Kilani Excellence Creative Thinking, Speed Reading & Power Memory Online Training Gym

 Welcome to Excellence   Newsletter Issue 1 [ October 2003 ]

Welcome to Excellence and thank you for reviewing our newsletter. I truly hope you will find it informative and interesting, as I sincerely want to earn your trust by providing substantial content and superior products and services. Our 10-second summary is: we offer 3 programmes; Creative Thinking, Speed Reading and Power Memory. Each programme contains content, multimedia exercises, real-world workouts and Programme Daily Activities Schedule, within a structured customisable framework. Programmes can be accessed online (eLearning), purchased as an eGym/CD package or conducted on-site. A complete and enjoyable experience.

 
   I have no special gift; I am only passionately curious. Einstein
You are what you repeatedly do; Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle
 Excellence is a Habit    The Habits of Amazing Speed Readers
Stephen Covey, in his classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, defines a habit as the intersection of knowledge, skill and desire. Knowledge is the ‘what/why’, skill is the ‘how’ and desire is the ‘want’. Since you are reading this newsletter, I can assume you have the desire. My mission is to present to you the knowledge, and provide you an enjoyable and challenging environment within which you can develop the skills.
  
Achieving high reading speeds is developing the following abilities into a new habit:
1. Eliminate Bad Reading Habits (e.g. regression)
2. Use Reading Accelerators Efficiently (e.g. hand)
3. Master Mechanical Movements (e.g. turning pages)
4. Increase Horizontal Vision Span (see more line words per eye fixation)
5. Increase Vertical Vision Span (see more lines per eye fixation)
6. Optimise Eye Movements in All Directions (forward, backward, diagonal)
7. Optimise Concentration and Comprehension (understand better what you read)
8. Optimise Retention and Recall (remember more of what you read)
9. Apply Preparation Techniques (e.g. skimming, scanning, preview)
10. Understand Writing Styles (e.g. fiction)
11. Understand Writing Structures (e.g. paragraphs)
12.  Improve Vocabulary (roots, suffixes, prefixes)
 
Needless to say, but (you guessed it) I am going to say it anyway, the Speed Reading Excellence programme is focused on the amazing speed readers habits.
Speed Reading Excellence is a holistic and effective approach to improve your reading speed.
The 'skills' I am referring to, and our entire focus and dedication, are: creative thinking, speed reading and power memory. Like most people, I have read many books on these subjects and attended business seminars, sponsored by my corporate employers, which touched on some of their concepts. The challenge was that once the book or course was over, there was no private place for me to practice what I learnt. In a few months time, most of my training or reading diminished due to limited practice.
My vision has always been to create an online environment, obviously on the internet, where I and like-minded people can practice our thinking, reading and memory techniques in private, readying ourselves for the real-world challenges to come. Fortunately, chance (which favours the prepared mind, thanks Louise Pasteur) gave me the opportunity to achieve my vision, and Kilani Excellence was 'born' on 1 October 2003. I am the first to recognise that the internet is chock full of content on these topics, of varying quality and quantity. My next challenge is to make our website THE destination for passionately curious minds.
 What Colour is Your Brain?    Memories: It's All About Movies!
Everyone thinks differently. This fundamental fact has inspired serious researchers, and the merely curious, to efforts of thinking preferences (or styles) classifications. Big corporations are sending their sales teams to training courses that teach them how to identify the thinking preferences or styles of their prospects and customers. Mega banks are advertising their expertise and knowledge of 'local' customs (thinking and behaving patterns). Why? If you are negotiating multi-million dollar deals, you simply can not afford to misunderstand your prospects, let alone offend them.
 
The essence of virtually all memory systems and techniques is making movies. It is really that simple. Mind eye movies that challenge Hollywood's best. The basic concept is transforming abstract data into vivid visual images then link these images into, well, a memorable movie.
All memory systems rely on a basic technique called association. You associate any new data (phone number, face with a name, directions, etc) to either an established 'memory' list or framework or to another related and relevant piece of data.
Some of the more prominent names and theories in the corporate world are Herrmann, De Bono, Myers Briggs, Langrehr and BPH.
 
The association of one piece of data is a scene in your memory movie. But, who are the stars, what is the plot and how exactly are you going to 'shoot' it?

Herrmann's HBDI (Brain Dominance Instrument) classifies thinking preferences into 4 categories (represented by colours or letters):

  
The main stars of your memory movies are your Pegs. Who? The Pegs are simply members of your personal, easy to remember, memory list or framework.
A. [Blue] Analytic, technical, logical
B. [Green] Organisational , conservative
C. [Red] Emotional, interpersonal
D. [Yellow] Holistic, synthesising
 
The first step in any memory system, used by memory champions and the casual practioners, is to establish a memory list, or lists, of Pegs that you can use instantaneously and subconsciously whenever you need to remember anything. The difference between memory champions and casuals is how fast they can direct and produce their memory movies.
De Bono's 6 Hats classifies thinking styles into 6 categories (represented by coloured thinking hats):
The second step is to practice how to associate new data with your memory list of Pegs. Easy.
[White] Informational, factual
[Red] Emotional
[Black] Risks caution, negative, pessimistic
[Yellow] Benefits, positive, optimistic
[Green] Creative, new/alternative ideas
[Blue] Control (of other hats)
As an example: suppose you decided to use a list of 9 sequential numbers, 1 to 9, as your basic frame of reference or memory list. Now decide what picture or image you can use as your Peg for each of the numbers. Say you decide to use the shapes of the numbers as your guide, so choose a pencil to represent the number 1, a duck for 2 and so on. The pencil is now your Peg or star of the movie. If the first new item of a list of data (e.g. presentation) is the current market competition overview of your product or service, then associate the pencil with your main competitors (co-stars) in a dynamic, vibrant movie.
Bramson, Parlette, Harrison's (BPH) inQ classifies thinking styles into 5 categories (represented by letters of the alphabet, no colours):
When you start your presentation, you first recall the pencil (Peg), which leads you to recall the movie, which leads to recall the co-stars (the competition).
[S] Synthesist, integrator, conflicts, change, new
[I] Idealist, broad views, receptive, assimilators
[P] Pragmatist, whatever works, adaptive
[A] Analyst, logical, methodical, prescriptive
[R] Realist, factual, corrective
 
The above example, though admittedly simple in its nature, demystifies most of the memory feats you see, hear or read about. Photographic or 'elephantine' memory is the privilege of the rare few. Trained and fast memory is achievable by most. All you need is your imagination. Obviously, training your memory, or more specifically your brain, is the best way to improve it (you can try ancient herbs and magic too). Training your mind is similar to training your body in the gym; 'instant' results are miracles.
But what about Mr/s Joe/Jane Average, who simply wants to get a genuine better understanding of themselves and the people around them and maximise their intellectual talent?  They can review the Creative Thinking Excellence programme (coming soon), of course, and get that competitive edge as well as satisfy their curiosity. Creative thinking is the art of stimulating your brain to think in innovative ways, generate original ideas, evaluate options objectively, solve problems effectively, present your thoughts eloquently and make decisions decisively. You can not be creative without creating.
 
But where exactly do you go to train your memory and how exactly are you going to practice, in private, before you show off your new talent to the world? This is where 1-day courses, home-study kits and books fall short, due to inherent time, scope and cost constraints. My answer is simple: an online, open 24 hours, memory Gym with LOTS of fresh multi-media exercises to train and challenge your imagination. This is the basic theme of Power Memory Excellence. Memory improvement techniques were practiced by the ancient Greeks, so no 'modern' man can claim a new discovery. An online Memory Gym; this is new.
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I truly hope you found this newsletter informative and interesting. Why not review our Online Demo or take a Quick Tour? Enjoy the experience.
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