Read Once, Discard

A recent post by Rory Miller expressed a sentiment, "... So I keep expecting every last student to look up and say, "Well, duh." I commented that for most it is a matter of data retrieval from the brain. We don't have the data we cannot retrieve it. I expressed my belief that his efforts turn on a light and add that data to the brain where in the future the brain now has data that relates and can be retrieved.

The point of this post is this, if you only read it once and then assume it will remain at a higher level of storage for easy and rapid retrieval you may be making a mistake. Even attending one of Mr. Miller's seminar's you may find that as time passes that data becomes a bit muddy and harder to get up in a crises.

So, you have to read it more than once. You have to read it every so often to push the data storage location back up in front where data used frequently resides and is faster on the retrieval.

In my case there were so many things that did not occur to me until I started to read his books, his blog, and his web site on conflict communications. I have read the data in those sites several times and continue to go back and re-read and review. The light from this came on and I said to myself, "doah!"

Even when internalizing it and then applying it in practice such constant review is necessary to refresh and verify its correctness. The brain tends to find data and if that data is not recent or fresh it interprets it not always in the exact and correct form. You need to overcome this natural tendency of the brain.

I find at every reading that my perceptions and interpretations need an adjustment. Sometimes a lot and most time a bit. A bit matters. I read materials many times. I make notes. I transcribe notes by hand. I review notes and then re-read and make corrections and adjustments. I post on blogs. I comment on blogs and then comments in return will point me in directions that show I am right, that show I missed an important point or that show I am so far out in left field none of the balls hit ever reach my position - it says, move up dude you can't play from way out here.

Encode the brain. I wish the brain would be as easy as a computer even if the storage process is similar. Unlike your computer your brain receives input and then goes through both random memory and long term. It does not pull that data exactly. It pulls something more like impressions that are subject to on the fly changes due to current perceptions, environmental stuff, and so much more - it is not ever as exacting as data retrieval on a computer.

It is like this, you have to write the code to retrieve the data on the fly with occasional adrenaline viruses to circumvent that work. If the code is not exact the data is not exact or even correct. You can't always write good code under pressures of fear, anger, danger, and other stress inducing activities.

Read it, read it and read it - like, practice - practice - practice and just when you think you got it, practice - practice - practice so more.

Note: Reading is a generalization where I mean, read, write, re-read, practice [mental and physical], etc. You must do it more than once and refresh it continually to allow it to stick - encode. This is a fundamental - there is more to making it work, read those websites, blogs, and books then if possible attend the seminars of Rory Miller, Marc MacYoung, and others like Iain Abernethy Sensei, Kris Wilder and Lawrence Kane Sensei to name a few that come to mind in the moment.