30 ways to increase your mental capacity

Want to increase your mental capacity?  Do things outside of your comfort zone

This is a writeup of a recent article in Life Optimizer, entitled “30 Ways to Increase Your Mental Capacity”.

If you want to grow in life, increasing your mental capacity is a must. By increasing your mental capacity, you will be able to handle more things and assume larger responsibilities.

 

Increasing your physical capability
To increase your physical capability, you train yourself  to lift heavier and heavier weights.   You should be able to lift heavier weights effortlessly while those with less capability will tire themselves out or even not be able to lift it at all.

 

Are you training your mental muscles?
The way to increase your mental capacity by training your mental muscles is similar to increasing your physical capability:
So, how should you train your mental muscles to increase your mental capacity?  Do that by doing things which are just outside your comfort zone.

 

This will introduce some inconvenience in your life, but only in a bearable way. As a result, your mental muscles will grow stronger and your mental capacity will increase.

To help you put it into practice, here are 30 ways to do things which are just outside your comfort zone to increase your mental capacity:

1. When someone asks you to do something, make your default answer “yes” (but don’t forget to say “no”when appropriate).
2. In a gathering (class, conference, etc.), sit next to someone you do not know.
3. Visit a place you normally wouldn’t visit (museum, monument, national park, etc.).
4. Eat at a new place.
5. Try a new kind of food.
6. Go to a conference or seminar in a topic you are not familiar with.
7. Email or call an old friend you haven’t seen for a long time.
8. Initiate conversation with someone you don’t know.
9. Find the most unpleasant task in your to-do list and do it first.
10. Email or message someone you don’t know and initiate a friendship.
11. Learn a new hobby.
12. Learn a foreign language.
13. Join a new club and interact with the people there.
14. Practice an art you normally wouldn’t do (painting, music, etc.).
15. Learn a new musical instrument.
16. Dare to ask. This is in order to familiarize yourself with rejection.
17. Read fiction if you normally read non-fiction, and vice versa.
18. Read a new author.
19. Read an old book.
20. Visit a new genre of blogs.
21. Find friends from a new country (i.e. a country from which you haven’t had any friends before).
22. Find friends from different professions.
23. Volunteer for activities conducted by your social or business group.
24. Do your groceries at a different store.
25. Take a different route to work.
26. Attend an art festival.
27. Listen to a new genre of music.
28. In a bookstore or library, browse books in a section you wouldn’t normally visit.
29. Watch a new genre of movies.
30. Read history more than news.

 

Not only will this be good for you, increasing your self-confidence, but it will also prevent you from getting “Hardening of the Attitudes”.

 

I hope you have enjoyed this writeup.  If you can use any of these suggestions, please let us know by leaving a comment below.

 

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