As far as memory goes, I have some actual cred. Most of my life I had a miserable memory. At least that’s what everyone told me. In fact, I have ADHD, and couldn’t concentrate on much, except for magic. I was interested in magic since I was about eleven (eventually I became a professional magician.) I could manage to read magic books and practice for up to fourteen hours at a time without a break when I was a kid. But I couldn’t manage to get chores, homework, or anything else done. I had a C average in school, and I never really passed a math class except for geometry, which for some reason made sense to me.
Books that were assigned to me in class never seemed to get read. Essays never finished. I couldn’t remember history or dates. They bored me to tears. On the other hand, I could remember magic trick instructions and biographies of the great magicians. I could also remember “The Lord of the Rings” chapter and verse (oh, would that I still could. Oh, how I miss you, Middle-earth! I must read you again.)
As you can certainly tell, if I was terribly interested in something, I could remember it fine, as I’m sure you’ve noticed about yourself as well. But if it was information about something that I didn’t care about, or wanted to avoid, it was as gone in a second.
One day, I was taking a trip from Kingston, NY to Austin, Texas, by bus. We stopped in Joplin, Missouri at a lunch counter. Outside the diner was a used book fair. I found an old, dog-eared copy of a book on how to improve your memory, which I bought on a whim. On the rest of the trip, I was going crazy from boredom, so I dove into the book. By the time I reached Austin, I felt like a genius. I couldn’t believe that mnemonics could be so easy.
It turned out that the techniques from the book were great for short-term memory, but there was a lot more to improving my memory than that. Since then I’ve been developing my own methods, as well as learning more from other sources.
Did it work? Let me tell you a story:
As I mentioned, I became a professional magician. It helped me pay part of my college tuition. I eventually went on a foreign exchange program to Germany, and I stayed there for seventeen years (!) In my second year there, I started performing magic in German. I began as a street-performer and eventually became a popular corporate and society entertainer.
Once, in a non-magic-related incident, I managed to have fingers broken on both of my hands. I ended up with both hands in casts, and I couldn’t rely on dexterity for my magic performances. I had contracts for shows for the rest of the month that I couldn’t afford to miss. What to do?
I did a “memory and math” show. I had learned some mathematical magic tricks (yes, me, the guy who barely ever passed a math class) and I’d memorized square numbers, large multiplications, minutes and seconds in a day, a week, a month, a year, and some other mathematical nuggets.
During those shows in which I couldn’t use the sleight-of-hand magic I’d been practicing for thousands and thousands of hours, I entertained with math tricks and by memorizing long strings of digits (more than a hundred) and all the names in the audiences (sometimes a few hundred) that I spent only a short time learning.
The response almost scared me. People went nuts. I got better reviews than ever. My agent got me more return bookings then he’d ever done for any of his other performers. My fee went way up. Many of the audience member told me, “Young man, I’ve seen you perform before, and your magic tricks were very good, but how on earth did you remember all those names and numbers!?”
I’m not telling you this to make myself look good. (Okay, that’s a big, fat lie.) But the greater point is that I did not have to put nearly as much effort into the mental part of my show as I did the regular magic, yet the mental part blew them away. Until that day, I had not even thought that the memory stuff was that impressive. I thought almost anyone could do it.
The truth? Almost anyone could, if they learned and put it into practice in their everyday lives. But almost nobody does. Almost everyone thinks they know about memory. They’ll tell you why theirs is not good, and they’ll tell you all about the stuff they’ve heard about improving your memory, and how “you just have to make up stories.” (Wrong!) It’s like all those overweight people who have the best advice about losing weight. (Don’t take weight-reduction advice from me!)
The upshot is, if I could improve my memory and concentration, so can you. Poke around in the blog for hints and tips on how to get more clarity in your daily life and work life.