How do you react when you come across something you don't understand? What if you encounter a challenge you don't know how to overcome? Do you slow down and try to solve these problems? Or do you quietly move on?

I'm not talking about big challenges like becoming a millionaire, finding someone to marry or studying for a degree. I'm talking about the smaller challenges like coming across a sentence in a book you don't understand, getting confused over the plot in a movie, or not being able to understand a lyric in a song.

I'm talking about the kind of things you can get away with ignoring. Things you can bypass and neither you or anyone else will ever think of it again.

A few years back I was browsing the shelves in a local book store. Nothing took my fancy until I happened upon a book about improving concentration. As soon as I saw the book, a voice in my head instantly told me I should buy it.

So I did as I was told and bought the book. Once home I eagerly began to read. I was not many pages into the book before it gave a piece of advice I would struggle with for the next few months. It told me to put a stop to the mental chatter in my head. The same mental chatter that told me to buy the book, was now being shunned by the very same book!

I took heed of the advice as it seemed like a good idea to quieten my thoughts. But as soon as I tried this, my brain rebelled and starting talking again. It said:

While it's easy to imagine our study and work time not always being productive, getting break time right should be easy shouldn't it? All you do is take some time away from your work every now and again, so you keep your mind fresh. What could be easier than that?

In reality though, we are generally as bad at taking breaks as we are at slacking off. We seem to be either at one extreme or the other. On one extreme some people take a break all day long and don't get any work done at all. On the other extreme some people work far too hard and burn out. Most people lie a little away from the far extremities, but few people have the balance right.

Feeling overwhelmed is a common problem for learners. It is one of the main reasons why people quit and never receive the benefit that learning something new provides.

The problem amounts to taking on more than we can handle in a given time. For example, moving on too early is an acute symptom of most school systems. The lessons are not dictated by the individual, but rather by where the class as a whole should be. If you haven't learnt your multiplication tables, I'm afraid it's tough luck because the class is moving on. In this kind of scenario, those who get left behind find trying to stay with the rest of the class is constantly overwhelming. This leads to frustration, and many give up entirely. It's a tragic situation, and it happens all too often.

Mental confusion can occur when our brains are tired from too much work, but in this article I'm going to talk about confusion in a fully awake and healthy brain. Once your brain is in its optimum state, confusion is something to seek out and embrace. Learn to take control of your confusion and use it to gain knowledge and wisdom.

What is confusion?

Your brain is an understanding machine. For example, on a very simple level when I see this pattern...

This article will give a slightly different take on the topic of developing a good study habit. While most articles on the subject are telling you good habits to develop, this article will tell you how to actually develop them.

The difference between those who fail, and those who are highly successful, generally comes down to the development of habits. The difference between bad destructive habits and good productive habits can completely change your life. For example, bad habits could lead to a life on the streets; good habits could lead to a life on a private tropical island. Or to bring it closer to home, it could mean the difference between an A and an F.

A few years ago there was a media-frenzy over music and the brain. Listening to Mozart, it was claimed, could enhance your intelligence and give you better test results. A couple of years ago I tried it for myself, and now I shall share my experience.

But before I continue typing, I'm just going to head over to my music player and turn on some Mozart...

[click]

That's better.

Far from just being a cheesy gimmick for this article, I do frequently listen to Mozart while I work. Not just Mozart, but many pieces of classical music. I do so, not because of the hype, but because of the observable experience I felt when I tried it.

When we were babies, complacency wasn't an option. A baby is totally dependent on its parents. If it became complacent it would remain dependent on them forever.

Babies and young children don't want that dependency. They have an insatiable curiosity to learn. They work hard all day; trying to absorb as much knowledge as they can.

They need to. They live in a frustrating universe where they struggle to get what they want. If there is a rattle the other side of the room, not only can they not walk over to it and grab it, they can't even ask anyone to do it for them.

Step by step, they acquire the knowledge and skills that will get them what they want.

Over the past couple of weeks I've been clearing brambles from the back of our garden. These long, thorny, and tangled weeds choke the plants we want to grow and stop the garden achieving it's full beauty. In order to make room for new, stronger and better growth, the weeds have to be uprooted.

As I was carrying out this task, I couldn't help drawing an analogy to intelligence.

While the potential of the brain is debatably limitless, there is one major constriction: time.

Our time is a finite resource, yet many of us waste it. Some people spend hours watching television that doesn't improve their lives in anyway. Or they play games, with opponents that are not challenging enough. Or cook the same meals, day after day; never experimenting.

I have developed a mentality whereby I can enjoy the most mundane of activities. I enjoy washing up, hovering, filling out forms, performing repetitive drills, brushing my teeth, frequent car journeys, folding leaflets, filing...

I never get bored because of the way my mind thinks about these activities.

One thing you can do is day dream, but by definition that means you lose concentration. Sometimes you really have to concentrate on boring things.

What follows is a method of obtaining total concentration on really dull things... and enjoying it.

The benefits range from creating less mistakes, to aiding memory; but my favourite benefit is that life becomes a bit more interesting.