To improve your reading speed, you have to start trusting your brain.\u00a0 I promise that if you start trusting your brain more, you will have an easier time breaking your old reading habits and learning new ones.\u00a0 It\u2019s about time you start trusting your brain anyway and here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n
Without your brain, you could not have come as far in life as you\u2019ve come already.\u00a0 Every step of the way, your brain has been right alongside you.\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s actually been up in your head, but when I say it\u2019s beside you, it sounds more like a friend.<\/p>\n
Stop and think for a moment of everything your brain has already helped you through \u2013 learning to eat and walk, your teen-aged years, your education and your jobs, your relationships, sports, driving; everything that you have ever done in your life, you have done with the help of your brain.<\/p>\n
And whether you want to believe it right now or not, your brain is fully capable of understanding all of the information it reads \u2013 the first time you read it, even if you don\u2019t read that information word-for-word.<\/p>\n
How can I be so certain?<\/p>\n
Because of all of the things you already know.\u00a0 If you know something, doesn\u2019t it mean that your brain knows it, too?\u00a0 Of course it does.\u00a0 Everything your brain already knows is called your background knowledge, and you have a lot of it.\u00a0 Background knowledge is a compilation of every single thing you already know.\u00a0 And a big part of it includes all of the words currently in your vocabulary and all of your past life experiences.<\/p>\n
As you\u2019ll learn later on when we\u2019re developing speed reading skills, your vocabulary, which by now is far more extensive than it was when you first learned to read, is going to help you make split-second predictions about the words and word phrases that you read.\u00a0 And all of your previous life experiences are going to help you better understand all different types of reading materials you\u2019ll encounter.<\/p>\n
All I want you to understand right now is that your background knowledge plays a key role in your ability to increase both your reading speed and your comprehension.\u00a0 If you\u2019re still unsure about the connection, think about this.<\/p>\n
If you do a lot of traveling, you probably have an easier time understanding travel-related reading material, right?\u00a0 But when you read about a topic you\u2019re not very familiar with, like maybe your homeowner\u2019s insurance policy, wouldn\u2019t you agree reading becomes more difficult, even slower?\u00a0 Sure you would.<\/p>\n
But what you may not realize is that whenever you read unfamiliar material, there is almost always something in your background knowledge that you can draw upon to help you become more familiar with an unfamiliar topic.<\/p>\n
For example, if you\u2019ve lived in a home before, you can call upon that experience that\u2019s maintained inside your brain to help you understand all of the different things inside and outside your home that are and are not covered in your insurance policy.<\/p>\n
When you learn how to use your brain in this way, you will have learned a very effective way of broadening your knowledge base.<\/p>\n
Now let me finish off by pointing out something else I\u2019ve learned from all of the years I\u2019ve taught speed reading:<\/p>\n
The people with the most background knowledge are typically the people who have the most success with improving their reading speed.<\/p>\n
If you recall, I began this post discussing the importance of knowledge.\u00a0 Back then I told you that knowledge is power and that knowledge attracts others and helps you reach your goals.<\/p>\n
I also said that having knowledge means being able to comprehend what you read, retain it, and recall it when you need it.\u00a0 I told you then that learning to speed read will help you gain more knowledge because you\u2019ll be able to read more with better comprehension. \u00a0And as a result, reading will become more enjoyable.<\/p>\n
Now I\u2019m telling you that having more knowledge will facilitate increased reading speed.\u00a0 So what does all this mean?\u00a0 It means that the more you read, the more you know, and the more you know, the faster you read.\u00a0 And the faster you read, the faster you gain more knowledge.\u00a0 And the more knowledge you gain the more power you have.\u00a0 Beautiful, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s one final thought.<\/p>\n
Every single day you have an opportunity to broaden your knowledge simply by living and being inquisitive, but mostly by reading.\u00a0 Whether you read at the library or online, or you pick up a book that\u2019s been sitting on your bookshelf for as long as you remember doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 All you have to do is find something you\u2019re not familiar with, read it, and when you\u2019re finished, you will know more than you did before you started reading.<\/p>\n
And that is how you build more knowledge.<\/p>\n
By learning how to increase your reading speed and learning to read with better comprehension, you will be able to read more than you ever could before.\u00a0 As a result, you will also build knowledge faster than you ever could before and faster than people who don\u2019t speed read!<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s going to give you the competitive edge you need to succeed in today\u2019s increasingly competitive world.\u00a0 Now that\u2019s some powerful stuff, isn\u2019t it!<\/p>\n
Video Version of Post
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