Today I will share with you five keys to unlocking your memory, as taught to me by my coach and mentor, Jim Kwik.
We all struggle with memorizing certain things. I do struggle to remember certain things. It does not mean that I have a terrible memory; it simply means that I have not been applying some techniques or strategies to help me. If you are struggling to remember certain things and want to learn how to improve your memory, keep reading on to get some strategies to do this. Remember the abbreviation BEMOM, which refers to:
- B = Believe. “If you believe you can, or if you believe you can’t, either way, you are correct – Henry Ford.” For example, if you believe you are too old to remember names, you will be correct and won’t be able to remember names. If you fight for your limitations, you get to keep them. Keep your thoughts, words, and self-talk positive. If you truly know how powerful your mind is, you would not think or say something you don’t want to be true. One negative thought won’t kill, but look for that consistent negative self-talk and change it.
- E = Exercise. Practice makes progress. Becoming limitless is making progress, not perfection. Whatever we repeatedly do, we will get better at it. If we repeat negative self-talk, we will get better at it. Memory requires similar exercise than your body to get better. Habits are powerful.
- M = Motivation. What if I give you a bag of money to remember the next person’s name that you will meet. Will you remember their name? Of course, you will do. What is your motive for taking action? Your ability to remember people’s names has nothing to do with your ability but your motivation. “Reasons reap results” If you don’t have a reason to remember something, then you will not remember that thing. For example, when you meet someone, ask yourself why you want to remember this person’s name? Or why do I want to remember what I just read? Maybe it is to get a referral etc.
- O = Observation. If you scramble the word listen, it spells silent, meaning we mostly have to pay attention when listening. Most of the time, we think about how we will respond; we are talking to ourselves, and we listen to that self-talk. You are not forgetting; you are just not observing, paying attention. To demonstrate how we sometimes are not observing, Jim uses the Shaking hand to chin exercise, which I will speak about more one day.
- M = Methods. This refers to the tactics and strategies on how to remember better. You need to exercise, observe, get motivated, etc., to improve your memory. 80% of success is usually the phycological ability, e.g., your believes, the idea of doing the deep work,
To summarize, The B in BEMOM stands for Believe that you have a good memory. The E means Exercise; you have to do the exercises to get a better memory. The M means you need to understand and be clear about your motive; ask yourself why you want to remember this specific thing. The O stands for Observation, observe, be silent, silence the voice in your head when listening to someone. The M stands for Methods; use the methods and strategies which we will learn about more in later blogs.
What do you think about these five strategies? Will you add more to this, or will you take one away? What do you do to improve your memory? How are you applying these five keys to your everyday life, personal or professional? Let me know; I would love to hear from you—comment in the comment section below.