All research shows that the world’s great geniuses simply carried on using this Baby Success Formula. They wrote millions of words, painted millions of brush strokes, composed millions of notes, and formulated millions of ideas. They then discarded much of it, and kept the best!
‘Language is the dress of thought.’
Samuel Johnson
There is one other secret principle at which the baby is a world champion:
Persistence
Combined with the love of learning and the making of mistakes, the baby realizes that without persistence, no progress is ever made.
Just think of how many times a baby sometimes tries to pronounce a complex word before getting it finally right; it is sometimes hundreds of ‘failures’.
Does the baby go into a sulk and think something like ‘What’s the point?! I’ve tried thousands of times and still can’t get this bloody word! This language-learning lark is too hard; it’s not for me – I give up!’ Of course not.
The baby uses each mistake as a platform for the next attempt. While doing this it makes a game of the whole thing, relishing the process, and always keeping its eye on the inevitable success of the goal.
‘Language is the armoury of the human mind.’
Coleridge
You are now ready to enter the playground!
Verbal Workout
Word Puzzle Number 3
| tustea | __ __ __ __ XX |
| lapcita | __ __ __ __ X __ X |
| lacyrit | __ __ XX __ __ __ |
| hubog | __ __ __ XX |
Clue: Makes you happy and fit __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
Verbal Intelligence Tip
Always answer the easiest questions first, no matter where they are in the list or linear order you have in front of you.
Why?
Because answering the easiest questions first will allow you to ‘get one under your belt’, your para-conscious brain will realize that there is already less to do than when you started, and this will significantly reduce stress, while simultaneously boosting your confidence.
Secondly, answering these questions first will establish a habit in your brain – the habit of success. And success breeds success!
Word Puzzle Number 4
Insert the word that completes the first word and begins the second.
(Clue: finish)
T R (__ __ __) I V E
Mimic the Best
In exactly the same way that a baby copies those people it considers to be the most powerful and successful (its parents!), copy those experts, public figures, actors, sports personalities or people from your own profession whom you consider to be ‘Top of the Pops’ in the imaginative use of words, as well as in range and clarity.
Make a point of observing and studying them, noting especially interesting words that they use, as well as their methods of delivery.
Play with Words
Remember that one of the baby’s most powerful learning tools is ‘play’. Apply this to the development of your own vocabulary. Mix sections of different words to come up with startling new words and meanings, and enjoy the freedom this gives you. Make up doggerel verse, rhymes and palindromes (phrases that read the same both forwards and backwards – ‘Madam, I’m Adam’ for example!).
Shakespeare, one of the highest Verbal Intelligences the planet has ever known, loved to play with words, and as a result added over 200 new words and expressions that are now common to the global language. Try to catch up with him!
It was this freedom of mind and ability to create that gave rise to the study of Holanthropy, the discipline that arose from my own frustration at not being able to find any discipline in which I could study the whole (Greek ‘holos’) human-being (Greek ‘anthropos’).
Another new word you might enjoy comes from a friend of mine and a teacher of Holanthropy, Lex McKee. A lover of words as well as a musician and artist, Lex had been very happy with the word onomatopoeic (a word whose sound imitates that of the noise or action it describes, such as ‘buzz’). However, he suddenly realized that this word applied only to sound, and as he was also an artist, he wanted a word that appealed also to the sense of vision. He simply took ‘onomatopoeic’, and pasted on to it a preliminary ‘v’, thus creating ‘vonomatopoeic’ – a word meaning ‘sounding and looking like the thing described!
Alphabet fridge magnets are the perfect fun way to explore and make up new words and meanings. What’s more, the entire family can join in, creating more and more words on that wonderful public notice and message board that is many people’s fridge door!
Look Out for Unknown Words!
Keep a constant look out for words of which you don’t know the meaning, and also for words that are completely new.
For many adults, facing the fact that they ‘don’t know’ is disturbing. As a result they tend to try to avoid such situations. If you look at this ‘formula for behaviour’ for a moment, you will realize that it is a formula for disaster! If you only stay safely in areas that are completely known to you, and always avoid those that are not, what will you ever learn?
Nothing!
The baby is exactly the opposite. Why? Because a baby loves not knowing! Not knowing opens up the infinite opportunity for learning fresh, new and exciting things. The baby is purely ignorant, and ignorant (which comes from the Latin ‘ignorare’) simply means ‘to not know’. Realize that the more you know you know, the more you will know that there is still more to know! Approach your pursuit of new and fresh knowledge like a baby does – with enthusiasm and gusto!
Give Your Brain a Healthy Diet
Your brain survives on the four foods of Information, Nutrition, Oxygen and Love. One of your brain’s main sources of information is Vocabulary and Language. Therefore feed your brain a healthy diet of words, making sure that you ‘eat’ regularly, that your ‘diet’ is varied, that you constantly supply yourself with ‘fresh food’ and that you never ‘fast’ for too long. Sometimes it’s good to binge!
Learn From Your Mistakes
As with ignorance, many adults also are discomforted by and afraid of making mistakes, especially with words. They, mistakenly, think that this shows them to be slow, unintelligent and somehow not worthy.
Nothing could be further from the truth!
If you want to learn how to speak any vocabulary brilliantly, learn from the greatest language learners there are – babies and children. They seldom hide in the safety of words they know; their preference is to leap for the stars, and to make as many mistakes as are necessary to get there.
That is why they often prefer hard or ‘more difficult’ words: these give them a better game to play in acquiring them, and often lead to mistakes that are much more humorous and which provide many more belly laughs than the ‘correct’ ones!
We now know that mistakes are not an impediment to learning; mistakes are the golden pathway to learning.
Enjoy all of yours