo,  in his book  “Secrets of Self -Made Millionaires”.

He lists them as :- 

a)  Being financially stable 

a.    Having sufficient liquid assets to sustain us, should we lose our income for 6 months and 

b.    Having sufficient life and hospital insurance    

b)  Being financially secure  

a.    Having sufficient passive income from investment assets to meet basic expenses like mortgage, transportation, food, interest payments on all debt and insurance premiums. 

c)   Being financially free  

a.    Having sufficient passive income from investment assets to sustain our current lifestyle. 

d)  Being financially abundant 

a.    This need not be explained. For the record, Adam Khoo’s definition is having sufficient passive income from investment assets to sustain our desired lifestyle.  

Ultimately, it is not the definitions of levels that really matter. What is important is :- 

-                     We must clearly know where we are currently,  

        Facts such as our monthly expenses, our assets and liabilities,interest rates applicable on our liabilities, etc

-                     Know where we want to go, 

        Our financial goals must have been clearly defined and written down.

-                     Come out with an action plan to get to where we want to go. 

-                     And work on our plan diligently!!! 

The Dough Roller wrote a great piece on “How to develop the habit of spending less than we make”.

“Spending less than we make” is the mother of all personal finance advise we can get or give.  

As the Dough Roller points out, it is more easily said than done. He goes on to give some specifics on how we can develop this habit. 

But what really piqued me was the comment given to this article by Damn TV. To quote him….” 

I went from being the worst student in my school at the age of 12, to graduating with over a 4.0 in high school.

The transformation began one day when my TV broke and I had nothing better to do than look at the pictures in my history book. Well, after looking at all the pictures, I started reading the stories that went along with them. To my surprise, the next day I knew all the answers to my teacher’s questions. My teacher was blown away by my 180 degree change. Seeing that I could be a top performer opened my true potential. Mind numbing TV is worthless (except for a few educational programs).

                                                        Unquote 

I can really identify with this. I used to hate and fear mathematics in school. One day, by chance, or by luck or by God knows what, I managed to solve a quadratic equation all by myself.  

Eureka! Voila! It was as if a switch had been turned on. I can still remember and feel the flush now, though more than a couple of decades have since passed. This switch, once turned on, also enabled me to ace the other subjects in school. 

The point I am trying to make is that all of us have a switch. A switch, if found, and turned on will make truly dramatic changes in our lives.  This switch changes all our feelings of “cannot do”, no matter how deeply or for how long ingrained, into an instant “can do”.  

Can we find that “switch?  

For some, external factors such as a specific statement made by someone, the happening of a particular event or even a family misfortune may be the “switch”. 

For others, having a “small victory” might switch them on to take on bigger battles and win. 

Brian Kim seems to think that we can find this switch.

He says that we should start by first creating a belief and coaxing and  convincing our sub conscious mind into believing that that we can. After that it should be easy. 

On the other hand, this calls for us to “want” to create that belief in the first place. Would this “want to create” be the switch?  

I don’t really know, but all of us should be aware that we have this “switch”, an inbuilt power to make dramatic changes in our lives and in an instant.  

Believe me. Damn TV and my experience are proofs.