"We are all born originals --why is it so many of us die copies?"

A quarter center ago, poet Edward Young bemoaned lack of uniqueness among human beings. If you're interested in developing your originality (and by extension, expanding your self-confidence), concentrate on maximizing your mind And, if you lead a team and want to maximize those multiple minds, share following with colleagues.

Know that you can actually create and fulfill your own successful-meeting prophecy. You can honestly become more brain-powerful. You really can optimize your cognitive capacity. And you can truly maximize your mental operations. First, though, you have to commit to improving your cognitive processes. We recommend spending five-to-ten minutes a day, three days a week. Here are practices to help you recall those phone numbers and contract-details much more easily.

Create a mnemonic device The mind is an amazing organ. This gelatinous mass of a hundred trillion nerve cells , when maximized, can serve meeting-planner well. (The need to facilitate memory goes back thousands of years. From Mnemosyne, Greek goddess of memory, comes word "mnemonics," which is simply use of devices that will help us remember. Think about mnemonic devices you already use (H-O-M-E-S for first letter of each of Great Lakes) and commit to using such a device for better recall of work-related data.

What work-related set of facts/numbers do you wish to remember? Consider acronyms, rhyme, alliteration, visualization, or any other method that works for you, such as noting ending of word "paper" in word "stationery" meaning "paper."

Ever admire those who can rattle facts and figures off top of their head? (Think of how much more productive you'd be if there were certain numbers, statistics, words, addresses that you didn't have to look up every time you needed them.) Ever wonder if brains of such people are superior to your own? They're probably not, except in this regard: those with good memories have trained their brains to work for them. Get started doing same.

What words will they chisel into your tombstone? Oh I know, most people are cremated these days. What I am really saying here is this - when it is all over for you, what will you be remembered for?

What about something like this?

“Here lies Fred Nurk. He was born. He lived. He died.”

Not too impressive is it? You might ask: “What did Fred do all his life? Perhaps somebody in mourning congregation might say a few words to explain meaning of Fred’s life.

“Well, Fred never said much coz Fred hated criticism. And he didn’t do much either coz he couldn’t be bothered. He never married either coz he couldn’t make a commitment. He didn’t work either coz he never found anything worth doing. Shucks, I guess poor old Fred never did anything!”

Why is it that some people achieve so much, while others achieve so little?

This reminds me of a story I heard once where a poor man walked up to a very successful business man and asked:

“What is secret of your success? How do you get so much done?”

The business man replied: “That is answer.”

The poor man scratched his head to which business man said: “I see you are having trouble with my answer but you mentioned answer yourself in your question.”

Again poor man scratched his head.

The business man said: “I am successful because I get so much done.”

The poor man then asked: “How do you do so much?”

The business man replied: “How do you do so little?”

This sounds like Confucianism. But it shows that sometimes, if we are smart enough to ask question, we are already in sight of answer.