Develop A Good Mental Attitude

Anticipate success. "Nothing succeeds like success." In order to succeed you must first believe that you can do it. Everything possible must be done to guarantee success at every step, and to prevent any sense of discouragement or failure from developing. Never even suggest that learning it could be hard. - As for errors, ignore them, except that when they are persistent they merely point out where more practice is needed. With the right approach and right practice you can't fail.

Mental attitude is critical: We should approach every aspect of learning with interest, enthusiasm and a positive "can do" outlook. Anyone who really wants to learn the code can learn it. If you have the ambition to learn it you have the ability to do it. A feeling of confidence is vital to achievement, and must be guarded carefully. "If you think you can, you can."

 

Don't fight negative attitudes, such as anxiety, fear, worry and doubt. But if you do feel any of them, admit it, and then ignore it and let it die of inattention.

 

Make learning fun. Enjoy the learning process itself. When I am so eager to learn that I can hardly wait to get going, how receptive I am and what energy surges up! Watch how youngsters play and learn as they play. They are good models: they're relaxed and having fun. They don't pay any attention to mistakes. Imitate them and enjoy learning the code. That makes it even easier, and more enjoyable.

 

Stage One - Learning the A-B-C's

 

Our first impressions are the strongest and most long lasting. So be sure your very first exposure to the code signals is right - by hearing it. Otherwise, it may raise a roadblock, a "plateau", somewhere along the path which will require us to go back to line one in order to advance.

 

· Code is sound - heard with the ears, not read with the eyes.

· Listen from the very beginning only to perfectly sent code until you have mastered it.

 

To advance rapidly your mind should hear only consistent patterns of sound. This hammers it into the mind, hearing the same character formed exactly the same way each time. Poor quality code will tend to confuse the mind, distract your attention, and slow down your rate of learning.

 

A recent study by Dr. Henry Holcomb of Johns Hopkins University on learning new skills says that after first learning "how to do it", engage in routine activities of some other kind to allow a five hour time period in which no other new skill learning is attempted. He claims that experiments show that it takes about six hours to permanently transfer the new learning from the front brain to permanent storage in the rear brain. This is something to try and see if it helps speed up Morse code learning. He also added something we already should know: that it takes lots of practice to learn rapid, complex, and precise hand motor-skills.

 

Develop a sustained attention. Attention to the thing in hand is the starting point of all learning.

 

· identify what needs attention, and

· do that, focusing on it alone, and

· do it early in the practice period when energy levels are highest.

 

The more interesting the subject is, the easier it will be to concentrate on it. Direct your mind to go where you want it to go by stimulating your interest.

 

A stop-start technique will help you gain control of your attention span and lengthen it. It works this way: When attention lags, don't fight it, but stop all thoughts and clear the mind, then let your interest and enthusiasm start it up again fresh and naturally. If the distraction is one that you can identify, clear the mind by either settling it at once, or by setting it aside to handle later.

 

It is impossible to try NOT to attend to something, such as a distraction. Attention to it will only make it more distracting.

 

It has been suggested that the mind resembles a portable built-in computer, but it is far superior. It can do feats of information processing and recall unequaled by the largest computers. First we must debug it and get rid of any old bad attitudes about the code and replace them with a positive "can do" and "enjoy it" outlook. Next, feed it with a "lookup" table of sound-equivalents for the various characters, and we're in business: an automatic motor-response to the audio signals: we hear didah and immediately visualize and write "A". Don't put an artificial limit on your speed of comprehension.

 

 

Stage Two - Practice

 

Once the fundamentals are well in hand and our speed is increasing, we need to apply pressure in short bursts in order to advance. At this stage begin with a few minutes of warm-up at a comfortable speed, and then use familiar materials to try for a burst of speed for a minute or two at first. Keep it short to minimize the discomfort. Then drop back to a more comfortable speed, and you will find the mind responding faster.

 

Avoid practicing when too tired, ill, or all upset and distracted - little or nothing will be gained and it may even discourage you.

 

It takes time for associations to develop. Be patient and learn at your own rate. Some days will be better than others for various reasons. Progress will not be uniform, but that should not bother you because you know about it beforehand. When you feel good and can enjoy it you will advance the fastest. On days when you don't feel very good it is best not to push, but rather to work at a comfortable level which will give you some sense of accomplishment.

 

As these processes improve, conscious thinking tends to drift away, and we need to keep the mind focussed on what we are doing in order to advance. But ultimately, conscious thinking must be completely eliminated and response become automatic (we no longer even think of the code itself). That's proficiency.

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