“Learning and skills are state dependent and your state can be designed controlled and created by you.”
– Ross Jeffries
While re-reading The Game for my next retrospective review, I actually picked up on a pretty useful idea. During a scene where Neil Strauss meets with seduction guru Ross Jeffries, he learns of Jeffries signature method for picking up girls: a psychological gimmick called “anchoring.” Without getting into too much detail, anchoring is a neuro-linguistic programming technique in which an object, emotion, word, or idea is associated with a specific action. In The Game Jeffries anchors a waitress’ feelings of sexual arousal with a sugar packet in hopes that, upon her seeing the sugar packet at some point in the future, she’ll want to sleep with him.
As bizarre as Jeffries idea is, I actually use it… Abet for something different.
Having zero interest in committing hypno-rape, I’ve turned my usage of the anchoring technique towards less morally dubious activities; namely learning Spanish. Whenever I encounter a difficult word, I like to make a specific hand gesture as I speak. I then repeat the word several times, and make the same gesture with each repetition.
For example:
Demasiado, the Spanish word for “too much,”was continually eluding me. Going through my note cards I’d always stall when I reached the word, my brain simply could not retain it. To combat this, I began to make an open palm gesture similar to the universal signal for “stop.”
I practiced saying the word while giving the gesture several times before going back through my note cards. The next time I reached Demasiado my brain still had difficulty remembering the word. Yet when I gave my gesture, I instinctively said it. Since that point, over two weeks ago, I’ve immediately thought of the word Demasiado whenever I’ve give that signal.
I’ve been using the anchoring technique for numerous Spanish words and phrases throughout the month. I’ve also started applying the same concept to my school work, and have noticed a drastic decrease in my required study time.
For anyone attempting to develop a new skill, I highly recommend that you consider learning some basic anchoring techniques.