Do you trust your memory skills?
If not, the following story and the memory improvement tips on this page may provide the game changing prompts you’ve been looking for.
You see, I had a meeting recently with one of my best Magnetic Memory Method coaching clients.
While taking with him, I realized that one issue many people have with memorization has nothing to do with mnemonics.
This client completely accepts the memory science and the evidence created by memory champs.
No, my client’s problem was trust. He simply did not believe that memory techniques would actually help him. Him personally.
Now, the problem of lacking faith in all the memory science and all the examples of mnemonists who accomplish many incredibly goals comes in many forms.
First of all, before we even get into memory techniques, many of us don’t develop the mental strength required for the discipline of memory training.
This lack of action is a shame because you can easily start building your mind through all kinds of cognitive exercises and mental fitness routines. The sooner your start developing it, the better.
You see, trust doesn’t appear out of nowhere or arrive all at once. Like each station in a Memory Palace Network built using the method of loci, trust has to be established location by location and station by station.
6 Ways To Build Trust In Your Memory For Using Mnemonics Extraordinarily Well
How do we build trust with our memory?
The first step is simple.
Start small.
I call this approach “lowering the hurdle.”
It is designed to overcome what scientists call cognitive distortion. This happens when people think about themselves in negative ways.
Now, you might be thinking… what does that have to do with “starting small”?
Well, some psychologists have pointed out that “all or nothing thinking” is a form of cognitive distortion. I see it all the time when I coach clients, and also when reading memory forums and comments on my YouTube channel.
Since you literally do have to build your skills with memory techniques one step at a time, you can’t afford all or nothing attitudes. So let’s start by looking at how to start small.
One: Start Small The Optimal Way
It’s easy to say that you should start the optimal way, even thought it’s true.
The hard part is figuring out which way is most optimal for you.
In most cases, I believe that people fail to motivate themselves through the journey to memory mastery simply because they don’t have a clear and achievable goal.
One of the best ways to get one is to write out a vision statement by hand. Then, chart out your plan by reverse engineering the journey backward from the goal.
As someone who used to engage in a lot of “all or nothing” thinking myself, writing vision statements has helped me see the need for step-by-step development. I’ve made so much progress as a result.
I teach different ways to create your vision statement, both in The Victorious Mind and in this YouTube training video:
If you already have a vision, then the next step is where you can start instead.
Two: Get The Best Possible Memory Improvement Books & Courses
Many people dabble.
Worse, they dabble with incomplete information about what memory techniques are and how they work.
Personally, I never stop reading Memory Palace books. Because I want to maintain the faith I have in memory, ongoing research is essential.
It’s not just books about one particular mnemonic strategy that I read either. When Lynne Kelly puts out a new book, like The Knowledge Gene, I read it. Keeping abreast of the topic inspires me and I am able to run more interesting experiments.
The books and memory courses themselves give me new words and terms and concepts to memorize. That’s why it’s such a win-win.
Then, faith in memory continues to build thanks to the next step we’ll discuss.
Three: Deliberate Practice
Consistency is the key to developing and maintaining skills.
There’s an actual way to practice consistently that is better than just being consistent, however. It’s called deliberate practice.
A simple way to get started with this form of practice is to keep a journal in the style suggested by memory athlete Johannes Mallow. Nelson Dellis offers similar practice strategies in his Everest Memory Masterclass.
I also talk a lot about journaling in my books and courses. Using The Freedom Journal helps many people too.
It is easy, fun and only takes a few minutes a day. You’ll find that it’s much easier to make sure that you’re practicing correctly and getting the desired results with full attention to the levers that matter.
Four: Use Multiple Memory Palaces
If you’ve used Memory Palaces before, you’ve probably wondered about how you can extend them, reuse them or even base them on virtual/imaginary locations.
The best answer I’m aware of is to first develop at least one Memory Palace for each letter of the alphabet.
You can also develop one for each digit-pair from 00-99. This is what I would call a PAO System Memory Palace Network.
The point is that you will develop more faith in your memory when you can use a variety of Memory Palaces. If one doesn’t feel right or work very well, you can readily fall back on another.
There are many other benefits to having alphabetically arranged Memory Palaces that I have discussed at length in this video tutorial:
Five: Don’t Always use Memory Palaces
Another way to build trust is to memorize without the use of a Memory Palace. Tansel Ali, a multi-time Australian memory champion has raised this point on my podcast.
I know that such a suggestion might sound unusual coming from me, a guy who is constantly putting out new Memory Palace examples.
But it’s true. If you allow yourself to practice remembering information in a different way from time to time, all of your memory skills grow as a result.
Here’s a great exercise you can do:
Next time you leave your keys somewhere (or go out of your way to leave them somewhere you will easily forget them for the sake of this exercise), hear a huge explosion in your mind, or the sound of crashing glass.
It doesn’t have to be these exact sounds. Just use whatever comes to you as the best possible sound that will help you recall the location. I guarantee that you’ll have no problem remembering where you’ve put them.
You can also use this principle with your wallet, your favorite pair of socks, what have you …
No matter sounds what you use, you’ll find yourself building an amazing level of trust with the power of your mind.
And if you don’t believe that trust is important, check out what memory experts Ron White and Ben Pridmore have to say about trusting your memory (don’t skip this – this tip is huge!):
Six: Visualization Enhancement
Another area where trust comes into play is when it comes to visualization.
Many people don’t trust their minds to come up with the perfect images. They also aren’t using multi-sensory images. These visualization exercises will help. You can also add visualization meditations for an extra boost.
I created them because I used to suffer from Imagination Deficit Disorder myself. I overcame it by looking at a lot of art and taking up drawing. I think mind mapping over the past few years has helped as well.
That, and I regularly practice visualization while reading.
Since then, I’ve been able to visualize with much greater intensity, clarity and memorability (which was the goal).
(I’ve also been able to help a lot of people overcome their aphantasia too.)
But first I had to trust myself in a few different ways:
- Trust that if others can do it, I can too
- Trust that because my mind is produced by a brain, it must be like those other successful brains
- Trust that all evidence shows it’s possible for me to develop my mind
I also had to turn off the negative voice in my head that was telling me I couldn’t learn to draw, that I would never be good at it.
Apart from the science of cognitive distortion I cited above, I don’t know why the human mind says such blatantly negative stuff to some of us.
But I do have reason to believe that there is an on-off/volume switch.
One way to access that off-switch is to imagine a radio dial in your mind and either switch it off completely (the maximalist approach) or simply turn the volume down (the “lower hurdle” approach).
Another way is to use self inquiry questions, two of which I was delighted to share at a TEDx event:
I’ve found that combining all of these approaches works wonders, likely because they amount to multi-layered visualization and auditory exercises.
Give them a try sometime.
You Really Can Learn To Trust Your Memory Skills
Whether a person has trust issues around building Memory Palaces or creating imagery, a major step you can take is to practice relaxation and positive visualization before engaging in memory work.
Until you’ve tried it, you may not realize just how fundamental this step really is to your success.
If you’ve got a Magnetic Memory Method book or belong to the Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass, all the instructions are there.
In sum, it’s a best practice to exercise your memory in a relaxed state. In this state, you’ll find that you have all the trust you need to excel at building Memory Palaces and populating them with words from your target language or terminology from you professional field.
Above all, enjoy the journey. Memory improvement is an incredible adventure and helps make for a much more interesting life.
