Fire hydrant = hydrogen Balloon = helium Batteries = lithium Barrel = beryllium Board = borum Diamant = carbon Knight Rider = nitrogen Ox = oxygen Tooth paste = flour Sign = neon

F.A.S.T. learning is the key concept for improving your brain performance.

F = forget what you know, your circumstances and limitations A = activate your brain by consuming less and creating more S = state is important, emotions create long term memories T = teach, because you learn it twice by telling others

Only 1/3 of our brain performance is determined. That means: 2/3 is in your control. There is nothing like a good or bad mind, only a trained and a not trained one. Learning how to learn is the most important thing in life. Unfortunately we are not really taught in school, how to do that properly. So we need catch up!

Quick recall can be trained with the MOM-method: Motivation, Observation, Mechanics. Motivation: If someone gives your 100.000 $ to just remember a name, you would do that, right? So recall is a matter of whether you want it or not. Check your motivation by asking WIIFN: Whats in it for me? Reasons reap results!

Observation: (1) Fight for your limitations and you get to keep them. (2) Its not your retention, its your attention. Leaders have a great memory because they care (e.g. Bill Clinton). Try not to listen in order to respond, but to understand. Quick recall via MOM – Mechanics (follows).

1. Good diet: You are, what you eat. 2. Kill "ants" (= automatic negative thoughts --> Dr. Daniel Amen) 3. Excerise: When your body moves, your brain growes 4. Brain nutrience (supplements) 5. Positive peer-group: who you spend time with, is who you become.

6. Clean environment 7. Sleep 8. Brain protection: avoid extremes (e.g. sports), your brain is fragile 9. New learnings: neuroplasticity possible even in older age; nutrience + novelty 10. stress manangement A lot of things are common sense, but not common practice.

Knowledge is power. Especially in the new knowledge economy we live in. The average CEO for example reads 4-5 books a month. Why? Because it gives him/her an advantage to non-readers. Leaders are readers!

To read 4-5 books per month like CEOs you don't even need to speed read (which is good anyway). Do the math: An average person reads 200 words per minute. An average book has 64000 words. Hence, you only need to read 45 minutes a day to complete that task. Just imagine whats possible if you are able to read faster ...

1. Keep a book list. 2. Start by testing your reading speed. 3. Keep in mind: You can finish a book per week by reading 45 minutes a day. 4. Schedule your reading time. Take your day peak as orientation.

Method for remembering names: BE SUAVE. B = Believe: Most people think they are unable to do certain things. That's the issue! All behavior is believe driven. "You cannot do it, YET!" E = Exercise: Practice makes progress. Bad news: It takes effort. Good news: Not so much :-)

S = Say it. Recall the name. U = Use it. Three or more times in the conversation. A = Ask. Talk about the name. Story behind it. Spelling etc. V = Visualize. Especially the face. E = End with their name. And they will remember yours as well ;-)

The average person reads 200 words per minute. Even with this tempo you could easily read a book a week by taking 45 minutes a day. But, however, this does not mean you keep in mind what you read. There are typical problems people have with reading.

Lack of skill: Reading isn’t something you can do when you are born. It’s a skill. So: When did you actually learn to read? In first class, right? Since then no one really gets taught how do it properly. So most people stay on that level of their ability to read.

Lack of focus: It’s a myth, that faster readers have less comprehension. It’s even the other way around. If you have no time for distraction, you focus more. Remember: Information combined with emotion becomes long term memory. Use a pen/finger as a visual pacer.

How do you recall a list of 10 random words? Test it. Read this list only once and then write down what you remember. Note: Its not about failure (which is good!). Fire hydrant. Balloon. Batteries. Barrel. Board. Diamant. Knight Rider. Ox. Tooth paste. Sign.

Now tell a story including these words. It doesn't have to make sense, just make something up (e.g. creative, funny, crazy). Now recall your story and write all the words down on a sheet. Did it work? You also learned the first 10 elements in the periodic table ;-) ...

By the way: Telling a story helps remembering things. Also does: primacy (first word), recency (last word), organization, emotion, outstanding things.

Subvocalization slows you down. Your brain can think faster than you can speak. 3 Hacks: 1. Strech yourself with getting used to shortcuts while reading. 2. Listen to music, because it may distract you from subvocalization (e.g. barock with 60 b/s). 3. Break patterns with humming, chewing gum or counting.

We forget 80% of what we learn during 48 hours. Thats tragic! What to do? The key is taking notes in a helpful way. How?

1. Be active in listening. 2. Know your purpose. 3. Textual hierarchy (e.g. highlighting or underlining) 4. Organize your notes. 5. Use your own words (verbatim note-taking is pretty useless!) 6. Create your own system (e.g. abbreviation, symbols) 7. Filter important information.

Research suggests: Handwriting is the most successful method for notes. This way you have to synthesize the information, because you don't have time to write everything down.

Method: Capture and create Take a blank sheet and draw a line in the middle. On the left side you capture all the info (imagine the left, logic part of the brain). On the right side you work with this info on your own, creating something important for you (imagine the right, creative part of the brain).

Method: TIP T = think about what to retain I = identify relevant information P = prioritize it

Moreover, war has become a thing potentially so terrible and destructive that it should have been the common aim of statesmen to put an end to it forever.

One of the main lessons I have learned during my five years as Secretary-General is that broad partnerships are the key to solving broad challenges. When governments, the United Nations, businesses, philanthropies and civil society work hand-in-hand, we can achieve great things.

I think I have gone through my entire public career never telling a lie. I have made mistakes but I never knowingly lied.

The writer has to force himself to work. He has to make his own hours and if he doesn't go to his desk at all there is nobody to scold him.

Do the best you can in every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time. No one learns more about a problem than the person at the bottom.

The War on Drugs employs millions - politicians, bureaucrats, policemen, and now the military - that probably couldn't find a place for their dubious talents in a free market, unless they were to sell pencils from a tin cup on street corners.

See a pin and pick it up, all the day you'll have good luck; see a pin and let it lie, bad luck you'll have all day

Once you go from 10 people to 100, you already don't know who everyone is. So at that stage you might as well keep growing, to get the advantages of scale.

A plot is a thousand times more unsettling than an argument, which may be answered.

When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.

I met Ashley two weeks before I married him. It was a joke-the most ridiculous thing I've ever done. Once I was married, I didn't want to be a failure, so I stuck it out for six months, which was about six months too long.

The hardest part of this whole movie-making endeavor is finding ideas.

It is every man's obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.

I think they'd rather us follow our hearts and I hope that's what some people will understand.

You gain power by pretending to be weak.

We've organized ourselves as cultures, to a large degree, around what we agree we know. And when you have multiple ways of knowing, multiple ways of organizing, the society loses one of its deepest organizational principles.

I was very shy and very reserved as a child, very, very introvert.

If somebody asks me to recommend a young, good singer, I always do.

A strong, educated middle class is what made America the greatest country in the world.

When I went to high school, in the late 1970s, disco was in full swing and anyone who was into it dressed the part. I know I did.

I think the Internet is absolutely extraordinary. It's very, very useful and I think one of the things we've got to do is make sure that the African continent gets on to that information super highway.

To have the opportunity to work with Tiger Woods was just so awesome. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the challenge. I enjoyed the good parts where he was winning. And I enjoyed the challenge to help him get better. But six years was enough.

The golden rule is to act fearlessly upon what one believes to be right.

The hand that rocks the cradle usually is attached to someone who isn't getting enough sleep.