When I returned to college for my second degree, after close to a decade off, I felt stupid. I don’t mean the, “WTF have I gotten myself into?”, sort of stupid (although I certain had those doubts). No. The information that was review for the kids around me (that were born when I graduated high school) felt new to me. The kids treated most information as if it were obvious to them while I was trying desperately to remember basic algebra. Those little shits. It wasn’t long before I took comfort in feeling stupid. I knew that meant that I was way out of my comfort zone and that meant that I was living life instead of blogging about it. When was the last time that you surrounded yourself with smarter people? Obviously, you’re intelligent, you subscribed to this blog. But, there are different types of intelligence. For the sake of brevity, I won’t blather on about my opinion of the different types of intelligence. Just know that it’s a smart thing to surround yourself with people that are educated in various disciplines and then become a sponge.
How many of you are afraid of dementia or your mind becoming dull as you grow older? What are you doing to sharpen your tool? When was the last time that you attempted to figure out a riddle in order to keep your mind sharp? Here are two riddles for you (to answer in the comments below).
Your car has a 12V adapter for charging items that is positioned upright (as if it were a tiny cup holder). You accidentally drop a 1943 penny into the adapter. Due to the position of the adapter, the penny will never shake loose (unless you turn the car upside down). Due to the circumference of the penny, you’re unable to get it out with your fingers as it fills the hole (heh) perfectly. Tweezers won’t work either, due to the space. Even though the vehicle is off, the idea of sticking metal into a socket just doesn’t feel right. You have access to any items in your household or garage. How do you remove the penny?
Here’s an easy one. How do you put an elephant in a refrigerator?
[I’ll post the answers next week if no one gets them in the comments below.]
Memorization is another way that you can train your brain to stay sharp. You know that memory match game where the kid flips up a card and has to remember where they saw that face to match it later on in the game? Play that game, against a kid, and prepare to be schooled! Train your brain to remember things. When was the last time that you remembered a phone number? “Say what! Maybe you haven’t heard of these things called smartphones, Jet! Why do I need to memorize anything when I have access to all of this data in my pocket!?” Because smartphones are making us stupid, that’s why. Over the past year, I’ve gone back to face-to-face networking. I hand out business cards and I ask people to tell me their phone number. You should see the shock on their faces when I ask that they tell me their phone number. “What do you mean?”, some ask. I reiterate. Just tell me your number and I’ll remember it. “Are you a magician?”, one woman asked. No, I’m just choosing to use my brain. “That’s ten pieces of information!”, she insisted. No, it’s only three. The first piece is the area code and they’re often familiar. If it’s not a familiar area code, stating the metro area from whence the area code came will help it to stick. (Remembering L.A. may be easier than remembering a 310 area code.) The second piece of information is the three digit prefix that follows. You can just tell yourself that the clothes the person is wearing cost $223 dollars and there’s the first six digits. With the third piece of information, just imagine two digits stacked on top of two digits like a math problem. Once you see it in your mind (and perhaps make it into a mnemonic) it will be easy to remember those 10 digits. At some point, of course you’ll enter it into your phone. But, try dialing some numbers every so often. Ferret out the three most important numbers in your phone. Memorize them shits because your phone isn’t invincible. The area responsible for memory in the brain is the hippocampus. That’s easy to remember because, according to my Abnormal Psychology Professor, “If you see a hippo on campus, you’ll remember it!” (See what she did there?)
It’s worth mentioning… The WordPress editor didn’t recognize the word dialing and tried to correct it to calling. It’s a lost art on many levels. It’s also worth mentioning… There is a very common lie that people tell in regards to their phones. Have you ever called/texted someone only for them to reply stating, “I’m sorry, I got a new phone and lost all of my contacts. Who is this?” It’s a lie. I’ve had PDAs since the days of the Palm Pilot. Backing up data was/is standard. These days, they even have ‘Save’ to illuminate the letter S in the elementary school alphabet posters. The kids are reminded to “always save your data!” So, you mean to tell me that you never saved your data and when you decided to get a new phone, the clerk at Verizon said, “Fuck it, you don’t want these old contacts, do you? Of course you don’t. No need to transfer them to your new phone.” (Another service that has existed for at least 15 years.) Lies! “Hey, Jet! My phone was stolen and I lost all of my contacts!” Bullshit. See above for the common sense/elementary school practices of saving/backing up your data. Even when I had a cheap Nokia flip, guess how easy it was to plug in and back up my data? Don’t lie. Just tell me that I’ve been deleted from your contacts. I won’t take it personally and will appreciate it better than bullshit. I digress.
My maternal great aunt suffered from Alzheimer’s. I’m not sure if that was the motivation for my parents to create what I refer to as a “figure-it-out” household. Many questions went unanswered. Every question that I had yielded a pragmatic response or a redirected challenge for me to find the answer on my own. A stock response was, “figure it out”. While I found it frustrating at the time, I’m grateful for being taught how to problem solve. Perhaps that’s why I’m driven to coach my clients how to workout instead of just taking them through a workout. The other end of that double-edged sword of figure-it-out upbringing is that I have little patience for those that make no/minimal effort to figure things out. In the age of instant gratification, most people don’t make use of the tools at their disposal to figure shit out. Imagine handing an employee a memorandum only for them to stare at the words for five seconds and then ask, “what is this?” Read it! Imagine standing next to the ocean (while in California) and someone claiming that they didn’t know how to find West. WTF!? Imagine texting someone a link to a museum exhibit only for them to text back and ask where it was being held. Click on the goddamned link, the information is there! But, again, that’s my issue. I embrace deductive reasoning. As a Southern girlfriend once said, “not everybody was raised by yo mama!” True. True.
Here’s the point of this post: Use your brain. If you’re always the smartest person in the room, find some new rooms in which to stand. If you’re smarter than all of your friends, find some new friends. If your work no longer challenges (or never has challenged) your mind, find new work. Find a way to feel stupid so that the competitive spirit inside will ignite your desire to learn again. Treat your brain like a muscle and work it out. Memorize numbers, names, details, faces, and among other things… routes (how did you get back to the same destination before GPS?) As always, remember that strength is a choice. Choose to make your mind stronger.
Here’s a highlight from my week. I taught my kitten how to fetch. Check out this video.