How to become a rare genius in only 30 minutes a day

The science behind ambidexterity and why you should start to learn this extraordinary art form - for business success, interpersonal skills, and personal satisfaction.

Marcus Wiesner

Marketing Mystic - Sales Contrarian 

Husband & Father - Anti-Workaholic Devotional Author - Advertising Copywriter

Written by Marcus Wiesner on June 1st, 2020

In the latter half of the 15th century, a now-famous artist named Leonardo da Vinci embodied the ideals of the Renaissance with his far-reaching genius and his philosophy of learning as much as possible so that he could bring it to bear in his art.

One of his most famous talents was the ability to write forwards and backwards (in mirror image) with both hands.

Some 550-ish years later, I learned how to do the same thing. Now, I wasn’t anything like your traditional Leonardo da Vinci-style genius.

My first “job” after dropping out of high school was “semi-pro guitar teacher,” but that’s about the most artistic I’ve ever been.

Actually, at the time I was starting to become ambidextrous I was working as a salesperson for BMW and Mercedes-Benz… Not exactly an artistic pursuit.

So Why Did I Learn It?

What was my reasoning for learning this difficult talent? I wanted to reprogram my mind.

You see, as someone who has struggled with depression my entire life, working in sales was initially extremely difficult just because of the mental barriers between me and success.

Over the years prior to that, I had tried everything:

- Numerous self-hypnosis sessions

- Repeating affirmations and goals “Think and Grow Rich”-style

- Theater of the mind ala Psycho-Cybernetics

- If you’ve ever read the book The Greatest Salesman in the World, I even followed the instructions of that book “to a T”

So when I heard Matt Fury (the current owner of the Psycho-Cybernetics franchise) talk about this on a CD I was listening to, I instantly perked up and began to listen.

The results spoke for themselves as far as I’m concerned; I can easily affirm that the exercises I will show you in this article will far surpass any results you can get from any of the strategies listed in the bullet points above.

Ready? Let’s get started.

The Amazing Powers of Whole-Brain Thinking

It wasn’t too long after I began learning how to become ambidextrous that I realized something much more amazing and holistic was happening in my life than just the simple act of writing with my left hand.

The biggest things I noticed were improvements in my mood, the ability to learn at a much faster rate, the ability to be much more mindful (almost like the fog in my mind lifted even more), I was much more creative, and I became more flexible in my thinking.

The most interesting thing about all these benefits is the scientific reasons behind them.

Introducing: The Cortical Homunculi

The homunculus on the left is the sensory homunculus (representing sensory nerves) and the homunculus on the right is the motor homunculus (representing motor nerves).

While slightly humorous in a way, this simple model, called the “cortical homunculus,” shows how many of your nerve endings go to each part of your body, by proportion.

This is something every medical student learns about in their first year of college, but most other people never even hear about.

What these models show is that your hands are literally the most effective way of changing your neural pathways, for the simple fact that they connect with more of your brain than any other part of your body.

That’s why learning to become ambidextrous helps you meld right and left brain capabilities to create incredible whole brain synergy. Here’s how it works.

Right brain power

You’ve probably heard that the right brain (the hemisphere of your brain which controls the left side of your body) is associated with intuition, creativity, art, imagination, and emotional intelligence.

That’s probably an oversimplification, but it’s not far off.

Another interesting aspect of the right brain is that it thinks in big pictures and tries to grasp the overall impression, rather than specifics.

Left brain power

While the left brain is extraordinarily important in understanding things like strategy, science, logic, and rational thought.

Just because the right brain is always popularized, doesn’t mean we should forget about the left brain.

This hemisphere of your brain also helps you focus on specifics and details, which are very significant in the race for success – and many other areas of life.

"All together now"

Exercises For Developing Ambidexterity

Cursive writing with your non-dominant hand

Obviously, the “quintessential” ambidextrous exercise is writing with the opposite hand.

But what most people are going to get wrong about writing with the opposite hand is that they are going to print, rather than write in cursive.

This is a huge mistake because if you’re going to make the effort to write with your opposite hand, you may as well “take it all the way.”

…And writing in cursive has been shown to benefit the brains of children more than typing or printing letters.

Why should your brain be any different? Hint: it isn’t.

Cursive teaches your nondominant hand how to flow smoothly between one letter in the next. And I can promise you that smooth, flowing lines are the most difficult to reproduce.

This ensures you get the maximum mileage and growth from the time you set aside for ambidextrous writing each day.

Mirror image writing with both hands

Secondly, since your hands are quite literally the “gateway to your brain,” to get the best overall neural pathway reprogramming, you’ll want to maximize the novel exercises you can do with both of your hands.

This includes writing in mirror image – in other words, backwards – also in cursive. This is something you can be learning to do with both hands at the same time.

Although it sounds difficult, and it is extremely impressive to everyone you tell – it’s actually a lot easier than you think it is.

To get started, all you need to do is simply start on the right-hand side of your page, and work your way towards the left.

I really can’t give you any specific tips or tricks here, yet I think you’ll find once you get started it’s easy for your brain to think in reverse. The most amazing thing is that you’ll literally feel your brain changing and being rewired by this process.

What can you write? Affirmations, sales letters... (and more!)

Now the big question: what should you write, exactly? I’ve got some ideas for you.

Journaling

First of all, you can simply try journaling. The only kind of journaling I’ve ever personally done in the past has been “morning pages,” which I learned from a book called The Artist’s Way.

I don’t believe it really matters whether you do it in the morning, the afternoon, or in the evening – the important part is to write three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing per day.

As stream-of-consciousness would suggest, this kind of journaling can be about anything that comes to mind. The big idea here is to “clear the mechanism,” (as I call it) and free up space in your mind for creativity and innovation to come through in other areas of your life.

Affirmations

Secondly, you might try writing out affirmations that are important to you.

Considering the direct link between your hands and your brain, this should enable you to reprogram your thinking much more quickly even than self-hypnosis, and definitely much faster than repeating affirmations to yourself.

I’ve done all of these, and I can attest writing your affirmations down is the most powerful of the three.

Some of my favorite affirmations are the ones I found on the website for Workaholics Anonymous, a 12-Step Program. Here is the link: http://www.workaholics-anonymous.org/2-uncategorised/37-affirmations

Why do I like these affirmations? They are filled with abundance thinking, particularly about time and about being in control of your work, instead of letting your work control you.

Best of all, they relieve stress while allowing you to improve your productivity at the same time.

Good stuff.

Anyways, here's how you should write out your affirmations:

First, write the affirmation forwards with your non-dominant hand.

Then, write it backwards with your dominant hand.

Third, write it backwards with your non-dominant hand.

Finally, write it forwards with your dominant hand.

That’s four times total, in an order that has an awesome feeling to it.

Sales Letters 

Now, not everyone’s heard of Gary Halbert, but those who have know about something called the 30 day challenge.

One of the ideas Gary pioneered in copywriting was writing out famous ads by hand.

The benefits of this are numerous: you get to feel the pacing, phrasing, and thought behind each word.

A lot of people discount this exercise, but I did it and I was able to quit my job without any copywriting clients in my pipeline and go out and make twice as much as I was at my 9-5 within just a couple weeks.

Part of the reason, I believe, is because I did this exact exercise.

With ambidextrous writing, you can make this an even deeper process by writing sales letters backwards and forwards with both hands.

That’s what I did, you can do it, too.

Your Non-Dominant Hand Can Become Dominant

As a final note, you should know that your nondominant hand can eventually become more dominant than your current favorite side.

It does take lots of practice, and years of it – but you can eventually reach a state where you are fully ambidextrous.

The key is, once you begin to develop confidence with writing – then begin writing with your non-dominant hand primarily, all day long.

Sign papers with it, take notes with it, do EVERYTHING with your non-dominant hand.

Once you make it to that point, you can begin doing everything with the nondominant side of your body. Instead of focusing only on fine motor skills, bring in some gross motor skills as well.

Here are some examples:

- If you play soccer, learn to kick with your left foot.

- Learn to throw and catch a baseball.

- Hold your phone with opposite hand.

- Use your computer mouse with your opposite hand.

- Taking notes while reading. (Holding your book with the opposite hand).

- Put your belt on backwards.

- Pull out a chair for yourself with the opposite hand.

- Put on your clothes with the opposite sleeve or pantleg first.

With all of the exercises in this article, you should be well on your way to a fully ambidextrous lifestyle, and all the numerous benefits it can bring you.

The Wrap Up

Years have passed since I initially started this journey.

Today, I use my left hand primarily, although it still has not become as skilled as my right hand.

However, the effort involved has paid me back in rewards at least 10 times what I put into it – which I cannot say about most other self-improvement strategies.

In particular, being able to develop a high level of emotional intelligence while letting go of overthinking has been extraordinarily profitable in my life, both professional and personal.

You can easily do the same.

With the information now at your disposal, you can develop your brain in a way that is impossible to copy, unparalleled in its effectiveness, and which gives you a holistic, cascading plethora of benefits.

Not only will you have some pretty impressive bragging rights a few years down the road, you’ll be a completely different person – a more whole person, someone who sees challenges from a wide range of perspectives not available to very many people.

You will have, quite literally, evolved. For only the price of a little bit of time and effort.

Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me.

Marcus

P.S. If you are looking for some handwriting tips I did not have space to include in this blog post, simply email me at marcus@wiesneradvertising.com and I’ll send them to you. These are just simple tips (or “hacks,” if you will) to slightly alter the way you write so you can write faster, more effectively, and with better penmanship.

Happy writing, and don't forget to follow, retweet or sign up for my daily email newsletter for more high-caliber tips like these. (You can sign up below or above).