One of the first blocks on your way to learn speed reading is the hidden Voice inside your mind, the Saboteur, that tells you “I can’t do this!”.

There is a simple way to overcome it, I’ll share that with you in a second.

For a couple of years now I’ve been training and coaching children and adults to help them double, triple or increase even more their reading speed and creative memorizing abilities.

To help you become friends with speed reading I will reveal here tips and tricks that I’ve discovered so far and that I keep discovering through my work as a trainer with this wonderful technique.

Tip #1 How To Get Over The Voice In Your Head That Says “I can’t do this!”

One of the major blocks along your way to becoming a speed reader is your hidden Saboteur, that Voice in your head that tells you stuff like :”This is stupid! It doesn’t work! This is hard! It’s to simple to work! I can’t do this!” or any other variations of it. I am sure you have your own versions of it, but you get my point.

Every time you start doing something new there is a war going on in your mind. The story of 2 children: Yes-Dave and No-Dave.

On one side there is the excited kid that is eager to jump right in and experience new things. Let’s call him Yes-Dave. He doesn’t care about how good he is at that, about what others will say about him. Yes-Dave is enjoying the experience, and keeps on trying no matter how many times he fails.

That’s how he learned to walk, by the way. He saw his parents and his siblings doing it and then he started imitating them. At first he failed. Many times. But every time he failed his parents encouraged him.

They told him things like: “That’s O.K. Just get up! There you go! Good boy! You can do this! Yes, try again! You are the best!” and he kept on trying until walking became a habit.

On the other side there is another kid, that used to be excited and eager to try new things. Let’s call him No-Dave.

He was successful at times, but he also failed many times at many things.

Gradually his parents started telling him things like “Be careful! Don’t touch that! No, don’t go there, you’ll get hurt! No, you are too small to do that! No, not like that, I will do it myself! You are so slow! Why can’t you be more like your brother?”.

Slowly, No-Dave started being afraid to try new things because of what others will think of him. No- Dave is afraid he will get laughed at, ridiculed. So he has developed ways of avoiding situations that will put him in a bad light. Which happens pretty much every time he tries something new.

Sucking at something we try for the first time, is the normal course of learning. At first, we need to get through the “shit town”.

When you start practicing speed reading (or any other new skill), you need to become aware of the war going on in your mind, between Yes – Dave and No – Dave.

And the more you become aware, the more you can choose which one you allow to take the lead. This will help you get quicker through the shit town and work your way up to the excellent town.

Becoming aware also decreases the urge to abandon and give up before you have given a real chance to the new skill to become a habit. Which usually takes a minimum of 30 days. But this is another tip, another story, that I will share with you in a future post.

Until then, notice how your own Yes-Dave and No-Dave are fighting to control your mind and your actions.

And share in the comments below your tips on how you help Yes-Dave win the battles of your mind 🙂

Hugs,

Raluca