Two time USA Memory Champion and Memory Training Expert Ron White shares his thoughts on why everyone should learn how to memorize:
Is learning how to memorize only for memory experts?
Yesterday I was contacted by a national morning television show to discuss memory and they asked me if I could discuss the value of memory training for the average person. In other words, they wanted to know. Is this stuff just good for memory experts or competitions or does it have a real life application to the ever day person? They wanted to know if the average person could even learn how to memorize.
In reality although you may know me for my memory record or USA Memory Championship wins that is not how I earn my income. I do those things to push myself, for fun and of course PR. My source of income, however, is and has been teaching others to use the same memory training techniques I have used to win memory tournaments to apply to their daily life.
If you do learn how to memorize quickly, what can you use the memory training techniques for?
In the USA Memory Championship there is an event of how many names and faces can you memorize in 15 minutes. In the 2011 USA Memory Championship I received my best score ever in this event with 128 names memorized. I was very pleased with this score, although I will go for 175 next year I am sure 🙂
How could you take this memory training skill and apply it to your business? What if you could learn how to memorize names? What would be the value for a salesman to meet a prospect today and 6 months or 6 days later remember that prospect’s name when they saw them out of context at the bank or coffee shop? I tell you what would be the difference – it would be the difference between making a living and making a fortune in sales.
In the World Memory Championship, there is an event of how many historic dates can you memorize in 5 minutes. The events of course are fictional so this is a test of memory and not a test for history buffs. What would the skill of being able to memorize 30 historic dates do for the average history student? What would it mean if a student could learn how to memorize chapters of books? I will tell you the difference – it would mean the difference between studying all not with stress and anxiety or studying in two hours and knowing the information forwards, backwards and in and out of order.
Memory training is not just for the memory champion or memory experts that you see on television. While we do use these techniques in our sport of memory championships. These memory techniques can be used by a business professional to increase sales or productivity or student to improve grades.
Imagine if you could…
– Learn how to memorize Effortlessly chapters of books
– Give speeches confidently from memory
– Quote your favorite poem from memory
– Have a Rolodex of phone numbers in your mental computer
– Learn how to memorize and recall product knowledge
– Study for an exam in less than half the time and get better grades
– Learn a foreign language with 50% the effort and 50% the time
– Beat your friends in cards because you have learned how to memorize what cards have been played. Ha! There I said it 🙂
So to answer the question,’ Are memory training techniques just for the memory expert of the memory champions? ‘Not even close! That is comparable to saying going for a jog is only for the professional athletes. Everyone needs to exercise not just the ones who play professional sports.
So what is your first step? The first step is to find a good memory training program. I of course have my Memory in a Month program and my memory systems. I do believe those are good place to start. However, the real message here is that memory training is not simply for the memory champions and find yourself a good memory system that teaches you how to memorize!