Sorry, I have a memory like a sieve!
Heard this expression before? We all know someone who is constantly re-affirming the fact that they have a bad memory. Missed birthdays, forgotten names, and ‘rusty’ skill sets are some of the most common (and at times excruciatingly awkward) consequences we suffer when we fail to remember what’s important.
But having a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ memory? Impossible.
Here’s why…
Having A Good Memory Is Totally Trainable
Brain performance expert and author of the ‘SuperBrain’ Mindvalley Quest Jim Kwik insists that memory isn’t something we ‘have’; it’s something we ‘do’. And we have the power to change it and consistently improve all the time – even as we get older.
Our memory isn’t a fixed element of who we are, no matter what we’ve been told.
Although Jim is now a globally celebrated memory expert, coaching Hollywood stars from the lights of Will Smith and Hugh Jackman and entrepreneurs like Richard Branson and Elon Musk to name a few, it hasn’t always been this way.
Introducing The Boy With The Broken Brain
When Jim Kwik was just 9 years old, he overheard his teachers engaging in a conversation about him in the corner of the classroom. Whether they thought he wasn’t paying attention or that he simply wasn’t smart enough to understand, the words he was about to hear would forge his life path right then and there.
‘That’s him…that’s the boy with the broken brain!’
As the words of adults become the internal dialogue of children, Jim went on to suffer for many years at school, believing exactly what that teacher had said about him.
The keyword here is ‘believed’.
What we truly believe about ourselves, of course, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. And the lightbulb moment for Jim came suddenly with these words…
Your Brain Is A Supercomputer And Your Self -Talk Is The Program It Runs
The power of the mind is astounding. So when we say things to ourselves like ‘I don’t have any creativity anymore’, ‘I have no focus’ and ‘I can never remember anybody’s name’…our brain automatically follows these instructions.
But creativity is not something you inherently have, it’s something you do.
Focus isn’t something you have either…it’s a verb too, and you do do it!
It’s exactly the same story with your memory.
