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Study Skills You've NEVER heard of before, with ST Rappaport
160 Plays2 years ago
In this episode we have the wonderful ST Rappaport as a guest on the show today! ST is a brain coach who works with high-achieving entrepreneurs to unleash their potential via Peak Brain Performance. ST assists them to rewire their brain so they can remove overwhelm, get more done in less time and maximize their productivity with more ease & flow.
We discuss:
- how to improve your critical thinking skills
- the 28 cognitive funtions
- strategies to improve memory retention
- how to avoid procrastination
- how to cultivate a growth mindset
- common barriers to problem-solving, and how to overcome these
- ...and so much more!
Use my special link https://zen.ai/study12 to save 12% at blendjet.com. The discount will be applied at checkout! Code: study12
Don't forget to send an audio review! Email hello@allthingseducation21.com to be featured on next week's episode!
The merch store has officially opened! Get access through allthingseducation21.com!
Check out ST's Instagram here! She also has an awesome website to check out.
Let us know if you enjoyed the episode by giving a review and rating the podcast 5 stars! Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast and hit the notification so you'll always be in the know about how to succeed in your education. For more study tips and tricks, check out our Instagram @allthingseducation21
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
Hey, it's Mary Coleman, your host for the All Things Education podcast. If you don't know, I'm a student too and I'm currently studying psychology. I'm so glad you're listening today because we learn about study and lifestyle tips, chat with professional guests about a range of topics. We learn about the ins and outs of school and uni life, how to form solid friendships, actualize career aspirations, chat about relationships, moving, traveling, and so much more. We have a range of content on this podcast and it's all to help you be that much more informed about the world
Scope and Audience
00:00:33
Speaker
we live in.
00:00:33
Speaker
So let's get educated, shall we? Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode on the All Things Education podcast. So if you are a new listener, thank you so much for tuning in. Welcome. This is the All Things Education podcast and I am your host, Mary Coleman.
00:00:49
Speaker
essentially what we talk about on this podcast is a lot of things related to study skills, study techniques, study hacks, anything and everything related to education and study that you can possibly think of. We specifically focus on Australian students and we're also speaking about students now from the UK and America. So we're branching out, which is really exciting. And yes, we speak about career pathways, different techniques that you can apply into your studies
00:01:14
Speaker
and particularly how to get into professions such as medicine, law, and psychology. And we speak about a lot of different career pathways, speaking with a lot of different professionals. So I'm really excited for you guys to be listening to this episode
Guest Introduction: ST Rappaport
00:01:28
Speaker
today. We are going to be joined by the wonderful S.T. Rappaport and she is essentially going to be talking to us about study skills, study techniques,
00:01:36
Speaker
the 28 copy into functions and amazing terms like that, which I'm really excited for you guys to learn. This episode, I've really encouraged ST to share the tips that we wouldn't ordinarily hear just from a normal episode or something that is generic. I tried to make it a little bit more specific and cultured to hearing tips that you might not necessarily have heard it before. And there are some really cool ideas that ST gives out. So I'm excited for you guys to hear about it.
Charity Promotion
00:02:00
Speaker
Okay, so let's talk about the amazing charity called Bright Futures Child Aid and Development Organization. So if you are looking for a way to make a difference in the lives of children and families in need around the world, consider supporting Bright Futures Child Aid and Development Agency. So Bright Futures is a non-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of children and families through sustainable programs focused on education, health and economic development. They tailor their unique needs basically for each of the local communities and they work in partnership with these local communities to create solutions
00:02:29
Speaker
Yeah, they are tailored to their unique needs and their circumstances, which in ensuring that their efforts have a long lasting impact. But the thing is that they can't do this alone. They rely on the support of people like you to help them make a difference. And that's why I've started a merch store and I donate 100% of the profits to Bright Futures.
00:02:46
Speaker
by purchasing a product from this store you can help support this organization and the children and families that it serves. So my merchandise store offers a variety of products including t-shirts hoodies and hats that they're not only stylish but they also support a good cause and the sort of designs are inspired
00:03:02
Speaker
by my passion for education and my belief in the power of just learning to transform lives. So if you are looking for a way to make a difference and support an important cause, consider purchasing one of these products from the merchandise store. With 100% of these profits going to support Bright Futures Child Aid and Development Agency, you can make a positive impact on the lives of children and families around the world. So I would highly encourage you guys to go check out that store. You can check it out in the show notes.
Product Promotion: Blendjet 2
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Speaker
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Speaker
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Personal Update
00:04:52
Speaker
Shop today and get the best do ever.
00:05:01
Speaker
Okay, so just a bit of a life update for you guys. Obviously, I haven't released an episode in the last three weeks, so I apologize for that, but happy Easter and obviously we've been in the university holidays, so I'll be planning out a lot of fun episodes for you guys and just, yeah, pursuing the All Things Education Instagram a little bit more as well. If you haven't already checked that out and given it a follow, I highly recommend it. It's got some great content on there. The tag is AtAllThingsEducation21.
Cognitive Functions with ST Rappaport
00:05:22
Speaker
That's one word.
00:05:23
Speaker
So highly go check that out, highly recommend. And yeah, I think we should just essentially jump straight into the episode before we just do. I'd absolutely love to talk about the wonderful guest star today on the podcast, which is ST Rappaport. So ST Rappaport is a brain coach who works with high achieving entrepreneurs to unleash their potential via peak brain performance.
00:05:41
Speaker
ST assist them to rewire their brain so they can remove overwhelm and get more done in less time and maximize their productivity with more ease and flow. I'm really excited to share this episode with you guys. We had such a great conversation. I seriously learned so much from this episode as well. And yeah, I'm really excited to share this with you guys. So let's jump right into it.
00:06:01
Speaker
Welcome ST to the all things education podcast. How are you today? So, so excited to be here with you, Mary. Thank you so much for having me. Of course. It's an honor to have you. I'm really keen for this discussion. Um, yeah, I'm, I think we should just dive right on into it. Um, first of all, would you like to explain to the listeners who you are and what you do and just a little bit about yourself? Yes, I am a brain coach. Currently I work with entrepreneurs to help them remove stress and overwhelm.
00:06:30
Speaker
But the same strategies that I use now to help them remove stress and overwhelm, I've used for quite a while helping children and adults of various ages, helping them improve their thinking skills so that way they can remove that stress and overwhelm. So this really applies to anyone who ever is listening. Also the host of the Business Brain Podcast, where we go deeper into some of these thinking skills. Yeah.
00:06:53
Speaker
Yeah, I'm so keen. Yeah, let's jump right on to it. In your opinion, do you have any sort of effective ways to improve critical thinking skills and apply them to problem solving? Yeah, so before we get into what critical thinking is and how to actually use them, I like to approach things from a very specific
00:07:18
Speaker
approach. It's called the Foyer State Method, where you're looking at thinking instead of one big thing, but rather 28 separate thinking skills. So any thing that you are doing as you are going about your day, as you are studying, as you are learning, you are using these 28 thinking skills. Sometimes you use more, sometimes you use less.
00:07:41
Speaker
But they're just like part of your entire life as you're going about doing all activities. Now, with there being 28 of them, naturally you're going to have some stronger ones and some weaker ones. But those weaker ones are making it a bit challenging for you to do the things you want to do.
00:08:00
Speaker
Back to your question, how do we improve our thinking skills? I'm going to first want to understand, or you're going to want to first understand for yourself, which one of the 28 thinking skills, also called cognitive functions, which one of those 28 cognitive functions are making it challenging for you to do the critical thinking, which is made up of
00:08:25
Speaker
Thinking, which is made up of these thinking skills, right? So in order for you to do critical thinking, in order for you to do problem solving, you need to do that. So I'll just give you an example. It's practical, right? You want effective ways to be able to apply them to problem solving.
00:08:41
Speaker
For example, one of the thinking skills, one of the cognitive functions is called clear perception. It's being able to take in information in a clear and organized manner, right? So you're listening to this episode and you're listening to everything I'm saying, everything Mary is saying, and it's coming in in a clear and organized way. If you are trying to do a problem
00:09:03
Speaker
solve an example or try or you have a problem in your everyday life and you're trying to like figure out what to do a lot of times like people get overwhelmed they're like I just can't do this and they like push it away they get right like frustrated I'm like sure you could relate to that what is that coming from that's not coming from because you don't know how to do it that is coming from there's a lot of information your brain is getting overwhelmed by all this information and instead of taking it in a clear way it's like okay I just can't do this
00:09:35
Speaker
do one of three things, even all three if you want. The first one is you could approach it as an observer. Instead of like right now having to solve this problem, try to see it as like for an observed observer's perspective and then the information isn't as overwhelming. That's number one. Number two is we take information into our five senses, right? So if you could go through each of the five senses and ask yourself, what do I see? What do I hear? What do I smell? Right.
00:09:54
Speaker
So instead, you could
00:10:05
Speaker
label things of what you're saying. So you're reading your problem or you're trying to figure out this problem in your life and you label the things that are going on. This is what I'm seeing right now.
00:10:15
Speaker
very consciously taking in the information in a clear and organized way, right? And then the last one is actually like getting on to work on it is asking yourself, what is my starting point? Instead of having to solve this whole entire problem, what is the first thing I need to do to get started on this? Yeah. Wow. Okay. Nice. Right. That's awesome. Um, and in terms of,
Decision-Making Skills
00:10:45
Speaker
I would love to talk about decision making skills which interplays nicely into what you're saying and how can the listeners today develop in those decision making skills and I guess reduce the likelihood of making impulsive decisions. Yes, that is a really, really good one because just like we said, it also goes back to those cognitive functions to the 28 thinking skills, right? Yes.
00:11:13
Speaker
surprisingly, the cognitive function that is most related to decision making is being able to compare. Now, most people think they know how to compare, right? Like red, yellow, big, small, like that they could do. The thing is like when we go into making decisions, let's say you're going to buy a new laptop, right? So you go to the store and you're like, okay, I'm going to go buy this laptop. But instead of like singing
00:11:36
Speaker
comparing them correctly what we say is hey this one is blue and this one is red this one is 18 inches this one is 22 inches and it's like you're comparing them at different levels you're saying this I like this one better because this one is red and I like this one better because this one is 22 inches instead of comparing them on the same level
00:11:58
Speaker
and deciding what's most important for you. So what you've got to do is compare everything on the same levels, right? Like both the same color, both the same size, both the same taste, both whatever you're trying to figure out and then decide what is your most important parameter? Like what's most important? Is price most important for you? Is color most important for you? Is size of screen most important for you, right? Like different times you need different things and then
00:12:26
Speaker
When you're very clear on that and you could stick to that, then you'll be able to make quick, good decisions.
00:12:33
Speaker
yeah okay right yeah and I mean I guess what's your best tip for not making an impulsive decision so like think yeah thinking about it um like you said on the same scale like the same level um but I guess um more in the sense that as well how do you avoid um you know rushing that process and um just being you know super impulsive in in that decision that moment yes so the first one
Exercises for Decision-Making
00:13:02
Speaker
I know some of you are going to roll your eyes, but like I know for my clients, like it takes a while to really get into this, but when you do, it is really worth it. Um, really basically training your brain to stop and think. So purposely putting yourself in like challenging situations where your brain has to stop and think. Now this could be fun, right? Like you could be playing a game, a board game with your family or like anything that like
00:13:29
Speaker
you don't have like pressure of time like screen games a lot of times like right like the time are ticking but like if you could have to play like a strategy game where you have to think about it and you're like purposely forcing yourself to think you're training your brain to slow down but another one of my favorite ways to that actually um develops like the neural connections in your brain is by improving our sense of touch
00:13:54
Speaker
okay yeah there's a lot of science that goes into it because it's very much related to focusing the same part of the brain is in charge of touch but essentially what happens is when we're touching we're not actually touching because we see something before we touch it so our eyes are seeing it right like if I touch
00:14:14
Speaker
a pen, I've touched this pen so many times before. And so before my hand actually gets to it, when my eye sees it, it knows what it's feeling like. So it's already imagining what it's going to feel like, right? Yeah. Wow. So we don't, that sense is not very much developed. So what you want to do is you want to blindfold yourself. Yes. Blindfold yourself. Um, have someone else take like random items and put it in a bag or something from around the house. And you, um,
00:14:41
Speaker
With your blindfolded, feel the stuff that will like focusing on the sense of all the details of the item that you're picking up and trying to describe so that way you create the neural connections in your brain that slow down and actually help you reduce your impulsivity.
00:14:59
Speaker
Yeah, wow. And that actually is the perfect one to ask you next, which is what are some great strategies that you have for improving memory retention and recall, especially when it comes to studying for exams and learning new skills and yeah, just memory retention.
Memory Retention Tips
00:15:16
Speaker
Yes. So memory, there's actually two types of memory. We have what's called a working memory, like short-term memory, memory that we need like for while we're doing the tasks.
00:15:25
Speaker
on the exam you're using working memory because you're remembering the question and then you're having to answer it right but here you're asking more about the other type of memory of long-term memory memory like I'm studying it today for an exam that's tomorrow right that's like taking longer
00:15:42
Speaker
longer amounts of time to learn. So working memory itself is one of the 28 cognitive functions. However, short, sorry, short-term memory is one of the 20 cognitive functions and long-term memory, what we're doing is when we're studying for exams or learning new skills is actually required, it's like one level above cognitive functions. It requires you to use many of the cognitive functions together. Okay.
00:16:14
Speaker
If to get very practical about this, obviously I'm going to say to like improve your cognitive functions. But like, I know you want something like right now, right? So that way they could improve, um, their memory and retention. There's a lot of tips and a lot of hacks. I don't know what you've like learned before, but one of my absolute favorite ones is doing reading it right before you go to bed. Um, I do that all the time. Yeah.
00:16:39
Speaker
at night, like your subconscious mind is like working on it and remembering it so that way, like it's literally like the last thing you do. Like after you brush your teeth, like literally the last thing and that way it's like focused on it. And don't be surprised if you have some dreams about it. Um, that's one, another one that you could do is, um, take the, take a piece of paper and yes, speaking of memory, a really good way to get better at memory.
00:17:09
Speaker
is to actually write physical like pen to paper instead of just typing. So that's a side point, but take a pen and paper, fold it in half, um, the long way. And now you have four columns on between both halves of the paper. Whatever you are studying for has to fit on this paper. So as you go and you study, you want to rewrite your notes or wherever, like the slides or whatever you're getting the information from.
00:17:37
Speaker
in short, short, short on these like bullet points on this paper. What is happening during this process, your brain is not just like reading it and like memorizing it and trying to like remember it. It's actually having to process the information, find a new way to say it. And then you also have the writing to the paper, which adds an additional like memory element of it.
00:18:02
Speaker
Yeah, right. Wow, I think putting them into paper is something I really, really enjoy. And actually, I studied French in year 12, and it was something I loved doing. I read my French exam, my oral exam, right before I went to sleep. And I did that for quite a number of weeks. And I could say evidently it helped me in my oral exam, because I'm not even sure how. I mean, you know how. You just explained how. But yeah, I just feel like I retain more memory.
00:18:31
Speaker
when I'm reading it. Like literally the second I, before I turn my light out, I'm reading it. So yeah, it's really popular. So sometimes people like hear things and they don't like actually do it, but it's like proof, you know? Yeah. Yeah. I think I saw it one time on like an Instagram video and then I just tried it for the fun of it and I woke up the next day and I thought, hey, this actually works.
00:18:55
Speaker
Now you could say that other things they talked about also work, so you could actually try them. Exactly. I know everyone should be trying these tips. I hope everyone's writing them down as well while they're listening. So I guess, turning into time management, how would you say is a really good way that students can learn to manage their time effectively and prioritise tasks to
Time Management Strategies
00:19:18
Speaker
achieve their goals? And I guess not in just the sense that
00:19:22
Speaker
writing everything down and making sure that you're doing the most important thing first or the thing with the least amount of time first. But I don't know, is there any sort of newfound ways or unique ways that you've learned that you were able to tell the listeners about how they can manage a time effectively that they might not have heard before or something that you have tried and has worked really well for you?
00:19:47
Speaker
Yes. So I'll share a few things. I hope you haven't heard of them before, but if you haven't, maybe someone else has. Okay. So the first thing I'm going to go back to with the time managing time. Managing time once again is related to the 28 cognitive functions. Now a bit like long-term memory, it requires multiple of the cognitive functions. So even any one of the
00:20:11
Speaker
cognitive functions related to time management are weak for you, it is going to be a challenge. No, I'm not saying this to like, put you down in any which way we're not saying to like, make it dreadful and say that it's impossible for you. I'm saying this an opposite in the way of like, in a way of giving you hope up until now you've
00:20:30
Speaker
probably tried like a bunch of different time management hacks and it wasn't actually working because there's an underlying issue there. Once you solve that issue, all the other hacks that you've learned in the past will actually work better for you. So obviously one of the biggest cognitive functions related to time management is simply the concept of understanding time. Believe it or not, our brains
00:20:56
Speaker
struggle with it. It's very in a very, very abstract concept, even like Einstein said, it's like one of the most abstract concepts.
00:21:05
Speaker
We think like we know time, but our brains don't actually understand it. So first, what we're going to want to do is get a big calendar, a big monthly calendar. Yes. Right. I haven't heard that one before, so that's good. But even better, don't just hang up one month. Hang up six months to a year, depending on how much your brain could handle at a time, because that's also related to cognitive functions, how much your brain could handle at a time.
00:21:30
Speaker
But this way, your brain is starting to get the big overview picture of what's happening, what exams are happening first, second, when you're going, even though you know you're going on vacation on holiday, then you know, like, it's much easier for your brain to see that, hey, it's like two days before it come back from
00:21:49
Speaker
You know, like that gets it very clear. That's first of all, second of all, for your brain to be able to get better at understanding time. It won't, many times we think we know how long something takes us, but it doesn't, but like we underestimate it. Like we don't realize how long it actually is. So this is a challenging one, but it's going to be so worth it for you. For the next week, any activity that you do often, time. How long do you take a shower?
00:22:19
Speaker
time, how long you, like it takes you to study for this specific course, or how long, you know, like you have this quiz every week, how long it takes you to prepare for that, right? Whatever you do often, like, you know, it is part of your regular schedule, time it. So that way when you plan it, you actually plan enough time. Okay. Wow. I really, really love that one. That's so cool. Yes. Now, could now on getting like into the practical of actual planning part,
00:22:48
Speaker
I always say, besides for doing like what you said earlier about like which task to do first, personally, my preference is to always start with the most important task because as things go on, as the day goes on or as like our plan goes on, like life happens and sometimes we lose patience and sometimes emergencies come on, right? But at least you know like the most important thing. So if you have to ask yourself what is the most important thing, start with that.
00:23:16
Speaker
Now, what else you're going to want to do is you're going to want to leave what's called white space. You could either like do it, let's say like five minutes in between every task while you plan, or you could like leave an hour at some point in your day. Now, during this white space, you have one of two things. Either it could just give yourself like brain to relax and recover, which is going to help you be able to focus much better on your next task.
00:23:43
Speaker
Or like worst case, it gives you that extra couple of minutes to be able to like catch up or whatever you're planning because you never want to just write a to-do list. You want to be able to actually block the time in your calendar. So literally like hour by hour or even more like half hour, 15 minutes, like write down exactly what you're going to do. Like plan out when you're going to do every single activity and in between them or at one hour during the day, you're going to leave the white space.
00:24:13
Speaker
Hmm. Yeah. Wow. And that perfectly interplays with mindfulness and self-awareness. Um, and I guess what role, um, does mindfulness and self-awareness have in improving skills and decision-making and all of that time management and everything that we've said from above. Yes. So I always say you can't have any change if you're not self-aware. Hmm. Right? Like.
00:24:40
Speaker
You're not going to change something if you didn't know that you needed to change about it. But how do we become aware? So one way is becoming aware is if someone tells us or listening on a podcast or something like that. But not always is it everything that we want to be aware about. If we would just rely on the rest of the world and not take responsibility for it, we're not going to get very far.
Mindfulness and Self-Awareness
00:25:02
Speaker
So being mindful and specifically mindfulness with journaling, then you are
00:25:09
Speaker
giving yourself the space and the time for your brain to like pick up cues and like subtle things and ask yourself questions that you didn't think of before that will help you be able to make that change to improve those thinking skills, etc. Yeah, right. Okay, cool. And I mean, are there any particular
00:25:33
Speaker
like things that you like to do for self awareness or mindfulness that you have found help improve your thinking and or even just your capacity for wanting and understanding that there is a need for change in a particular habit you may be doing. Yeah, so give you one for mindfulness and one for self awareness. Mindfulness
00:25:55
Speaker
First of all, there's been quite a bit of research that people who stay focused on their task at hand, and more specifically are mindful on the actual task that they're doing, instead of just keep on getting distracted by their phones and everything, right? But actually mindful on it, first of all, tend to be a lot, lot happier. That's just interesting research. But what I tend to find is,
00:26:23
Speaker
most people struggle, like you can't just be mindful the whole day. But if you could find something in your day where if you have like multiple points in your day where you're going to remind yourself to be mindful, then like it helps you become mindful. So for example, let's say if you like you're driving, every time you get to a red light, you decide you're going to be mindful, right? Okay.
00:26:45
Speaker
If you don't drive, like if there's something else that like happens often that like every time you go and get a drink of water, like right, you're going to go and be mindful. Choose something that happens multiple times. You could do it like when you wash your hands after the bathroom, you know, like who really cares? But something that happens multiple times throughout the day as like a reminder for your brain to be like, okay, be mindful about the situation. And eventually that will spread to other areas. Now for self-awareness.
00:27:10
Speaker
You want to ask yourself questions. Get curious about yourself and ask the world questions. And more specifically, ask yourself questions like, why am I doing this? How did this work? When you got back an exam that you did really well on, what did I do that helped me be successful in this exam? But always have conversations with yourself.
00:27:34
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think as well, currently I'm studying a liberal arts degree and it's very interesting as well as psychology, but it's really interesting, ST, because I feel like one of the components in there is philosophy and it's amazing to develop that philosophical thinking and that mindset because I do think in so many ways into players, into self-awareness.
00:27:57
Speaker
especially for the self, but also awareness about others and how others impact your lives, how you impact others and how others are impacting others' lives. It is really cool just to learn it from a philosophical point of view. Do you think that philosophy does improve self-awareness? Would you say that's the case? The philosophy of what part?
00:28:24
Speaker
Well, I guess just the philosophy of thinking and the world in which we live in. Yeah, oh yeah.
Philosophical Thinking
00:28:30
Speaker
So I think that we like miss a point to self-awareness. I like to say, like in general, like the world misses like, oh, like be self-aware. But you don't actually teach you like how to be self-aware, which comes through thinking. But there's even a step before the thinking.
00:28:47
Speaker
There needs to be what's called a stimulus. Something needs to trigger your thinking to be self-aware. So it could be something that you've heard, right? Or something that you've watched, maybe, or even people watching in a restaurant or something. And that triggered you to think about something that made you self-aware about something else.
00:29:05
Speaker
be that you're listening to this episode, right? That is a trigger that helps you think about, but sometimes we could just ask those questions to ourselves and we're also asking like a journal prompt or just a question, then we're causing, that's going to trigger that will help you think that will make you somewhere.
00:29:23
Speaker
Yeah, and also just that difference in, yeah, the stimulus and the truth, they're super important because you don't want to just placate yourself just to seeing something and not thinking about the environment in which you're in or the culture or whatever's around you. And yeah, that's really, really interesting. And again, flows on perfectly to something else I was going to ask about, particularly in terms of creativity and cultivating this sense of a growth mindset.
00:29:51
Speaker
How do you think someone could, you know, develop their creativity and cultivate that growth mindset to approach challenges in very much a positive and productive way?
Language and Growth Mindset
00:30:03
Speaker
Yes, I love growth mindset so much. Growth mindset by Carol Dweck, I'm assuming. You've heard about that. But my favorite way
00:30:17
Speaker
to develop growth mindset is really in changing the language. Right. So when we say I can't do something that your brain is actually figuring out ways that you can't do it, as soon as we say that like, I'm going to figure out a way how to do this, your brain will start learning how to figure it out. So my favorite way of using this language is by adding the word yet by saying, I can't do this yet. Okay. Cool. Yeah. Matically your brain is like, it's true right now. I can't do this. Right. Cause we don't want to lie to ourselves.
00:30:45
Speaker
So right now I can't do this, but I am going to figure out a way and it actually is going to start looking out to find a way. Another thing about growth mindset is
00:30:56
Speaker
not being afraid to fail, right? So many times we're like, especially when we're in a school setting and there's like exams and stuff, and there's like a lot of pressure of like not failing, but if you could put yourself in situation, purposely putting yourself in situations where you're going to fail. Maybe don't do it purposely in places where it's going to have an effect like on your degree, but like by learning a new skill or trying a new recipe or like doing something like complicated that you've never done before. And you're like, I'm just going to go for the fun of this and I'm just going to
00:31:26
Speaker
purposely put myself in a challenging situation, you are very consciously developing your growth mindset.
00:31:35
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. And something that I'm, I mean, this is a little bit of a sidetrack, but, um, just in terms of the language of how you're saying, you know, put the word yet at the end of everything, I find that, um, especially even putting the word and instead of but like, but I can't do this, but, and I, and I will do this. Like, you know, just that, that also is like such a tiny shift. Um, and it's taken me quite a while to pick it up and adapt it into my, um, language and, you know, just the way I speak, but in, um, it's so good to, to avoid the word, but, and to replace it with and.
00:32:05
Speaker
If that makes any sense. Yeah, no, I do that one a lot. It's a really good one. Really good one. Yep. And I mean, speaking of communication and language, how can listeners improve their communication skills to build strong relationships and especially navigate conflicts effectively?
Improving Communication Skills
00:32:21
Speaker
Because I guess the way that we communicate is, of course, like, you know, a lot through our body language and through our expression and our tone. And there's a lot of physical communication, but
00:32:33
Speaker
So how can people just improve their communication skills, which would lessen conflicts and build strong relationships? Yes. So once again, communication requires many cognitive functions, many of the 20 thinking skills. And so by improving any of these, you're automatically going to improve communication, but we'll get very tactical afterwards. Let me just share a few of those.
00:32:59
Speaker
One is giving a thoughtful response, like clearly expressing yourself. Another one is considering another person's perspective. Right. And another one, um, is labeling a lot of times. Well, those are the game skills that are affecting communication. Now, a lot of times I'm going to start with labeling. We like, we tend to say, like, let's say, put this there. Right. Or like, can you get me that? Like what's that? Or put this in the closet, but we weren't like precise and we weren't labeling.
00:33:28
Speaker
what we actually wanted and we end up like getting into like miscommunication. Like how many times were you like in an argument or like disagreement with someone and like midway through you realized that although you're both using the same word, you mean it about different things, right? That's also labeling. Labeling is like giving the correct label with the correct definition. Now what's the correct label? It doesn't really make a difference what it is as long as whoever you're communicating with understands what you're talking about. So first of all,
00:33:58
Speaker
I like have this big thing, like it's my own theory, but like I think that we could honestly cut 50% of arguments if we just improve this cognitive functions of white people. So next time like you see yourself and getting typically like a disagreement or things aren't like going really well, like just take a moment like tell a person like, okay, let's step back for a second. What do you mean by whatever word you're getting really?
00:34:23
Speaker
Frustrated on another one to improve the cognitive function of considering another perspective to help you with the communication. And when you're communicating with people is what happens is most times when we're talking to someone, we have a movie playing in our brain, right? Like we are listening to what the person is saying and we're watching that movie, but we're watching the movie from our perspective and from what we know about this person and about the world. When you're talking to someone,
00:34:53
Speaker
And when they're speaking, put your movie on pause and play their movie instead. You're going to get right back to your movie as soon as you get to talk again. But see if you could like watch their movie while they're talking. And that way you'll really be able to understand them and communicate with them in a way that you'll actually be able to communicate. Like that will get you both of what you want. And that comes back to mindfulness as well. Yes.
00:35:22
Speaker
Yes. And self-awareness part of it. Yeah. Right. That's insane. Yeah.
ST's Journey as a Brain Coach
00:35:28
Speaker
And just to touch finally, I'd love just to talk about your journey, ST, of just becoming such a successful thinker and yeah, particularly discussing if you have used any specific strategies to improve
00:35:42
Speaker
your own thinking skills and achieve your goals. Obviously, like within the podcast, you know, the discovery of these 28 cognitive functions and, and yeah, just your, your journey as an amazing human being. Ah, yeah. So my story started back when I was in fifth grade and I struggled with reading. I went to a lot of reading tutors and I liked it that I got to miss class, but my parents not so much, especially when they're spending a lot of money and they don't really get results. So.
00:36:10
Speaker
they decide to bring in what's called these foresting mediators, right? These people who know about these 28 thinking skills. And because we didn't do any reading, we actually just improved these 20 thinking skills. Not only did my reading improve, but every single other area of my life did academically, socially, my confidence, right? Like we're solving the actual core issue of where everything, all the activities stem from. So at the time I knew I was going to learn it, but I didn't realize it is going to be my whole life.
00:36:40
Speaker
Um, when I was, uh, my late teens, I started getting training in this method and it takes some time because like you have to learn it and you apply it and like, you look, come back and you learn more and.
00:36:54
Speaker
During this process of learning about it, I also took a Tony Robbins course called RPM, like a rapid planning method on how to plan based on motivation and not your to-do list. Now I thought it was a really cool concept, but I really struggled to implement it. Not that I didn't try, but I couldn't do it because a lot of what he spoke about was planning six months or a year ahead.
00:37:18
Speaker
I still had some weak cognitive functions and I was not able to do that. No matter how hard I tried, my brain couldn't comprehend it.
00:37:26
Speaker
Even though I was really like, I always would plan my day that night before ever since high school, which by the way is a really good tip. So I didn't go take that also, but I couldn't like do the long-term thinking. So whatever. I just like dismissed it. And then a few months later I went for additional training to improve specifically the cognitive function of categorizations. Now categorizations works both ways. It's about being able to say like, okay,
00:37:55
Speaker
red, yellow, green, blue, right? Like categorizing into like different groups and things like that. But it's also taking the opposite. Being able to say, here I have all these things. What is the big picture of this whole topic? What is this big picture of this whole thing? And through this training, I ended up improving my own cognitive function of categorization.
00:38:16
Speaker
And all of a sudden now I was able to start thinking ahead because now I was able to think big picture. I was able to see the forest, not just the trees, right? Yeah. Wow. Started climbing differently. Like I'll give you like a quick example. Like let's say I would have to go return something, but I would know I was getting a new shipment tomorrow and like maybe I would have to return more of those. I would still go today because I needed this to happen right now. And I couldn't like wait that like maybe tomorrow, like those big things together and I could just go tomorrow and do both at the same time.
00:38:46
Speaker
So I ended up wasting a lot of time and afterwards I would improve this cognitive function. I saved many, many hours doing whatever I was doing. So that's when I got super passionate about this and started working really gently with people. But specifically the cognitive function, specifically the things that have helped me, like in the strategies
00:39:08
Speaker
that have helped me improve my thinking skills was, I touched on a little bit of when I quote, when I said about asking questions earlier, always asking myself questions. And there's two types of questions. You could either ask yourself questions like before, when you're in a problem, like in a challenging situation, or you could ask yourself after you're successful. Now using both is like so powerful.
00:39:32
Speaker
So when you're in a challenging situation and you don't know what to do, three simple questions to ask yourself, okay? Number one, what do I see?
00:39:40
Speaker
Okay. Remember it goes a little bit back to the beginning when I spoke about this in the beginning. Number two, getting clear on the problem. It's another cognitive function. What is the problem? So what do I see? What is the problem? And number three is what strategy can I use? Okay. Now the other type of questions is after you're done doing something successfully, asking yourself what helped me be successful?
00:40:05
Speaker
Okay. Get super clear, not just like, Oh, I planned. Like, how did I plan? What did I do? Right? Then whatever you come up with super successful, give it a name. Okay. So maybe it's like planning the night before. I don't know. You can make them fun. You can make them silly. You can make them boring. Doesn't make a difference. Give it a name, but then keep a notes or running notes on your phone, like, or on a pad of paper, whatever you want. A list of all the strategies that you've used, like that have helped you be successful.
00:40:34
Speaker
So next time when you're in a challenging situation, you don't feel like, Oh, I don't know what to do. And I'm like, I'm not equipped and I don't have anything. You have a toolbox of strategies that you've used in the past that can help you now solve this problem, achieve your goals and move forward. Wow.
00:40:54
Speaker
Yeah. Wow. Those are just so many little golden nuggets of wisdom, ST. I'm genuinely in awe. My jaw is dropped right now. Thank you so much for coming on the Old Things Education podcast. It was an honor to have you, and thank you for the amazing chats. Thank you, Mary. This was so much fun. Yes, and we'll keep in touch. Oh, yes.
00:41:17
Speaker
I don't know about you guys, but I absolutely love that episode.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:41:20
Speaker
I took so much away from it and I hope you guys did as well. If you had something that you absolutely loved and it was just such an amazing quote that you learned or an amazing piece of advice that you took away from today, send me a message, DM me at allthingseducation21.com or you can shoot me a message on Instagram at allthingseducation21 and let me know what you learned because I'm really keen and would love to give you my feedback.
00:41:42
Speaker
Yeah, know what you're learning from the podcast. Once again, if you wanted to get 12% off your new and amazing BlendJet, don't forget to punch in the code SUDY12 for 12% off. The link will be in the description for the show notes below. So you'll be able just to click on that and it'll take you straight to the BlendJet website. There's so many pretty colors to choose from and yeah, would highly recommend you guys go check that out. So please definitely do.
00:42:02
Speaker
And last but not least, make sure to rate the podcast five stars. And if you are listening through Apple Podcasts, be sure to leave a review. I love getting this from you guys. I've been getting receiving a couple, which is really exciting and I enjoy reading them. So keep that up. Thank you so much for your support. And thank you for everyone who's recently been following the Instagram account. Very, very appreciative of that. The All Things Education 21 Instagram account.
00:42:23
Speaker
has been popping off. Oh my goodness, we're nearly at 500 followers and I'm really excited for that. So if you haven't already followed, please go give it a follow. And if your friends aren't following, tell them to follow as well. Why not? We'll be doing another giveaway shortly, which is really exciting. We'll be giving away some of the All Things Education merch. So definitely, yeah, be sure to check out the Instagram and keep listening to the ends of the podcast episodes where I'll be sharing the giveaway information. Thanks everyone, stay educated and see you next time.
00:42:50
Speaker
Thanks so much for listening to the All Things Education Podcast. If you enjoyed the episode today, why not support the show? Head to the description of this episode and click on the support the show link to donate in increments of $5. Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast on your favourite platform. And remember, the advice given on this channel and on our social media is general information only. If you have any specific personal health, wellbeing and or educational issues,
00:43:11
Speaker
Reach out to professionals such as your GP, school counsellor and or a trusted person in your life before making any final decisions. Please do not take this episode as specific personal advice and hopefully you now have more information about the topic you listen to today. For more study and lifestyle content head to our Instagram at allthingseducation21 and the link in the bio will direct you to many helpful resources. Stay educated everyone and see you next time.