Tansel Ali

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:22:05
Unknown
Flow. Unleashed. Unleashed. Unleashed. Do you feel that your memory is one of your greatest assets? Or do you feel that your memory lets you down?

00:00:22:07 - 00:00:49:20
Unknown
Welcome to flow unleashed. I'm Doctor Cameron Norsworthy scientist and High-Performance coach to multiple world champions. In this show, we unpack key insights and specific topics so that you are kept up to date with the latest science and practice of human performance.

00:00:49:22 - 00:01:17:17
Unknown
First up. BA ba ba ba ba ba ba ba. Whether it is achieving good grades, wanting to pass an exam, or remembering what we were supposed to buy at the shops, we all depend on our memory. The problem is that we forget things no matter who we are. Even a world champion memory athlete. We all struggle sometimes to remember something that we think we should know.

00:01:17:19 - 00:01:45:14
Unknown
We hesitate in our exams, stumble in our conversation, or walk up and down the supermarket aisle wondering what on earth we were supposed to be by. When we can't access our memory. We get distracted and this conflict disrupts our flow. Moreover, it is often followed by our inner critic jumping in to beat herself up and to tell ourselves that we should be better and have a better memory.

00:01:45:16 - 00:02:13:05
Unknown
It can be frustrating. For example, forgetting someone's name can be embarrassing. Forgetting names, dates, and figures for exams can be stressful. Or forgetting the phone number of someone you fancy. He screamed it out to you at the last minute as they were whisked away. Can be soul destroying. I exaggerate, but not remembering important information can in some cases be life changing.

00:02:13:10 - 00:02:38:00
Unknown
If our career is depending on a recall at that moment. On the other hand, having the ability to remember things quickly is a handy skill to have in our back pocket. Which brings me to the life story of Tencel. Elie Tencel was a young Australian man who often berated himself for having a bad memory. I used to have a terrible memory.

00:02:38:04 - 00:03:12:07
Unknown
I'd forget people's names, conversations, numbers and even had difficulties retaining what I just read, he says. His acceptance of his bad memory was a matter of fact in his mind. It affected his ability to listen, learn and be attentive to the detail of everyday Tencel recalls. Even the bass player in the band I was playing in at the time was constantly frustrated with me, as I could not for the life of me, remember notes and chords on the guitar.

00:03:12:09 - 00:03:44:03
Unknown
Tensor grew increasingly frustrated with his memory as it was limiting his learning and progression. He even had to repeat a module several times at university, delaying his graduation as he could not recall all the information he had to on demand. All the hours of cramming and rote learning didn't work, no matter how many hours he spent. Then one day, a friend of tensors came to him, saying that he could memorize a random list of 40 words in a matter of minutes.

00:03:44:05 - 00:04:09:16
Unknown
Skeptical, Tunsil played along and tested him to his amazement. His friend nailed it. He recalled a random list of 40 words, as if he had weeks to memorize them. Inquiring about how he did it, his friend said that he had learned some memory techniques from a book, but he couldn't remember the name of the book. Soon after, Tan's life took a turn for the worst.

00:04:09:18 - 00:04:36:01
Unknown
He was rushed into hospital in extreme pain and was advised by the surgeon that if he hadn't had the surgery on time, he would have died. 31 staples down his chest later, Tengo found himself in hospital with a lot of time on his hands, so he picked up his newfound interest in memory training, starting with trying to remember the sequence of a pack of cards.

00:04:36:03 - 00:05:03:22
Unknown
Years later, tango could memorize the sequence of a newly shuffled deck of cards in only a couple of minutes. In testing his newfound abilities. Tensor had one social media video go viral when he recalled the text from not one but two Yellow Pages. Phonebooks. In an awe inspiring feat a memory he memorized over 20,000 digits live on video.

00:05:03:24 - 00:05:34:24
Unknown
And today he is now an international bestselling author, four time national champion in memory and an experienced memory coach. I'm delighted to say that Tanzer himself is our guest today, and here to chat about how he can help you improve your memory. Welcome, Tetsu. Thanks for having me Cameron. I'm super excited to chat to you today and I'm curious, what does the World Memory Champion actually look like?

00:05:34:24 - 00:06:02:16
Unknown
Like, what do they ask you to do? It depends where it is in the world, I guess. Now. But when I was competing, it was essentially ten events. And the events were mixed, like random shuffle decks of cards to memorize. And you have one hour to memorize, you know, a thousand digits. The numbers. And you also have things like random names and faces, binary digits, zeros and ones, decimal digits, random abstract images, and so on.

00:06:02:16 - 00:06:22:24
Unknown
So essentially, whoever can memorize the most wins. That's the competition. And do they throw any curveballs in there for you? No they don't. The events are pretty much the same all the time. So people are used to them. So it's just about getting better and better each of those events and trying to smack each other out. I guess.

00:06:23:01 - 00:06:49:07
Unknown
So you achieved a grandmaster of memory Know Him, which is a special international achievement for memory, for memorizing a randomly shuffled deck of cards in under three minutes. How on earth did you do that? Yeah, look, it's just based on techniques, right? People think of memory as in, it's this innate ability. You're gifted. But really, all I did was learn a few techniques and apply them.

00:06:49:09 - 00:07:09:23
Unknown
I mean, now you have people memorizing a deck of cards in 12 seconds. Wow. So this is insane. Like when I did it under three minutes. Not many people have achieved that in the world, right? And now that was 22 years ago. So, you know, now people have different strategies to just get faster and faster and faster. So really it's all about strategy.

00:07:09:24 - 00:07:30:04
Unknown
It's all about techniques and how much you train really at the end of the day. So when I try to remember something, I normally this is the way I do it. I normally order my list with my body, right. So I know my body really, really well. So if I'm going to the shops, for example, I kind of go, okay, I need some passes.

00:07:30:04 - 00:07:55:11
Unknown
So I imagine my hair being pasta and then I go, I need some cucumber. And then I imagine my eyebrows being a cucumber and this one being a courgette or something, and I sort of map my list to my body, which I know really well. Is that a common technique? Yeah. In fact, pretty much all the techniques in the competition are based on similar styles really.

00:07:55:16 - 00:08:16:21
Unknown
We use a technique called the Memory Palace, otherwise known as a method of low key. And it's essentially going to familiar locations around, say a familiar point, say could be around your house. So it could be walking down the street or your workplace, wherever it is, and then finding those locations like you've done around your body. But this is just going around places.

00:08:16:21 - 00:08:34:17
Unknown
So it could be like, I'm in a meeting room now, I've got a whiteboard, then the next location could be a TV, next location could be the chair, next location could be a window, and so on. So we just map these out. And then when we have things to remember, we connect them to these locations. Because the locations stay the same.

00:08:34:19 - 00:08:59:08
Unknown
Right. But the information to remember are different. So all we're doing is we're making those connections using storytelling. And that's how we remember stuff. How come how does the mind. Well, why do we have to do that and how come that works so well? Well, the reason is that if we don't do that, then whatever we try and memorize or if we repeat it inside our head, there is no holding spot for it.

00:08:59:10 - 00:09:20:01
Unknown
It's like, think of files on a computer, right? You don't just chuck them all on your desktop, right? There's folders. So if there's no folders and you just had thousands of thousands of files on your desktop, it'll be a challenge to just sort through everything. But if you have folders inside your head and you put the information in there, guess what?

00:09:20:07 - 00:09:44:15
Unknown
It's easy to retrieve. And we can organize those folders too. Like, you're not going to put your photos in your text folder, right? And so on. So it's going to be organized. So we can do this in our mind so that it's just easier for retrieval. So let's start with something simple. How would you help someone remember people's names that they've just been introduced.

00:09:44:17 - 00:10:04:12
Unknown
Yeah. Names is an easy one because it's all about visual encoding, right? When I say it's easy, it's actually the hardest. Sorry. It's easy to create the image, but it still takes a lot of time. So for example, your name Cameron. Right. I could just picture a camera. So I just made up some sort of a word that's connecting to your name.

00:10:04:17 - 00:10:28:11
Unknown
Right. There's the image. Now, what I have to do is actually tell a story. Right? So I imagine you fixing your camera lens too, while trying to speak to me using this podcast, right. So I can visualize that. And the more detail I add into that story, the better I can remember as well. So if you made, for example, a Sandra picture said, you know, hair, right?

00:10:28:11 - 00:10:58:03
Unknown
If you picture a John picture of them in the toilet. Right? So there's so many things you can do with just word association. That's all it is. But the difficulty there is that it might take you quite some time. I'm talking about seconds here to create an association and then make the story. But the difference between me and everyone else is that as memory athletes, we can do this within split seconds of creating an association, an image, because that's what the competitions are.

00:10:58:05 - 00:11:27:06
Unknown
Yeah, I love the word memory athlete. How often when you were competing how often would you train? It depends. I mean, when I first started, I would train for hours and hours and hours because I was so crap and I kept making mistakes over and over and over again. It was frustrating. But, as you get better and better, you start to just like any other sort of physical athlete, you start to understand what how efficiency works and how your body works and your mind works.

00:11:27:06 - 00:11:49:07
Unknown
So you know when not to train as well and to relax your brain so that when you do get back into it again, you're a bit more in tune and clear and concentrated. So it would really depend. Sometimes it would be like ten minutes in a day, and sometimes it would be ten minutes a week even. Like there's not much to it and there's different elements of training as well.

00:11:49:09 - 00:12:13:08
Unknown
And this is essentially what I do with my clients as well with who I work with is I did two lots of trainings. I do scheduled training and unscheduled training. So schedule training is like you put in the calendar. It's like 2 p.m. on Monday. I'm doing this exercise or 5 p.m. Friday. Do these whatever. Right. So scheduling that the unscheduled is if I'm speaking to someone, for example, during my work day, all right.

00:12:13:08 - 00:12:39:18
Unknown
I can use my visual encoding to try and understand what they're saying a lot better. Right? Or if I'm reading something, reading an email, it's like, okay, I can use the skills now to make that email pop in my mind, right? So, indirectly training my mind as well. So there'll be a lot of those elements. And if you combine both of them together, I mean, now there's hours and hours and hours of training without even, you know, knowing about it mostly.

00:12:39:18 - 00:13:00:20
Unknown
So I guess that's the benefit. Yeah. And it's something that you can train most athletes. I guess if we take away the visualization point of view, which I don't want to take away because it's a huge component of actually training, but there's a physical limitation, I guess you can practice throughout the day pretty much all the day until you get bored with it, which is quite nice.

00:13:01:00 - 00:13:20:20
Unknown
So how big is the circuit and the competition look? It's pretty big. I mean, I've been out of it for a while now, but it's just more and more people are jumping on board. I mean, I train other athletes now for competitions around the world, and the records are getting more ridiculous. Like I said, 12 seconds for a deck of cards is insane.

00:13:20:21 - 00:13:44:00
Unknown
I can't even flip that fast. But how they memorizing is, I understand how they're doing it. It's just, yeah, it's insane of how quick they can process. It's in their brain. But a lot of people are out there, young and old, mostly young people. Because it's funny, it seems very nerdy, but it's very gamified. Memory training is gamified, so the competitions are essentially just games, right?

00:13:44:00 - 00:14:04:05
Unknown
And people play against each other. So people think of memory as, you know, I have to learn these skills and it's all about learning. Well, as you know, learning increases your cortisol levels. So it sort of becomes stressful, right? Learning something is stressful. And then if something stressful, then you've got less opportunity to try and remember things or learn from it.

00:14:04:05 - 00:14:24:00
Unknown
Right. Because you're constantly exhausted. But and then dopamine goes down. Right. But because memory training is gamified, right. Competitions are games. People get this dopamine hit. So you just do it more and more and you want more and more of it. And what happens is he get so good at memory without even realizing. Right. And that's the thing.

00:14:24:00 - 00:14:40:19
Unknown
And then when you go to do the real life applications, like if you want to learn a language or if you want to memorize a speech or lines, if you're an actor or whatever, it's just it's almost natural because you're so good at that memory game. And speaking of memory games, take me to the Memory Palace method you mentioned.

00:14:40:21 - 00:15:02:02
Unknown
Yeah, the memory palace. I'll give you an example of my one of my memory palaces. Right. It's around my house, so I'll give you a, I guess, a quick rundown of how it works. Right. So first you get a list locations down for a familiar path. So my home would be like my first location. I'm going to start from the front of the house, so I'll have a front fence.

00:15:02:04 - 00:15:25:14
Unknown
My location two might be my car which is parked in the driveway. Location three is my front door. Location four is my bedroom. But instead of saying bedroom, there's a ton of items in my bedroom that I can use, right? So I'll say number four could be the window in the bedroom. Number five is my actual bed. Number six is, you know, my shower, seven is a sink, eight is a toilet, and so on.

00:15:25:16 - 00:15:50:21
Unknown
Right. And I can create as many locations as I want. I mean, I've got 60 around my house, but in some places where I just walk down the street, I've got 300, right? Because I go into petrol stations and McDonald's and all these other familiar pathways that I've spent my childhood, you know, walking down. So once you've got those locations and then if you want to remember something, right, let's say words, for example, we attach to these locations.

00:15:50:21 - 00:16:11:19
Unknown
So for example, if we have the word trampoline, right. That's the first word that comes up. We can connect trampoline to my front fence. Right. So imagine people are jumping on my fence thinking it's a trampoline and maybe getting impaled or something like that. You know, the more gross and more memorable you can make, and obviously the more you're going to remember right?

00:16:11:21 - 00:16:28:21
Unknown
And then the second word comes up and let's say it's a cat, right? So there's a cat on top of my car, right? And it's doing its thing. Say the more ridiculous I make it, the easier I can remember it. And then the third location, I'll say mobile phone people are throwing mobile phones at my front door.

00:16:28:23 - 00:16:48:09
Unknown
Right. It's making a beeping sound or whatever it is, and an all I do is just go to each location with whatever I need to remember and make a story, and that's pretty much it. Yeah, amazing. I guess when we think about our childhood memories or our memories from growing up, I think the brain first and foremost goes to the location.

00:16:48:09 - 00:17:15:06
Unknown
I remember being in the house, and then I remember my dad talking to me and how I felt about that situation and X, Y, and Z. So that kind of location, I guess contextual component. But we're now reverse engineering by adding to the memory, helps us to remember it more accurately. So correct. Location where you as a child is just a trigger, I guess.

00:17:15:06 - 00:17:34:24
Unknown
And, that's what we're dealing with. But what you mentioned there just triggers to the memory, right? If you walk past a certain place and you go, oh, yeah, this is where I first had my first kiss or whatever, right? That location is a trigger. So yeah, similar to what you said and what we did with the words earlier, the location is just a trigger.

00:17:35:01 - 00:17:56:17
Unknown
And you mentioned the more outlandish it is, the easier we will remember it, which I love and I totally relate to at times where I've, I've actually you talked earlier about remembering people's names, and I have used that, and I tend to make it as outlandish as possible. And the the challenge comes about stopping myself laughing when I meet new people.

00:17:56:19 - 00:18:18:10
Unknown
Why is that? Why does it become so sticky if we make it more outlandish? Well, it stands out in your mind. I mean, if you just said John and those were what's he association for, John? I mean, a toilet, right. If you just picture John toilet, I mean, it's kind of funny, right? But there's nothing happening. It's static.

00:18:18:12 - 00:18:41:22
Unknown
But if he's on the toilet, gets sucked in, or is reading a paper and, I don't know, he's cracking jokes, are laughing to himself now, building that narrative. And it's memorable, right? So our brain remembers stories, not just static images, right? We can use static images. We can make the images memorable. But if we have a story built in, then it just engages our brain.

00:18:41:22 - 00:19:05:14
Unknown
I mean, you look at the best speakers in the world, they tell stories, right? And often straight up they still tell stories. Why? So you can get that initial straight up engagement from people. Once they're engaged, then they can just say whatever crap there is. I mean, people already hooked him, right? So yeah, stories are very powerful. And what's the chunking method that I've heard you talk about helping people to speed read?

00:19:05:16 - 00:19:31:11
Unknown
What's the chunking method all about? Speed reading is essentially being able to read visually. That's what it simply is. And if you can read visually, then you can read a lot faster. So people think speed reading is like skipping words and skimming and so on. But it's not. It's you actually read everything, but instead of reading it, you're essentially looking at the words, you're looking at them.

00:19:31:11 - 00:19:56:21
Unknown
So for example, if it says, today I went to the zoo, right? We only get a picture at the end of that sentence, right? And that's if we do get a picture. Sometimes we don't because we're dealing with abstract technical content. Right. Whereas if all us, use speed reading techniques, I use my finger, for example, and got along that sentence and visualize it as it's happening.

00:19:56:24 - 00:20:21:15
Unknown
Then then I can actually see myself heading to the zoo, right? Instead of just looking at a whole bunch of words. So what chunking is, is essentially grabbing groups of words together that build context. So instead of reading word by word, you're reading in groups of words that make sense. Right? So today I went, okay, that's a bit of context to the zoo.

00:20:21:16 - 00:20:46:23
Unknown
That's another context. So that's two real images in my head as opposed to how many words there were. Nice. And often when we're using our periphery vision, in that sense, we're looking at one word, but actually absorbing the words either side of it. When we use that periphery vision that kind of connects more with our explicit cognition system and, and often has a greater connection to the more associative type stuff as well.

00:20:47:00 - 00:21:07:06
Unknown
Does that improve the more we use it? Do we kind of end up picking it up faster, faster, faster, faster? Or is it more something where you either have it or you don't? Yeah. I mean, I had a shocking memory, so, as I learned it, I mean, I was horrible, even when I did do really well in Australia and competing.

00:21:07:06 - 00:21:28:13
Unknown
So it's something that you just get better and better. Like if you do exercises right, you're going to find a better way to lift the weights. You're going to find better form and better technique. And it's the same thing with memorizing, right? You're going to find better ways to be able to tackle that problem. And the more you do it, the better you get.

00:21:28:13 - 00:21:45:06
Unknown
It's like riding a bike. I mean, when you first learn you're going to be wobbling a bit, but then it's like, oh yeah, I can ride it, but I still have to be conscious now I can ride and chuck wheelies or whatever, do all that sort of stuff. So once you get a hold of these techniques and you keep practicing, you get better and better.

00:21:45:06 - 00:22:11:04
Unknown
Now it's not about, oh yeah, I can do these techniques about, well, okay, how can I utilize this in my everyday life? How can I use it to my advantage? And that's where the real skill of memory comes in. It's not being able to do it. It's like, well, how could I use it so I can improve my career or help others, even?

00:22:11:06 - 00:22:36:18
Unknown
So why is it that we can recall every word from our favorite song, that struggle to remember what our partner said to us yesterday? We can remember the details of the house, streets, and town we grew up in, even if it has been decades since our return. How is it possible? How does the brain store and remember information?

00:22:36:20 - 00:23:08:20
Unknown
From what we understand today, memories occur when the brain activates specific groups of neurons every time the brain gets triggered by something. This could be a word smell, color, feeling, or location. The brain sets off a string of electrical signals in the brain that travel down various pathways to access a certain memory. The electrical activity in the brain activates a specific pattern of neural pathways that allow access to the stored memory.

00:23:08:22 - 00:23:51:08
Unknown
Through theories with us from the Department of Psychology, Mount Allison University in Canada outlines in the frontiers in Human Neuroscience journal that there are two types of memory consolidation processes cellular consolidation and system consolidation. Cellular consolidation is the process of stabilizing information by strengthening synaptic connections. Whilst system consolidation models suggest that memories are initially stored in the hippocampus region of the brain and are gradually consolidated into the neocortex area of the brain over time.

00:23:51:13 - 00:24:29:18
Unknown
For long term memory. The process of creating a memory is a multifaceted cognitive process that involves different stages firstly encoding, then consolidation, recovery and recall. Consolidation. The first stage encoding is the process of creating and storing information into a memory. To remember one encoded information more than another, the brain works to make this encoding process complex and comprehensive or as I might say, sticky.

00:24:29:20 - 00:25:10:06
Unknown
To retain information over time, we need to encode the information into a more stable form of memory. This means converting the incoming sensory input into a neural code that we can then store and retrieve for a later date. The strength of our memory therefore depends on the strength of these pathways and the new connections between the pathways. The strength and durability of this coding process is influenced heavily by a range of factors, such as the focus we give it, emotional significance, repetition, and relevance.

00:25:10:08 - 00:25:47:16
Unknown
To understand how to reverse engineer memory, it also helps to realize that encoding can happen in a number of different ways. That can alter the strength of these pathways. For example, a memory retains the information we gather through auditory stimuli. Auditory encoding utilizes aspects such as pitch, tone, or rhythm to help encode the information equally. Iconic memory retains the information we gather through sight, like the coding of visual features such as shapes, textures, or colors of notes.

00:25:47:16 - 00:26:28:09
Unknown
The brain also encodes information semantically based on the meaning of the information. This semantic encoding is often formed through making the information relevant and important. It is a form of encoding that the brain finds very easy. These types of encoding are not mutually exclusive, depending on whether the information came from a visual, auditory, olfactory, or tactile input or a multitude of these mediums, the memory can become more or less sticky the more in-depth and more multifaceted each encoding becomes, the stronger the memory.

00:26:28:11 - 00:26:53:14
Unknown
Take, for example, a text message you receive from a delivery company about a package that you have been waiting for. Initially. We encode the delivery details in the time of delivery visually as we read it. Then, as we realize that the text is confirming the special delivery of a surprise present for our friend that took many hours to choose.

00:26:53:16 - 00:27:32:04
Unknown
And in this recall, we also trigger a sense of excitement and anticipation to see their reaction. When we give them the present, we start to encode the original text message semantically. Then, as we repeat the time of the delivery to our self out loud to ensure that we don't miss it, we also encode the information acoustically. Together. This multisensory and semantic coding makes the information in the text message very sticky and strengthens the neural pathways that are needed to access and remember the time of arrival and the details on the delivery note.

00:27:32:06 - 00:28:10:06
Unknown
And once this information is encoded, the process of consolidation occurs. Consolidation helps to increase memory resistance to interference and decay. The consolidation process includes the stabilization and integration of memory. It involves the process of moving the memory from short term memory to long term memory through a hippocampal neocortical binding process, thus incorporating newly acquired information into existing cognitive schemata.

00:28:10:08 - 00:28:48:15
Unknown
If completed correctly, this consolidation process creates enduring structural modifications in the brain. As Blake Richards, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, explains so the ultimate question at the cellular level as to whether or not a memory gets stored is does that process actually complete properly to all the molecular signals get transmitted to ensure this, that the cell changes physically?

00:28:48:17 - 00:29:23:02
Unknown
This consolidation process, possibly more than any other, is most sensitive to the interference of stress and fatigue. If sleep quality is low, for example, the structural modifications at the cellular level may not complete, and since much of our memory consolidation occurs when we sleep, memory consolidation, reconsolidation, and synaptic downscaling cannot occur if we do not have sufficient non rapid eye movement or rapid eye movement.

00:29:23:02 - 00:29:59:13
Unknown
REM sleep sleep quality is critical to the formation of our memory. Once consolidated to remember we have to retrieve the information and to do so. Memory retrieval involves accessing, selecting and reactivating or reconstructing the stored memory. The more connections, the stronger the link and the faster access we have to the memory. And this is where the opportunity to aid this process and improve our memory recall enters the process.

00:29:59:15 - 00:30:48:14
Unknown
If we can create more contextual or sensory retrieval cues in the encoding process and become more familiar with these cues, then the retrieval process becomes radically faster. Conversely, if these keys are not embedded and the encoding process is not sticky, forgetting occurs as there are an inadequate number of associated memory traces to activate upon the recall attempt. Whilst we may be frustrated forgetting something every once in a while, it is important to remember that forgetting is a very natural process as the brain tries to update itself and prioritize information, some researchers suggest that we forget 90% of the information within a week if we don't try to retain it.

00:30:48:16 - 00:31:18:20
Unknown
Forgetting can occur not just from encoding failure or retrieval failure, but also from memory decay, as old pathways are not reinforced or from interference as similar memories compete for retrieval, or when new memories overwrite old ones. Or we forget sometimes because the brain actively works to forget memories such as disturbing or traumatic experiences. This is also known as motivated forgetting.

00:31:18:22 - 00:31:44:24
Unknown
Okay, time to get back to being a bit more practical with tangible. So what are some of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to remember something, or even actively trying to improve their memory? Yeah, I like that question. With memory, it's all about, again, two things really creating an image. So encoding. Right. So you got something that's abstract right.

00:31:44:24 - 00:32:05:10
Unknown
It doesn't make any sense. Well how do I create an image from it. Names is a classic example right. That I gave camera and camera thing. Okay I've made that image right. Often people don't know how to make that image clear in their minds or they just can't do it. So that's one issue. When I say that can't do it, they can, but it's very weak.

00:32:05:15 - 00:32:28:20
Unknown
You know, when I say it's weak, it's like camera, but you can't really visualize a camera, right? Whereas if I come up with my own personal camera or my iPhone camera now, it's something specific. I can sort of put an image to it. Right? So it's just about ambiguous images creation. So that's one mistake. People can make. The other mistake is the storytelling part, right?

00:32:28:20 - 00:32:48:00
Unknown
If I've got camera, well that's great. Now I have to connect that story to your name, right? Or to your face. How do I make a story with camera and your face? And I gave the example before, if you're trying to fix your lens from your camera, I can see you maybe shaking the screen or something like that, getting frustrated, banging on your camera.

00:32:48:02 - 00:33:09:04
Unknown
For me, it comes instantly because I've been doing it for over 22 years. But for a lot of people, if they don't have the skill of storytelling, then it's going to either take them a very long time or they'll just put their hands in the air like, I don't know. And that's where I come in and help people out as well to speed up the processing for the storytelling and the image creation as well.

00:33:09:06 - 00:33:46:04
Unknown
Fascinating. The more senses we use to create that story does that help? We talked about the Memory Palace and people going on the fence, and I imagine if someone's using the fence as your trampoline and they've hurt their ass and suddenly you bring like a sharp pain, that sort of sensation of pain with it. Or you saw me frustrated with my camera and you associate that emotion of frustration and with if we kind of mix in smells and tastes and touch does that, then create a better fabricated story and a more complete memory?

00:33:46:06 - 00:34:11:17
Unknown
Yeah, absolutely. And that's one of the the key things that I first talk to people about when they're getting to memory is the foundation. Skills of memory is essentially that. How can you strengthen an image and a story using all your senses, using movement, using even yourself? Because if you don't use yourself and you picture someone else, it's you can't really use your senses that much, right?

00:34:11:17 - 00:34:28:04
Unknown
Whereas if you cut your hand, it's like, yeah, I might get grossed out, but if I cut my hand, I'm going to feel it right? So people can't tell. The brain can tell what's real and what's not right. That's why people get scared from horror movies or we know it's not real. But why does that happen? Because our brain can't differentiate.

00:34:28:04 - 00:34:53:11
Unknown
So if you can feel something, if you can use your senses, but it's so much more memorable as well. And what are the common difficulties people have, like you've coached for years, decades? What are the common difficulties? You see people struggle with? Yeah, a lot of it is information overload people have. There's so much going on in people's lives, work.

00:34:53:13 - 00:35:15:13
Unknown
It's not like I don't have a bad memory. Some people have really good memory, but they just don't know how to decipher from all this information, right? And how to even learn from it and so on. So it's just about showing people how to organize that information and how to not just remember everything, but understand because people think that because you've got so much information, you need to memorize it all, or you need to read a book and memorize it.

00:35:15:13 - 00:35:38:21
Unknown
No you don't. You need to comprehend it. You need to understand what's going on. And then only at the end, if you need to memorize something, you memorize it. So that's the issue. And along with that comes like concentration issues focus issues right. Procrastination time management. So all these other issues mental performance is affected from. And I guess that's it's funny because that's where it leads to.

00:35:38:21 - 00:36:01:01
Unknown
And that's what I've been helping as well of. Not just athletes but people that want to perform in their everyday life. And I can't do simple tasks because they've really crowded their brain. How do what techniques do they use? So it's essentially a lot of that sort of stuff, as well as obviously people that want to remember speeches and all that sort of memory related stuff as well.

00:36:01:03 - 00:36:18:12
Unknown
So and that's what got me into it as well. I was just curious about, well, how does this stuff even work? I mean, I've got a shocking memory and I tried a few techniques and they worked. I thought, wow, what's going on? Really? Yeah. You've got a shocking memory. You so. Well, I said, I had one, right. I had a shocking memory.

00:36:18:15 - 00:36:38:10
Unknown
And I always complain about it. Yeah. Once I tried the techniques, I'm like, this can't be right. What was that? I tried this at school. The little five minute exercise, and now you're memorizing everything. I mean, it just doesn't make sense. And so I was sort of frustrated and annoyed with the education system. Like, you could have just given me a whole lesson on memory techniques, and it would have changed my whole life.

00:36:38:12 - 00:37:00:19
Unknown
Seriously. And all I did was just read a few exercise offs, and that's what did that for me. So and this was from a website back over 22 years ago. It still exists today actually. So if you want, you can write it down. I'll give you the address and your audience can write it down too. It's dot google.com.

00:37:00:21 - 00:37:21:09
Unknown
So g o g l.com. Yeah it's a really it's still exists today. So you can type in memory techniques. All right. And we'll come up with yeah. Websites that'll show you all these techniques for free. It's insane. Yeah. Which I've done. And and you seem to pop up every now and again as well. Oh that's good. That's nice to pop up in there.

00:37:21:09 - 00:37:41:16
Unknown
But you know, we just try and get this information out to people because it's not so much about the knowledge. It's about the using of the skills. Right? I got excited because I thought, I wonder what else I can do with these skills right now. I know how to memorize. So like an idiot, I went back and did two master's degrees because I thought, you know what?

00:37:41:16 - 00:37:59:11
Unknown
I've got these memory skills and good five years out of my life. But it was awesome. It was awesome. I really loved it. I really enjoyed learning this time around, rather than trying to pass all those actually engaged in the learning. And that was fantastic. So I went back and did things that I never would have thought I'd do before.

00:37:59:13 - 00:38:26:01
Unknown
And so that's the confidence the memory skills gave me. You've talked in the past about Connect the Dots, comprehend and follow patterns, being that I guess three principles or three pillars to doing that, what are these elements and how would you create someone to connect the dots, comprehend and follow patterns? Yeah, I think where that come from is I developed the learning framework.

00:38:26:03 - 00:38:46:12
Unknown
It's a really cool way of actually learning is you can get a whole book and you can essentially mind map it from the mind map. You can follow where the information flows and understand it a lot better. So I'll give you an example of the process of learning. So if you were to learn on a particular topic, let's say in NLP, right?

00:38:46:18 - 00:39:04:20
Unknown
As you start, before you even start reading, what you can do is you can grab all the chapter headings and pop them in a mind map. Now mind map is just essentially it's a concept map that has a central topic. So it's going to be NLP and it's got branches. So the main branches are the big ones up the front.

00:39:04:24 - 00:39:24:23
Unknown
So we'll have like chapter one, chapter 234 so on. And then underneath chapter one is going to be more branches or sub subheadings. And the subheadings will be like certain topics underneath that if they have sub subheadings you'll have more branches. So what will happen is you create a skeleton of that, piece of text or book or whatever it is.

00:39:25:02 - 00:39:50:24
Unknown
And then as you start reading, right, any little key concept, an idea keyword comes up, you pop them into the sub branch of that chapter one. Right. And you do that for the whole book. So what would essentially happen is that you'll get a really good rundown and the key elements of the book and then following patterns. What you're mentioning was going back and really saying, okay, chapter one talks about all this sort of stuff.

00:39:51:01 - 00:40:10:03
Unknown
What can I make out what's connected in what areas in the sub branches? It's hard to explain without actually showing you, but what it's looking at is looking at where the information flows. It's so much easier to do this on a mind map than it is to take general notes, because if you're note taking something on page two might link to something on page 12, right?

00:40:10:03 - 00:40:37:21
Unknown
And then something on page 15 might link to something on page 200. Whereas on a mind map it's all going to be organized into what is one section and you'll know you'll get direct access to it. So it's so much quicker to learn something doing it this way. And then you'll be able to, just by looking at the mind map, see where everything fits, and then you can follow where the things fit and go, okay, what do I need to learn here, and is there anything to memorize?

00:40:37:21 - 00:40:59:23
Unknown
And if there is, that's why you use the techniques. So yeah, it's a really good process. I used to throw out my sort of master's degrees, and I've helped people pass the world's hardest exams using these skills, and I guess that adds more relevancy and more meaning to that information flow. You know, you can see quicker how it fits into the bigger picture and then kind of group things easier.

00:40:59:23 - 00:41:19:07
Unknown
And then that allows us to remember things more. And would you just do that in your mind or would you sort of externally actually map that across, like let's say someone's studying for an exam, for example, it would all be externally mapped, I'd use software and all you do is essentially type into and it just makes up the mind map for it.

00:41:19:07 - 00:41:36:14
Unknown
It's fantastic. There's a lot of free software out there for mind mapping, so it's very easy these days. It's just about going ahead and doing it. And then once you are mind mapping that data content, essentially you could just have one mind map. And that mind map could cover for 600 pages of a textbook, thousand pages of the textbook.

00:41:36:14 - 00:41:58:18
Unknown
Right? It's just structured, ordered content rather than being linear, because in a book it's all linear, but you don't see the relations, whereas a mind map, you could see all the relations. So it's fantastic. And then that becomes your revision going over the mind map as opposed to rereading the book spot on. So you don't have to go back and reread books and cram last minute.

00:41:58:20 - 00:42:19:08
Unknown
You're going to be front loading a lot of the work, right? So it's going to take you longer to create the mind map and all that sort of stuff. But when you do your revision, guess what? You don't have to cram. It's like everything's already in there and it's already organized. And because you've already previewed it a few times, things are just embedded in there and you can just go into the exam confident.

00:42:19:10 - 00:42:43:19
Unknown
Yeah, I work with a lot of surgeons who are, kind of registrars looking to become consultants. I'm got to get you involved because they sit down for a whole year and just read and read and read everything, and I spend a bit of my time, even though it's not my area of expertise, trying to help them to categorize group and output as well.

00:42:43:20 - 00:43:05:01
Unknown
I'm fascinated how when we try to output something, like when we try and teach someone, or when we create a podcast about it. So when we write it down, or if we sort of output externalize it, we're able to embed it. When we're able to teach something, we know it much better than having just sort of learned it personally.

00:43:05:04 - 00:43:24:12
Unknown
Yeah, absolutely. And that's one of the reasons why I got into teaching this stuff so I could better myself and my knowledge, because now you're out there researching, you're looking at better methods. Is it going to work better this way? You can also experiment a bit as well and try new things. So I love that approach and it only makes you better, I believe.

00:43:24:12 - 00:44:07:04
Unknown
Anyway, thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please hit the subscribe or follow button. Every subscription helps me to spend more time making this show even more valuable for you. So please hit the subscribe button now! Okay, let's dive back in. So coming back to this categorizing and creating this folder system for the content that we're trying to learn, would you literally be throwing in big chunks of text, or would you kind of read the big chunk of text and then try and I guess, associate that chunk of text with three words or what have you.

00:44:07:04 - 00:44:35:24
Unknown
So the that that mind map is a bunch or list categories and folders of smaller phrases or one word keywords, or would you actually put images in there and videos in there and text in there? I try and make the process as easy as possible. I don't like putting whole chunks of information in, because if you can summarize, if you can just put your understanding so much better because at the end of the day, you want to understand what you're doing.

00:44:36:02 - 00:44:56:20
Unknown
You don't want to just chuck stuff in there. So if you can understand that and then put your understanding into those folders, then it's going to be so much easier. When you go back and review, you go, oh, that's what it was. And if you still don't know, you can always look it up and improve your mind map or add a couple more things in there in the notes section or something like that.

00:44:56:20 - 00:45:12:09
Unknown
So yeah, it's always good to do that. When we first try and learn something, what we're doing is, you know, you pick up a book you're reading, but you also try to study it. You're trying to remember it, you're trying to reflect on it. You're trying to ask questions in your mind. You're trying to do your homework from it.

00:45:12:09 - 00:45:31:14
Unknown
You're trying to do so many things at once, right? Whereas what I do essentially with this process is you're just picking one thing. So you mapping the skeleton, okay. Then you're getting the keywords. All right. Then you're getting the sections. And then slowly you're putting meaning behind. It's like okay this is the first paragraph. This is what it is.

00:45:31:14 - 00:45:52:09
Unknown
That's what it is. And so on. So you essentially start from not using your brain to using the brain. You know, at the end when you really have to memorize stuff. And to be honest, after you've done all that mapping and visualization and encoding and stuff, there's literally not much to memorize because you've already understood most of it.

00:45:52:11 - 00:46:20:16
Unknown
So you've got your system, you've done your training, feel really confident in the process you're going to use to remember something. And you find yourself at the Australian National Championships and the pressure sets in and potentially a bit of doubt. How did you overcome that kind of pressure at the time? Yeah. Good question. Look, when I first started I was going for the win rises back in 2002.

00:46:20:16 - 00:46:42:24
Unknown
So I was confident and I came second in Australia. So I didn't quite win by dam so close. And then the following year same thing happened again. Second and this kept happening. I came second like many, many times and it took me six years to eventually win a competition, right? Six years. So my mental state was, you know, don't mess it up again type of thing.

00:46:42:24 - 00:47:06:09
Unknown
So not very good. I was focusing on the mess up top part, but I was also doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. So I had to really change much. And yeah, then I realized that, look, I need to focus. I need to change something and what you spoke about earlier about using your senses, and we spoke about the memory principles.

00:47:06:09 - 00:47:31:10
Unknown
I worked on that. And to be honest, that helped me more than even the memory technique itself. Because if you can visualize really well, if you can tell a story really well, it's going to make you remember. So that's what I focused on, the storytelling component. And so I went into the competition knowingness. And eventually I won because of the effectiveness of what I was doing.

00:47:31:12 - 00:47:52:10
Unknown
And then yeah, I won. Yeah. Three more after that in a row since I entered because I just knew the power of it. And not only did I beat people, but I double their score as well because of the effectiveness of the training system. So I changed my training system. I wasn't memorizing because before memorizing 100% of the time.

00:47:52:12 - 00:48:26:06
Unknown
Now, when you mention how often do you practice right now I'd probably only do 10% memorizing and 90% visualization and making things memorable, because that's what the competition is. It's a memory competition. Eventually it's a recall competition. But if you do the memorization well, the recall is almost automatic. So would you say your attitude or say changed from that second to winning, where you were less in it for the win and more in that to to carry out that technique and carry and put those principles into practice.

00:48:26:08 - 00:48:43:18
Unknown
Yeah, it's funny you mention that because, yeah, I do a lot of stuff with athletes on mindset and, you know, training for high performance and stuff like that. And I just focused on my process. To be honest, I wasn't so much goal oriented. I was like, well, if I get this right, if I do it this way, this is going to be the result.

00:48:43:18 - 00:49:11:09
Unknown
And that's what I'm going to train. So I was excited about the actual process of getting things right, of doing what I needed to do. And to be honest, the competition was just execution on the day because I've already done so many times during my practice. Competition was like, here we go now. Yeah, people coming from overseas competing, you know, in Australia because it was open competitions and stuff and I was competing against some really good competition.

00:49:11:11 - 00:49:29:24
Unknown
But at the end of the day, you're not really competing against them. It's not like a basketball match, right? They're not trying to stop you or anything. It's just you versus you. So the only thing I could really worry about is what I can do. Talk about what I can control. Right? I can control how they're going to memorize.

00:49:30:00 - 00:49:50:04
Unknown
Right. That could be the world's greatest. But what affected me was how well I went through that process, and that was really it. Yeah, I know, obviously my diet, all that sort of stuff I had to worry about because of, of chronic illness as well. So that's another thing I had to really that was more of a worry than anything else, to be honest.

00:49:50:04 - 00:50:13:12
Unknown
But once I had that under control, then yeah, the rest was pretty simple. What? I'm for getting that under control. I imagine they probably went hand in hand in helping you. Your ability to overcome challenges in the memory. It probably helped that your health and vice versa. Yeah. I mean, I was just told years earlier that I would have died if it wasn't for last minute surgery.

00:50:13:14 - 00:50:33:19
Unknown
You know, I had like 31 staples down my chest all the way, all the way down. And so I was very close to. Yeah, not being here, I guess. And just through the journey of hospital and hospitalizations, multiple hospitalizations, all close to getting a hospital just over the weekend, actually. So something that's stuck with me for ever since I was in my teens.

00:50:33:21 - 00:50:56:03
Unknown
But now I think just that bit of adversity does give you some strength, knowing that if you can go through that, then what's competition? I mean, it's a joke competition that that's the easy part. You know, I'm going to do life still. I'm going to still raise kids and study and work. And so I found that there was a lot more challenging things in the competition, to be honest.

00:50:56:03 - 00:51:15:21
Unknown
And I think perspective helped in my case as well. So all I had to do is just carry out a process. That's it. Where is life? You know, it can kick you in the guts and say, come on, do your process now. But, you know, so it was a lot easier going through something structured than it is to, you know, have random events happen in your life.

00:51:15:23 - 00:51:44:02
Unknown
What would you tell someone who is worried about their memory? Yeah, look, I'd be worried for a reason, right? And I was always worried about my memory. Jay, like I said, I was always terrible. And I'd say, look, we've got so many resources now online. We've got libraries full of books. You can get a book on your phone these days, like, there's so many things where you can just quickly look up the answer for and get the answers right.

00:51:44:02 - 00:52:10:17
Unknown
And the most important thing is practicing these skills learned. Learning is the easy part. It's just practicing the skills, testing yourself out, doing a research. Like I said, I just learned from Google and 20 years on, I've written international bestsellers. I won competitions and do TV and radio and all that sort of stuff. I mean, it's insane where this has got me just from researching and changing my perspective on memory.

00:52:10:17 - 00:52:32:09
Unknown
So just start with something. You don't have to go and do all these courses and make coaches and all that. I mean, just jump on YouTube and watch a few videos. I've got 200 of them. Go watch a video and do a technique, and you'd be absolutely surprised of what you can probably do. Have you ever worked with older people or people with dementia?

00:52:32:11 - 00:52:56:21
Unknown
Or have you seen this training not only help them with their memory, but I guess have a a follow on positive impact on their life? Yeah, I have actually, years ago I ran a session for the university, the Third Age. So these people, older in age 80 plus some of them 90 plus, and they get together, they play games like chess and stuff and whatever.

00:52:56:21 - 00:53:12:24
Unknown
And, made a friend of mine, we run a workshop, every workshop. And we tested that memory out, and they all got zeros. I was like, I it's going to be interesting. We showed them the techniques. And by the end of our workshop, though, memorizing just as much as we were, it was pretty insane. I thought, wow, this is cool.

00:53:12:24 - 00:53:35:19
Unknown
I never thought this would happen. And then my grandmother, who's had dementia, she passed away last week, actually, and I showed her when she was early onset and she was able to remember where she got the tomatoes from the grocery store and all this sort of stuff. So yeah, because memories got to do with imagination and storytelling. People don't really lose that ability.

00:53:35:19 - 00:54:01:05
Unknown
And if you can use that ability to imagine and create something, then you've got that ability to remember, right? And that's how it works. Yeah, I love that. And I love the fact there's a Third Age university. Never had that before. This fantastic. Yeah. It's great. There's also been research that if you're in your older years and you're, training, you keep learning and so on, you just you live longer.

00:54:01:11 - 00:54:16:06
Unknown
Oh, right. And I was looking at these guys, and these guys looked amazing at their eyes. I thought, wow, how do you get to this age? You speak to them. And I've seen interviews online as well is they just keep active all the time. And you look at the research being done on the blue zones as well. And these people are always active.

00:54:16:06 - 00:54:44:17
Unknown
They're always either walking or socializing and doing stuff. You know, I think that's the real way to improve yourself is not just with the memory knowledge, but to just keep at something, get to do something instead of just being study it, because that's going to bring about death. Essentially. I think I might put in my application now, so I don't forget that when I got I got an email or something in the paste that I made to you saying, write your courses ready?

00:54:44:19 - 00:55:08:24
Unknown
Just to pick up on something we said earlier, you know, your coaching work, as this assumption is not just about helping people acquire memory skills, but as a coach, I imagine you work with helping people to overcome challenges and rewrite their beliefs and transform into the person they want to be. And how do you help people change their belief around, oh, I've got a crap memory.

00:55:09:03 - 00:55:27:02
Unknown
Oh, actually, you know, maybe I do have capacity. Maybe my brain can be neoplastic. Yeah. I've got a really cool exercise for this, actually. What I get people to do, and I've got a couple of clients like this actually is one of them was, for example, was saying like, I can't do this and I'm no good at this and so on, right?

00:55:27:02 - 00:55:46:19
Unknown
So what I said was, okay, here's an exercise we're going to do. We are going to do this on a mind map as well. Right? So what I get people to do is I get them to write down all their negative beliefs. Right? And whenever it comes to their mind, just to write it down, the negative beliefs like, don't not acknowledge it or don't try and get to the positive straight away.

00:55:46:19 - 00:56:06:12
Unknown
Just write down, acknowledge I can't improve my memory or I can't learn this or whatever it is that they're saying, right then what I want you to do is I want you to create an open question from it. Right? Something like, how can I improve my memory? Or how can I learn such and such? How can I write?

00:56:06:18 - 00:56:30:20
Unknown
So what that does is that it gives them possibilities. All right. So for example, if say I can't remember names. Right. Well that's only that's just the one. No. Well I say that as a one. No. You've given up. I can't remember names. Right. There's only one giving up. That's it. But if you say how can I remember names now there's a gazillion possibilities.

00:56:30:20 - 00:56:48:01
Unknown
Say, you know what? How can I remember? I don't know, but there are books out there that are. There's YouTube. I might watch a few videos. I might speak to Tencel, I might blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So you come up with ten things just then and there on how you can remember names and you go out and do those things.

00:56:48:03 - 00:57:08:13
Unknown
Right. So what I try and do for people's beliefs is I try and keep it objective, or things that we can measure, right? Rather than getting them to believe a certain thing. I get them to write down possibilities and then expand on those possibilities and they say, okay, now I want you to go out and do those things right, because I can guarantee you that the answers are there somewhere.

00:57:08:13 - 00:57:29:19
Unknown
And if they do all that and they say, look, I've tried everything, I'll say, no, you haven't, you haven't tried anything. Yeah. It's like, go ahead and do these things because I've had people come to me and say, look, Tencel, I've tried losing weight. I've tried everything. It does doesn't work. I'm like, you have not tried everything. I can guarantee you that even if you speak to every single person in the world, that's still not trying.

00:57:29:19 - 00:58:02:23
Unknown
Everything, right. Go ahead and do this, this, this and this. So there's only one, no one giving up, but there's like a gazillion open ended opportunities to go and try. And usually people find the answer in there. And once they do, that belief just skyrockets. What do you think makes you a good coach? Good question Jay. I'm not taking any more shit from people I, I guess, I'm a little bit more harder, I guess, on people because, yeah, I look, I was always that easygoing.

00:58:03:00 - 00:58:45:03
Unknown
Happy. Yeah. And loving, caring, never want any trouble, all that sort of stuff. But when you do coaching, that sort of doesn't work in a way, because people don't need that love. And whatever it is, people need answers. And sometimes the answers are not what people want to hear. So that's why I'm a bit more direct now. And because I want people to grow and learn from all of it, I want people to develop a better mindset, not just, you know, something that that can just just, you know, like how I was of accepting and loving and caring and saying yes to everything, right?

00:58:45:03 - 00:59:08:00
Unknown
No is actually a superpower. That's what I found out. So yeah. So my coaching has evolved to be more direct, give more answers. Even my coaching sessions have gone down from like two hours down to half an hour because it's just more impactful. And we're just getting rid of all the fluff and getting people to know exactly what they need to do for the next meeting.

00:59:08:02 - 00:59:25:20
Unknown
And for me, that's like the greatest thing ever, because I'm not wasting their time. They're not wasting my time. And if they are, I'll let them know. So it's good works. Well.

00:59:25:22 - 00:59:50:03
Unknown
And coming to a close, we have sort of two customary questions that we ask every guest. One is a book or film that changed your life that you'd like to recommend. And the second is whether you if you have a question for myself to put me in the hot seat. Yeah, really good book. I remember reading a while ago, I read a couple of times now is The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck.

00:59:50:05 - 01:00:13:13
Unknown
Oh yeah, by Mark Manson. Really good, because I was that guy that was always saying yes to everything and worrying about everything and the stoic philosophies in there of just, you can only control yourself and just saying no to things and just, you know, being in control really made me, more empowered. So I always recommend that book to everyone.

01:00:13:15 - 01:00:34:08
Unknown
It's time to flip the mike. The question for you is, you know what made you get into all of this and your podcasting and all the cool things that you're into with the high performance? I think wanting to help people, you know, similar along the lines of your answer, I was a genius athlete and struggled with those performance settings.

01:00:34:08 - 01:00:58:02
Unknown
Right? And I used to stutter as a kid and felt the anxiety and the pressure and then found skills that that helped me to overcome that and found skills to help me perform under pressure and realize that, oh, it's not something you're born with or not. It's actually something that you can train. And over the years, you know, I found so much helpful information either in research or in practice.

01:00:58:02 - 01:01:23:00
Unknown
And so through my work, both in research and practice, just trying to get these skills widely known and topics like this. The reason why I do the podcast is everyone struggles with memory, I struggle with it, and then you beat yourself up about it. Oh no, why can't I remember it? And most of the time I'm too busy beating myself up about it instead of just applying some association skill or some technique that you've talked about today.

01:01:23:00 - 01:01:42:21
Unknown
And so I think having these conversations and just exposing them is really helpful too, to helping us all. And if we're working with other people listening to these things, it just constantly adds an extra string to our bow and a new conversation to have. Yeah. That's great. I love that because this sort of stuff needs to get out there.

01:01:42:21 - 01:02:03:05
Unknown
And, it's like if you're that person, it's like, man, this podcast is speaking to me. That's what you feel. It's great. I mean, if we can touch just one person, it means the world for me anyway, if I can just at least get one person to be better by using these skills. So. Yeah, that's the exciting thing from what we're doing, I guess.

01:02:03:07 - 01:02:15:12
Unknown
Yeah, it's a privilege. It's career. All right. Well, thank you very much for your time today. So thanks, Steve. Sorry. Camera.

01:02:15:14 - 01:02:39:04
Unknown
Oh. Tensile states. Looking back, I never would have gotten into this if it wasn't for discovering a system that worked and busted the myth I had in my own mind about having a bad memory. This is an inspiring comment from Tannehill, since his growth has been nothing short of outstanding. From the day he changed his belief in his own memory capacity.

01:02:39:06 - 01:03:06:22
Unknown
So how to digest this chap and simplify a few actions that we can all take away? Well, first and foremost, it seems that we need quality sleep equally. Check in to see how stressed you are, fewer stressed and carrying around day to day frustrations or not getting good sleep. It will be cannibalizing your efforts to maintain or improve your memory.

01:03:06:24 - 01:03:40:18
Unknown
Initially, aim to learn information in small chunks. Remembering a large amount of information can be overwhelming for the brain, making it hard to retrieve and store this information. Set yourself up for success by breaking things down into more manageable chunks, ideally in chunks of three. Next, when trying to remember something, make active associations, make a mind map, attach a funny image, or try to attach meaning and relevance to what you need to remember.

01:03:40:20 - 01:04:07:07
Unknown
For example, if you want to remember the name of someone you just met named Peter, imagine a pile of peat partially decomposing over his head. Then externalize it, write it, talk about it, paint it, externalize it. In externalizing the memory, we embody it. For example, in writing something down, we use movement, exert energy, and thus place importance to it.

01:04:07:09 - 01:04:39:13
Unknown
Externalizing it also gives an associative context to help the memory become more binding. Once the information is lodged in your mind. Practice active recall. Repetition helps the encoding process beyond your short term memory and strengthens the neural pathways needed to access it. But most of all, don't belittle your memory. Otherwise you might just end up believing it and becoming your own worst enemy.

01:04:39:15 - 01:04:54:19
Unknown
If you would like to find out more about Tansley and his methodologies for improving your memory, please see the show notes.

01:04:54:21 - 01:05:25:20
Unknown
Thank you for listening to Flow Unleashed. If you enjoyed listening, please subscribe to get notified when our next episode drops. The more people that subscribe. The better I can make the show for you equally. Please leave a review. Your review will go a long way to helping others find this spot. Until the next time. Thank you for listening to Flow Unleashed.