If I ask you- “Do you have a strong concentration power?” I am 99% sure the answer will be No!
Concentration is like a donkey. The more you push or pull, the more it opposes. Similarly the more you try to force your concentration on a particular subject, the more it will go away from it. The trick to move a donkey is to fasten a carrot in front of him and the donkey will start moving. In the same way we have a trick for concentration which we are going to learn in this article.
When you play guitar or go for a movie, you are able to concentrate for hours; you hardly pay attention to your surroundings. When you are watching a cricket match, you are fully absorbed. Now pit against this, the time when you’re studying; you get distracted even by the music which is being played miles away on a very low volume.
All this means, concentration is nothing but the amount of interest for the activity you are doing.
Remember the golden rule- Learning is dependent on amount of concentration and the amount of concentration is dependent on the amount of interest.
Now comes an imporatant question – How to develop interest in a particular subject?
To answer, this we must know what interest is.
Imagine someone telling you about the duties of an IAS officer.
Whom will you imagine as an IAS officer?
Simple: you should imagine yourself to be performing all those duties.
Our interest is most of the time in the ‘I’ or something associated with ‘I’. We can learn the subject quickly when we associate our-self with the subject.
For example, If you have to learn about early men, approach the lesson like this: “Imagine yourself as early men , living in caves. Discovering fire by rubbing one stone against the other stone. Moving wearing leaves and animal skins.”
If you involve yourself in the chapter you will able to retain it for longer time and can reproduce it after a long time.
