Set Lifetime Goals

Set Lifetime Goals

One of the first things that you should think about when you’re setting personal goals is what specific things you want to accomplish in your lifetime. These lifetime goals will give you the perspective that you need to shape many of the decisions that you’ll be making in your life.

There are some specific areas of your life in which you’re going to want to set very determined goals. The following categories will help you to focus on certain aspects of your lifetime goals: 

• Mental attitude: Your mental attitude should be positive so that there are no negative thoughts or mindsets holding you back. Take a look at your behavior in certain situations and ask yourself if this was something that prevented you from reaching a specific goal.
• Your career: Depending on what career you want, there will be specific goals that you need to follow to make sure that you have all your credentials at the end of your schooling. Ask yourself what level it is that you want to reach in your career.
• Family: Setting family goals can be a bit more difficult than other goals because your decision will usually affect someone else as well. You’ll first need to decide if you want to be a parent and if you want the responsibilities that come with parenting.
• Financial: Determine how much you want to be making when you reach a certain age.
• Physical: Determine if there are any athletic goals that you want to reach. This can be as simple as staying in good health or as complicated as learning how to mountain climb. What will it take for you to reach this physical goal?
• Pleasure: Make a list of things that make you happy. Then make another list of steps that you can take to incorporate more of these pleasures into your life.

Once you have a list of the above categories clearly written down you’ll need to assign them with a priority number. Start with the number one priority and then start to implement changes in your life so that you can achieve this goal. Work down the list but keep in mind that you can change the priority of a category at any time. Your lifetime goals are the milestones that you want to reach for your own personal achievement. When you’re setting lifetime goals it’s important that you make decisions for yourself that are going to fit into the person you want to be. Perhaps the most important step when it comes to goal setting is to be firm in the lifetime goals categories that you feel are most important to you.

Music and Memory

Music and Memory

Elderly people suffering from dementia were said to have better reasoning about their backgrounds and personal history when there was music playing in the clinical area than in silence, during an experiment conducted by Elizabeth Valentine, a psychologist at the University of London and co-author of new research on music and memory. Increasingly, music is accompanying traditional medical therapies to help people heal faster. Experts say music has the power to calm and to energize the spirit. The British researchers conducted a test on 23 people (ages 68 to 90) with mild dementia. The test was done with different sounds playing in the background. While asking the questions, the researchers either played: a familiar tune ( Winter, from Vivaldi's Four Seasons), novel music ( Hook, by Fitkin), or pre-recorded cafeteria noise - or asked the questions in stillness. Over four weeks, each person was tested in all four situations.

The participants answered more questions correctly with sound in the background rather than in silence, and they scored even better when music was playing. “Whether the music was familiar or new did not seem to matter. The music probably aroused the participants and helped them focus,” the researchers said.

Reduce Stress

Reduce Stress

Medical researches show that people who are always anxious produce “stress hormones” like cortisol, which damages brain cells. Make it a point to do something that will relax you everyday. Try meditating, yoga, drinking tea, taking a long bath … whatever works for you. A very effective method to reduce stress is deep breathing and visualizing the expected outcome of any situation to turn out well. Don’t forget to get enough rest. Poor memory is often a result of poor self-image. After all, it all starts and ends in the mind. So to have a healthy mind, believe that you can achieve anything you desire. Boost your self-esteem and be confident in your abilities. Your attitude should be supportive of your goals.

Cardiovascular exercises like walking improves blood circulation and are good for the heart and brain. Research also indicates that walking helps release hormones that aid in regenerating new brain cells. If you’re bored with just plain walking, engage into sports that you love. Play basketball, volleyball, tennis, or anything that excites you. By exercising, you can lessen your chances of developing high blood pressure which contributes to memory loss when you get older. So get up and get moving. Not only will you be getting a fit and healthy body, but you’ll also sharpen your memory and improve your creativity. Not to mention the fun and camaraderie you’ll be getting with your teammates and competitors.

Just like any muscle, you also need to exercise your brain so that it doesn’t deteriorate. Engage in games that will help you think. Talk to people, read informational books, listen to educational tapes, and make it a habit to continuously learn and experience new things. Remember that when your neurons die, they don’t come back to life anymore. So you better use them, or you’ll lose them. If you feel that your memory really isn’t how it used to be, go and see a physician. Sometimes, memory loss can be a symptom of more serious diseases and can go undetected for years because you don’t really feel anything else other than memory loss.

You Are What You Eat

It is often said that your brain is probably the greediest organ in your body, and it requires a very specific type of nutrition from your diet. It shouldn’t be surprising then that your diet affects how your brain performs, and it performs well with a steady supply of glucose. Before you go out of your house in the morning, it would be great if you can give your brain the fuel it needs by eating a hearty breakfast. A salad packed full of antioxidants, including beta-carotene and vitamins C and E, should also help keep your brain in tip-top condition by helping to reduce damaging free radicals (damaging molecules). As you grow older, your brain has lesser capacity to defend itself from daily threats like free radicals, inflammation, and oxidation. That’s why aging people need more nutrition than younger ones.

Free radicals are like cavities to your teeth; they slowly build up if they’re not cleaned out. As the brain cells grow older, they sometimes stop communicating with each other. As an effect, it slows down essential processes like thinking, short-term memory retrieval, and regenerating new cells. Therefore, anti-oxidants are essential to maintain not only good health, but a good memory as well. Good sources of anti-oxidants are:

• Vitamin A and beta-carotene: Carrots, spinach, cantaloupe, winter squash
• Vitamin C: Citrus fruits, broccoli, strawberries, tomatoes

• Scientific research also indicates that eating fish can indeed sharpen your memory. Most fish fat contains the polyunsaturated fatty acid DHA, which performs a significant part in the brain development of young children. Tests show that kids who consume adequate foods containing DHA score better on IQ tests than those who take lesser amounts of DHA. Fish also contains omega-3 fatty acids which opens up new communication centers in the brain’s neurons. This allows your mind to operate at its peak performance. Vitamin E: Nuts, seeds, vegetable oil, wheat germ Studies show that fatty food that causes artheosclerosis (clogging of arteries) are also the same type of food that disrupts neural activities. Cut back on the fat and replace it with foods rich in anti-oxidants. Nothing will replace a well-balanced meal, but to make sure that your body doesn’t lack any of its nutritional needs, it would be a good idea to take food supplements. As the name implies, they’re supplements, and not replacements.

Another significant finding suggests that smoking can affect the ability of the brain to process information properly. Chain smokers have higher risks of impairing their visual and verbal memories. So the next time you think of smoking, remember that it’s not only dangerous to your health, but you are sacrificing your memory functions as well. Caffeine and alcohol causes anxiety and nervousness. This may hamper information from properly entering your mind because memory works best when you are relaxed and focused.

Sharp Memory Factors

Sharp Memory Factors

If someone was to read a list of words to you, it’s most unlikely that you will remember all the words in the list. You’ll be able to recall most of the words at the beginning, some at the middle, and a few at the end. These effects are known as primacy (words at the beginning) and recency (words at the end). The only way that a normal person can effectively recall all of the words in the list, is if he applies a mnemonic technique to help him remember. You’ll also find that it’s easier to recall a word if it’s repeated several times in the list, or if it’s related to the other words in any way, or if it stands out among the other words (for example, the word “ruby” will stand out from a list of vegetables).

To take advantage of your primacy and recency, you must find a middle ground. If you are doing something that requires a lot of thinking and you do this non-stop for hours, you’ll find that the dip in the recall between the primacy and recency can be quite considerable.

If, on the other hand, you stop to take breaks too often, your brain will not really reach its primacy because it keeps on getting interrupted. In a more practical application, instead of continuously studying or working for hours, you might want to try pausing and resting after 30-50 minutes of working, just to give your brain time to refresh itself and to maximize the time when your primacy and recency are balanced.
Contrary to popular belief, being smart is not synonymous to having a good memory or good retention. You don’t have to force yourself to study and understand more in order to improve your memory; the key is actually in your lifestyle, your attitude, your diet, and your habits.