Two-Time USA Memory Champion; memory training expert and memory keynote Ron White shares lessons from TC Cummings' Mind of a Navy SEAL program: “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.†- Jim Rohn (American speaker and author) My friend and mentor, former Navy SEAL T.C. Cummings, has a great definition for discipline – “It’s [...]
Ron White memory guy, Two-Time USA Memory Champion; memory-training expert and memory keynote, shares lessons from TC Cummings Mind of a SEAL program on how discipline techniques can carry over from U.S. Navy SEAL training to everyday life. Take a look around you at the people you admire in business. What sets them apart from [...]
My name is Ron White. I am a two-time USA Memory Champion, memory training expert, and memory keynote speaker. I want to take this opportunity to tell you how proud I am of our Navy Seals, and our country, in light of the recent mission to find and eliminate Osama Bin Ladin’s reign of terrorism. As a nation, and around the world, people are in awe of the discipline, focus and heroism of this elite group of men who were able to accomplish something that has been elusive for almost ten years.
I am Ron White, Two Time USA Memory Champion, memory training expert and memory keynote. I would like to share with you some of the things I learned about Leadership from my good friend and trainer, T.C. Cummings – A Former Navy Seal. This information, and other excellent points on Leadership, can be found in my memory training seminars and “Mind Like A U.S. Navy SEAL†program. First of all I would like to say – Anyone can be a leader! It does not take any special education, or physical attributes. Some are born to lead, with qualities of a leader already encrypted in their DNA. Others can learn it, and develop leadership skills with just a few key lessons to practice.
Two Time USA Memory Champion, memory training expert and memory keynote speaker Ron White would like to share with you some of the things I learned while training for the U.S. Memory Championship, and is now available in my memory training seminars. What we have learned from our first lesson in the “Think Like A Seal†series is to look at things with “Hard Eyes – Soft Eyes,†which means we look at the big picture (Soft Eyes) and then zone in on the details (Hard Eyes). If we are to complete our mission, or goal, we need to focus on what we want as the end result (target), taking in the big picture as well as the details.
With the experience of 2008 behind me I was not focused on becoming the national memory champion. It is no secret that I am proud to be an American and to represent my country in the national tournament for my sport was an enticing idea. My strategy sessions for the 2009 tournament began about two months after the 2008 tournament in May of 2008. My first order of business was to email David Thomas (the former Guinness Record Holder for memorizing pi to 20,000). When I had met David a few months prior at the 2008 USA Memory Championship he said he was willing and ready to share his 'unbeatable' strategy for the tournament with anyone who would listen but no one had ever taken him up on the offer. I certainly wasn't above asking for help and I did just that by emailing David.
To perform under pressure or stress is one of the unique qualities of high achievers. Have you ever known someone with so much talent and skill but in crunch time they just couldn't deliver? Then others who seemed to thrive under pressure and stress? What is the secret? The secret is to keep your nerves in check and remain calm.
I am not going to suggest to you must avoid being stressed, after all it is part of being alive. With that said, you must learn to manage the stress effectively or your memory and health will be shot. If you have a high level of stress over a long period of time it can hurt your brain function in a major way. When you are stressed your body releases a hormone called cortisol.
As a SEAL you will find yourself in frigidly cold waters, muddy grass that you will call a bed or jogging with enough weight in gear that would halt the legs of mere mortals to a crawl. In BUDS, the difference between the men who will become SEALS and those who will ring the bell [...]
The worst enemy to your memory or one of the worst is stress. When you are stressed you will not be able to focus and a lack of focus will kill your memory. When I trained for the USA Memory Championship I hired a former US Navy SEAL, TC Cummings. TC taught me a quote he learned in the SEALs, ‘the more you sweat in times of peace the less you bleed in times of war.'
