Have you ever noticed how easily you forget things you have studied for an exam? You spent long hours studying and preparing, and just weeks before you had been a world expert on the topic. And now, a short while later, you can remember only a fraction of it.
In contrast, we gasp in amazement at the incredible skill of Olympic athletes who are able to perform dazzling feats with split-second precision, or at the ability of Quiz competition players who are instantly able to remember an extraordinary range of facts with clarity and confidence.
How do they do it? How do they get there?
They have learned to make use of a secret weapon that we all have: a secret part of our brain, hidden away and seldom spoken about, which is equipped to empower us in ways we can barely imagine.
Tucked away at the base of the skull, roughly where the spinal chord joins onto the brain, is an area known as the limbic brain. It is the limbic brain that takes care of much of what happens in our bodies without our needing to think about it. Breathing, blood circulation and heartbeat are among the functions that our limbic brain manages. Somehow, those super-achievers we admire have managed to tap into this secret power-house.
But the limbic brain has no email address, and you won’t find it on social media. So how do these remarkable people get to engage with it?
It’s quite simple, actually. They just have to practice. Practice! Really?
Yes, the moment we start doing repetitive actions, like learning to walk, to drive a car or to sing the words of a song, the limbic brain takes notice. It’s passionate about efficiency and soon starts to take over whatever the front, conscious, part of the brain has been busy working on. Before long, the limbic brain turns this into a slick, quick process, thereby setting the conscious part of the brain free to engage with new things life is throwing at it. The more the limbic brain gets to practice, the quicker and slicker a process becomes, and the less conscious brain effort is requiredto sustain it.
But, you ask, doesn’t that sound too easy? Granted, some things (like riding a bicycle or playing the piano) are fairly straightforward, but how about flying an airliner? Amazingly, the limbic brain is up to that challenge too! It needs a special device, known as a simulator, which responds to your actions just as a Boeing would, but happily, nobody gets hurt if you crash! So, if you are learning to fly a Boeing on a simulator, and you realise something is going wrong, you go back to the beginning, figure out what happened and try again. And again, and again. Hundreds and even thousands of practices may be needed before you reach that high level of skill where the limbic brain takes over and it all feels effortless.
Learning to use computer apps is a very similar process because, through practice, you build the thinking and motor skills that are needed to drive this complex machine that can be used to do so many valuable things.
At SkillWise, we understand the role of the limbic brain. That’s why, when we develop learning programs to teach you about the computer, we do it in a way that trains your brain to do the new things quickly and easily. Remember that magic word ‘practice’? When doing the Skillwise training, you will be training that limbic brain through practice, by working through hundreds of simulations that look and work just like the computer itself, but, as with the flight simulator, there are no crash landings! You will get it wrong at first – that’s fine! You just go back and do it again, and again, until suddenly, the limbic is taking control and you realise the computer has become a tool in your hands rather than a challenge to overcome! Have fun!