I read a book recently titled, “Unlimited Memory” by Kevin Horsley. He is a grandmaster in memory. I had no idea there were competitions based on mnemonics and memory, though it does not surprise me.
Mnemonics is defined as a tool that helps us remember large amounts of information and facts. It can be in the form of a rhyme, song, acronym, phrase, sentence or image. It is particularly useful if we need to remember the order of things.
I absolutely love the human brain. It really is a marvelous computer system. I believe it is possible for everyone to have an incredible memory, especially now that I have read this book.
In ‘Unlimited Memory’, there is a quote by Brian Tracy, “The great breakthrough in your life comes when you realize that you can learn anything you need to learn to accomplish any goal that you set for yourself. This means there are no limits on what you can be, have, or do.”
Fantastic! Let us all accomplish what makes us happy. We truly can be, have, or do whatever we like. So what is it that you want to be, or have?
Kevin Horsley explains different exercises you can use to help improve your memory. There were three exercises in particular I really enjoyed and I want to share them with you.
- Car Method
The car method is pretty awesome to use. You use the image of your car to remember different facts or information. Kevin Horsley uses the car method to teach how to remember fourteen super foods. By using images on your car and really seeing and feeling the images, you can remember all the foods based on where you put them on your car. For example, the tires are sweet potatoes! If you want to see how you can do the whole process, you really have to read this amazing book!
- Journey Method
The journey method is the most commonly used process. You can use a building, for example, like your house, to store lots of information. By knowing your home, its layout and all the furniture, you can literally store so much information, it is insane! You can even walk through your home forwards and backwards and recall all of the information in order. Kevin Horsley uses the example of remembering The Daily Dozen from the book Today Matters by John C. Maxwell.
You begin the exercise in the laundry room and move through the house, into the kitchen, living room, bedroom and bathroom. By using markers on a location and a clear image in your head you can be very inventive and remember a whole story around the information and still re-call it. It is super powerful! You should try it. I had so much fun I was laughing while I was learning. Thank you Mr. Horsley!
- Remembering numbers – A number code
I always liked mathematics in school. I remembered formulas because I used to make study sheets. My sheets were based on colors so I could re-call the information easily. I could recall information based on where I had placed formulas on my sheet, as I would draw funky pictures around them. I would remember what color I would use for each formula. It was pretty cool.
I realize now that I was using a lot of what is explained in the Unlimited Memory book. I also agree that now that we have technology and everything gets stored for us, less and less people are remembering information. We have such incredible brain power. I often imagine what would happen if so many people started to use these exercises and store information more efficiently. I often think there would be more confidence in people. More confident people are happy and happy people smile more. With more smiles, there are more happy people!
I digress. Continuing with the exercise of numbers, Dominic O’Brien explains, “Group a list of letters together and you have a word that represents something – an image, an emotion, a person. Throw a few numbers together and you have, well, you have another number.” That is hilarious! What we need to accomplish is to give numbers more meaning.
By changing numbers into words, you can then form images and better remember numbers. Kevin Horsley associates certain letters to numbers. He does this to make words for the numbers he wants to remember. There is also a list of numbers zero to one hundred with words associated with the numbers. If you memorize this list, you instantly can have a string of words to remember a long line of numbers.
I am currently working on remembering the list. I actually used it the other day with my husband. We had gone on a hike and were checking out campgrounds to determine what areas we like best for the coming camping season. We wanted to remember which campgrounds to book when we got home. We put words to the numbered sites and I still remember it right now.
I really urge you to read this book. It was so much fun to go through the exercises and to work on it. It really does work.
Happy remembering!
