As with anything in life you will reach pinnacle or plateau points where you feel like you can go no further. So it begs the question of how some people get further than others. How do some people get to be the best? If they got to that point why can’t you? Yes, of course, you need things like determination, confidence and self esteem but what specifically is it that takes us from one level of expertise to an even higher level of expertise?
There are 3 key things that you need or powers which you need to develop in order to get off the flats and be back on the incline to your desired point. It’s essential to have a clear idea of where you would like to get to but know that, no matter where you are right now, there is no reason that you cannot accelerate at the same rate as a child does when s/he is introduced to something new.
To boost yourself you need to boost your M.I.C. You may have guessed I happen to like my Acronyms! 
So what does M.I.C stand for?
i) Memory
ii) Imagination
iii) Concentration
i) Memory - If you suffer from a bad memory then it’s crucial you learn different ways of utilising your memory. I used to think that I had a bad memory. I used to say to people that I had trouble remembering names and faces and yet my memory for numbers was excellent. Why? What was it that separated numbers from names and faces? I’ve got to be honest, to this day I’m still not even quite sure what it was but I knew that I didn’t want to suffer the embarrassment of forgetting peoples names and even faces any more. What I did realise is that I wasn’t making enough of an effort to remember peoples names and now I find that since I started making more of an effort to do so that I can now remember 95% of the names of the people I meet; it’s now only the rare occasion now that I forget. I’ll leave you to find your own method or technique for improving your memory but it is an essential skill.
Your memory is key when it comes to learning. Sounds like an obvious statement I know but what people don’t realise with learning is that in order to change something that has up until now been a habit, you need your memory to intervene and take over. Let’s take a look at an example. You’ve been playing tennis for a year and you’ve hit a plateau and so you decide to hire a coach. Your coach is going to teach you new techniques. You need to memorise those techniques and then apply then. If you don’t remember to apply the new techniques frequently enough your old habits will continue to reign supreme and your new learning’s won’t be able to cut in and take over. You can only do that if you remember to apply the new teachings from your coach. Does that make sense?
Another example is in dealing with people. Let’s say you learn a great NLP technique for communicating with people. Unless you remember to apply it at the appropriate times, that technique is useless to you. I remember that when I was at the Brahma Kumaris they often to this as being “Yukti Yukt” which translated means applying the right technique at the right time.
ii) Imagination - I’m a firm believer that unless we employ creativity in our daily routine we become stale and lose momentum with life overall. Life in fact begins to lose its meaning to us. Repetition is important for certain skills we need to develop. Let’s say you’re a basketball player, the more times you throw the ball the hoop the better you are going to get at it. If something is not working you need to find a new way of doing it or having a new outlook upon it. To illustrate, take your job for example, there are certain aspects that are going to have repetition but it may get very boring to you unless you bring variety to it. Sometimes you can’t change what you do but you can change the way you look at what you do.
Invention and innovation are crucial to personal improvement. I was recently commuting on the tube and I just wasn’t in the mood to read a book as I often do and I didn’t want to waste that valuable time either. So I decided to use that time to meditate and I was shocked by the results. I found it so easy to meditate and the results were also that I had many new ideas flow to me during that time. So it was a change of outlook and activity that enabled me to have a whole new experience of something I do regularly i.e. traveling on the tube. The key here is not to allow yourself to get bored. If you feel bored start the engine of your imagination and see what you can conjure up for that free time!
iii) Concentration - I’m a Piscean and we’re renowned for being dreamers and procrastinating; I am no exception! 
However what I realised what that when I did day-dream or drift off my concentration on my day-dream was exceptional! If people tried to distract me from my day-dream they’d have a tough time of it. So I realised it was not my concentration that lacked but rather what I was concentrating on. The final key here is learning to stay focus on something for extended periods of time despite any challenges you might face.
If we go back to the tennis example only this time you’re playing a grueling match which has been going on for hours. It’s neck and neck, both you and your partner are exhausted. The winner of the game will undoubtedly be the one that can maintain concentration or focus on the closing of the game and not let their focus wander onto how tired they are or even the thought of making mistakes on closing points.
It’s an easy skill to develop. I always thought that I didn’t have the ability to concentrate and yet I’ve been sat here for the last hour and a half straight through totally focused on this article. It’s easy to do once you get into the flow of what you’re doing by not letting those little thoughts that creep in take over.
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The 3 core skills are a simple way of accelerating your personal growth and skipping past your plateau.
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Amit Sodha | 
06 23rd, 2008| 
