Use That Talent

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me’.

Erma Bombeck

Verywell Mind has an easy intro to memory consolidation and “How Consolidation Turns Short-Term Memories Into Long-Term Ones .” The gist is that when you learn and practice something, your brain will continue to rehearse or recall that information to convert the short-term memories into long-term ones after you’ve physically stopped doing the work. Sleep plays a role in this. If you’ve ever practiced something one day, then woke up the next and found the task a bit easier, that may be attributed to the consolidation process and your brain continually working at it in the background even when you’ve moved on to something else. So, if you find yourself getting frustrated when learning something new, put it down for a bit and let your brain do its thing.

About the author

Erma Bombeck (February 21, 1927 – April 22, 1996) was an American humorist who achieved great popularity for her newspaper humor column describing suburban home life, syndicated from 1965 to 1996. She also published 15 books, most of which became bestsellers.