HOW TO REMEMBER
T he principles through which accurate, organized memory
may be cultivated compose one of the chief major subjects of
psychology. What a wonderful ‘‘gift’’ is that of a perfect memory—the ability to recall both names and faces of people whom we have met, and of sense impressions which have reached our subconscious minds through what we call ‘‘experience.’’
We need not try to convince you that a reliable memory is an asset, because you already know this. Let us hasten, then, to a discussion of the three chief principles of memory, which are briefly defined as follows:
1. Retention—The receiving of the sense impression through one
or more of the five senses and the recording of this impression
in the subconscious mind. This process may be likened to the
recording of a picture on the sensitized plate of a camera.
2. Recall—The reviving again of those sense impressions which have been recorded in the subconscious mind, and bringing them into the conscious mind. This process may be compared
to the act of going through a card index and pulling out a card on which data had been previously recorded.
3. Recognition—The ability to recognize a sense impression when it is called into the conscious mind, and to identify it as being a duplicate of the original. This enables us to distinguish between
‘‘memory’’ and ‘‘imagination.’’ How to Make Effective Use of These Three Principles
First: Make the first impression vivid by concentrating your attention upon it to the finest detail. Just as the photographer takes care to give an ‘‘exposure’’ proper time to record on the sensitized plate of the camera, so must we give the subconscious mind time to properly record any sense impression which we wish to be able to recall with readiness.
Second: Associate that which you wish to remember with some object, name, or place with which you are quite familiar and which you can recall at any time without effort as, for example, your home
town, your mother, your close friend, etc.
Third: Repeat that which you wish to remember a number of times, at the same time concentrating your mind upon it. The great failing of not being able to remember names, which most of us have,
is due entirely to the fact that we do not properly record the name in the first place.When you are introduced toa person whose name you wish to be able to recall instantly, stop and repeat his or her name two or three times, first making sure that you understood the name correctly.
An accurate memory is something which you can acquire in exactly the same manner that the photographer acquires accuracy in his art, namely, by properly exposing the negative so that all of the features, outlines, lights, and shades of the object photographed are recorded on the sensitized plates of your subconscious mind! There are many exclusive courses on the subject of memory training, some of which have been padded out in considerable length.
All you need, however, is to grasp the fundamental principles through which the memory functions, and soon you can develop an accurate memory. To do this, you need not follow any formula too closely, but rather invent your own method. Some remarkably accurate memories have been developed through the use of the principle of concentration alone.
Rules and formulas are confusing. The best method to follow is to get a clear understanding of the fundamental principles through which memory can be developed, and then apply these principles in
your own way. The following will illustrate the comparative simplicity with which one man developed an accurate memory.
How I Brought Back a Wandering Mind ‘‘I am fifty years old. For a decade, I have been a department manager in a large factory. At first, my duties were easy; then the firm had a rapid expansion of business which gave me added responsibilities. Several of the young men in my department developed unusual energy and ability—at least one of them had his eye on my job.
‘‘I had reached the age in life when a man likes to be comfortable, and having been with the company a long time, I felt that I could safely settle back into an easy berth. The effect of this mental attitude was well-nigh disastrous to my position. ‘‘About two years ago, I noticed that my power of
concentration was weakening, and my duties were becoming irksome. I neglected my correspondence
until I looked with dread upon the formidable pile of letters; reports accumulated, and subordinates
were inconvenienced by the delay. I sat at the desk with my mind wandering elsewhere.
‘‘Other circumstances showed plainly that my mind was not on my work; I forgot to attend an important meeting of the officers of the company. One of the clerks under me caught a bad mistake made in an estimate on a carload of goods and, of course, saw to it that the manager learned of the incident. ‘‘I was thoroughly alarmed at the situation and asked for a week’s vacation to think things over. I was determined to resign, or find the trouble and remedy it. A few days of earnest introspection at an out-of-the-way mountain resort convinced me that I was suffering from a plain case of wandering mind.
I was lacking in concentration; my physical and mental activities at the desk had become desultory. I was careless and shiftless and neglectful—all because my mind was not alertly on the job. When I had diagnosed my case with satisfaction to myself, I next sought the remedy. Evidently, I needed a complete new set of working habits, and I made a resolve to acquire them.
‘‘With paper and pencil, I outlined a schedule to cover the working day: first, the morning mail,
then the orders to be filled, dictation, conference with subordinates, and miscellaneous duties, ending with a clean desk before I left. ‘‘ ‘How is a habit formed?’ I asked myself mentally. ‘By repetition,’ came back the answer. ‘But I have been doing these things over and over thousands of times,’ the other fellow in me protested. ‘True, but not in orderly, concentrated fashion,’ replied the echo.
‘‘I returned to the office with mind in leash, but restless, and placed my new working schedule into
force at once. I performed the same duties with the same zest and, as nearly as possible, at the same
time every day. When my mind started to slip away, I quickly brought it back. ‘‘From a mental stimulus, created by will power, I progressed in habit building. Day after day, I practiced concentration of thought. When I found repetition becoming comfortable, then I knew that I had won.’’
Please keep constantly in mind the fact that this is a course in ‘‘applied’’ psychology, and that its chief purpose is to give you a good grasp of those qualities through which you may attain success in all of your undertakings. We shall make no attempt in this course to adhere to the old methods of pedagogy. You have started out to acquire information concerning the human mind and to ascertain the relationship between the mind and your business of succeeding in your life work.
You want practical, applied psychology instead of theoretical psychology! You want to understand the relationship between the principles of psychology and the business of earning a living and of
being happy while you are doing it! We feel it our duty to you, therefore, to go outside of our psychological laboratory for data with which to illustrate the principles of psychology. We feel it our duty to you to show you just how the principles covered by this course have actually worked out, in a practical business world.
In doing this, we feel at liberty to draw upon the experiences of men who have used these principles, and to pass on to you the results. In quoting the following story,we are passing on to you a remarkable example of the advantage of an accurate memory as well as some very simple methods through which to cultivate such a memory.
A Great Businessman with a Wonderful Memory
‘‘America has a man with a wonderful memory, developed by close observation, lively imagination,
and indomitable industry and perseverance. ‘‘The geography of every country is lined in his mind as cleanly as the streets of his native town in Connecticut. He carries in his mind a moving picture of the whole earth. The cartoonist could fittingly portray him by substituting the globe for his head.
‘‘He is neither a ship owner nor a captain, yet he has a practical knowledge of a shipping business
comparable with that of any living ship owner or skipper.
‘‘He is neither a customs official nor a professional tariff expert, yet he carries in his head information in great detail on national and international tariffs and customs duties. ‘‘In the great organization of which he is president, there are two hundred and seventy thousand employees—yes, two hundred and seventy thousand, or more than the population of St. Paul or Louisville or Denver or Atlanta.
‘‘He sits at his desk in New York and talks with the operating and commercial officials identified with this vast industry, one-third across the continent, making suggestions and recommendations having to do with the multitudinous details of the largest industrial organization in the world.
‘‘His list of engagements to see people at times averages from forty to fifty every day, or between
twelve hundred and fifteen hundred every month, aside from which he contrives to carry on an
extensive correspondence.
‘‘He is familiar with every minute phase of his concern’s manufacturing and selling business, a
business that is running at a rate of three million dollars a day, or not very far from a billion dollars a
year. James A. Farrell’s Wonderful Memory
‘‘Questioned once on the witness stand as to what ingredients enter into wine products, he replied,
‘Between two and three hundred. Shall I name them?’ Again asked, ‘How many competitors has
the American Bridge Company, one of your subsidiaries?’ he replied, ‘Three hundred and sixty eight,’ and occupied one morning giving their locations, capacities, and character of work produced by them.‘‘Asked, among thousands of other questions,whether the shipping facilities to certain parts of South America were good or bad, he immediately replied, ‘One hundred and fifty-eight vessels left
here for the River Plate last year, sufficient for the volume of tonnage offered.’
‘‘This living gazetteer of the world, this walking atlas, this international encyclopedia, this
commercial wizard, this industrial phenomenon, is James A. Farrell, ex-laborer, now president of the
United States Steel Corporation. ‘‘For ten days, Mr. Farrell sat in the witness chair during the government’s suit against the steel corporation and, without consulting books, papers, or data of any kind, answered every question fired at him.Not once did he have to reply, ‘I don’t know.’He appeared to know everything, and to remember everything. Here, for example, is his reply—made wholly without any notes or memoranda—to the question, ‘Can you remember what percentage of the business of each of the subsidiaries of the steel corporation was foreign in 1910 and in 1912?’ ‘‘ ‘Yes, the Carnegie Steel Company, 21 percent in 1910, 24 percent in 1912; the National Tube
Company, 10 percent in 1910, 12 percent in 1912; the American Sheet and Tin Plate Company, 11
percent in 1910, 20 percent in 1912; the American Steel & Wire Company, 17 percent in 1910, 20
percent in 1912; the Lorain Steel Company, 30 percent in both periods; the American Bridge
Company, 6 percent in 1910, 8.5 percent in 1912; the Illinois Steel Company, 1.2 percent in 1910, 2.4
percent in 1912.’
‘‘The judge and everybody gasped. ‘‘ ‘That man’s mind is a self-working cash register and adding machine combined,’ remarked one of the attorneys. ‘‘Mr. Farrell’s uncanny knowledge of steel making and steel selling—he worked years in the mills in many departments of the industry and years on the road as salesman; his unparalleled knowledge of shipping and of overseas countries—he first went voyaging with his father, who was captain of a Maine-built ship, when twelve, and has since
traveled in many lands; his familiarity with foreign tariffs and trade conditions all over the world—all
this he has turned into profitable account for himself and still more for his country by increasing
his company’s export sales of iron and steel products from less than $3,000,000 a dozen years
ago to over $100,000,000 during the last year, an achievement in international trade not matched by
any other American of the past or the present.
The Steel President Talks about Acquiring a Good Memory ‘‘ ‘To cultivate a good memory,’ according to Mr. Farrell, ‘at first requires effort—great effort. In time, it becomes easy and natural to remember things. To retain things in your mind becomes a habit. ‘‘ ‘Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in his writing, the right idea. You must concentrate. You must not carry any useless mental baggage.
You must concentrate on the things in which you are interested and expunge from your memory
everything you are not interested in. There must be not only a spring cleaning, but a daily cleaning of
your memory, so to speak, in order to make room for fresh stores of helpful information.
‘‘ ‘James J. Hill, who had perhaps one of the most remarkable memories of any man in the country,
used to say that it is easy to remember things in which one is interested. Anyone wishing to acquire
comprehensive knowledge of his business, or of any specific subject, must not try to store his mind
with endless details about other things. For example, I have tried to learn all I could about the
steel business in its mining, manufacturing, selling, and transportation branches, but to enable me to
carry business information in my head, I have not attempted to retain in my mind minute detailed
data about politics or baseball.
‘‘ ‘Absorb what to you is essential—that is, everything pertaining to your field of endeavor. Abolish from your mind nonessential, extraneous subjects. No human brain has cells enough to store up all the facts about all subjects under the sun. Don’t clog your brain cells with impedimenta. Feed them only with vital material, with things that will enhance your usefulness in your sphere of activity by increasing and improving your stock of needful information.’ ‘‘ ‘How can a young man start in to improve his memory?’ I asked.
A Tip to Young Businessmen
‘‘ ‘The best foundation on which to build a strong memory is to cultivate a capacity for work. Good
habits also contribute to a good memory; careless habits tend to distract and spoil the memory. A
clear head is necessary to a keen memory. ‘‘ ‘It is essentially true of the mind that it grows on
what it feeds. Youth is the time when the mind and memory are most sensitive, most retentive, and
most plastic. It is especially important, therefore, to begin the proper training of the mind at an early
age. It is as difficult to dislodge cumbersome, useless things from the mind as it is to acquire new
and better supplies of knowledge. What was done badly has to be undone—often at considerable cost.
As with most worthwhile things in this world, a good memory calls for the paying of a price. Any
youth or man who desires to train his memory must be prepared to pay the cost. He must be
prepared to forgo an endless round of even harmless pleasures. He must not hope to shine
continually and conspicuously in social or society circles during his formative years. He must study while others play. His reading must be limited very largely to books and magazines and papers which
will help him to acquire facts and a better understanding of whatever business or subjects he
is determined to master. He must utilize most of his spare time and not idle it away.
‘‘ ‘Although I worked twelve hours a day when I started as a laborer in a wire mill when I was only
fifteen years old, I studied very hard after finishing the whole round of the clock daily in the mill. I
tried to learn all I could about the making of wire, and I managed to qualify as a mechanic in a little
over a year. I interested myself not only in the making of wire and in the general manufacturing of
iron and steel, but I had a fondness for selling things, and I did my best to learn all about the duties
of a salesman. When I did become a salesman, I found my experience in the mill and my knowledge
of the manufacturing end of the business a most valuable asset when I went to call on buyers.
‘‘ ‘At school, I found it easy to learn geography. My father and grandfather were both seafaring men,
and maybe this helped to turn my attention to other parts of the world and to broaden my vision. It was natural that I should consider the possibilities of foreign outlets for steel products, so that before I became a foreign sales manager, I had studied the subject very earnestly. Being interested, I could
remember what I read and learned. Today, I suppose I do know a fair amount about foreign
markets for steel and transportation facilities— how to reach these markets.
‘‘ ‘The opening up of foreign markets for American products has entailed, of course, a great deal of
detail work. But having accustomed my memory to retaining details, the work has appealed to me and has not been so very difficult to handle.’ ‘‘It is recognized throughout the steel industry that
‘Jim’ Farrell has no peer as a master of detail. His oral replies to the government’s lawyers made their heads swim. They could not stump him, try as they might. John D. Rockefeller used to impress upon his aides that, next to knowing one’s own business, the most important thing to know was what the other fellow was doing. Mr. Farrell abundantly demonstrated that he not only knew what his own
corporation and every other company in the United States was doing, but he was as familiar with iron and steel activities in other countries as with the process of manufacturing wire.
The Importance of Knowing All about Your Job ‘‘Some executives declare, airily, that they never
bother about details, that they do not know anything about them and leave their handling entirely to subordinates. I was anxious to get from Mr. Farrell his view of the importance of a knowledge of details and having them properly attended to. My question struck a responsive chord. ‘‘ ‘I could conceive no more humiliating experience,’ he replied, ‘than to be asked some question concerning our operations and to be obliged to send for a subordinate to answer it. I would not consider myself fit for the job unless I knew the ins and outs of the business and how each detail of it is conducted.
‘‘ ‘Suppose a manager of one of our properties were to be confronted suddenly with some problem, and were to call me up direct from the mills or mines for advice; wouldn’t I feel extremely foolish if I
couldn’t grasp what he was talking about, and realize exactly the conditions facing him there?
‘‘ ‘This corporation has many officers in the producing and selling departments. Not only do I
meet and talk with many of them periodically in my office here, or during my frequent visits to our
different properties, but I take pains to give their communications proper attention.
‘‘ ‘If you were manager of an important enterprise and wrote a letter to the owner about something of
importance, you would not like to receive a perfunctory reply from John Smith, one of his
secretaries. In the same way, if the president or other officer of a subsidiary refers anything to me
for my particular consideration, I would reduce the value and dampen the enthusiasm of that man were I to turn the matter over to John Smith.’ ’’
We have reprinted this whole story because it is full of inspiration that will be of help to you. It is the equivalent of a good course in memory training, but it is more—much more than this—it is an
ambition builder that will be sure to cause you to want to accomplish something that is worthwhile!
One of the chief objects of this course is to arouse in you that ‘‘vital spark’’ which we refer to by various names, such as determination, ambition, etc., and cause it to develop into a flame of enthusiasm that will carry you on to a greater achievement of some sort!
You are sure to find, somewhere in this magazine, the loose ends of the threads of life which lead to your desired goal! You are sure to get hold of at least one big idea that you can nourish and develop into a finished product that will bring you success and happiness. Just which one of these chapters you will find this idea in, or whether you will find it in more than one, we cannot say. You may find this idea in a single word or a single sentence. We wish that we might point out to you the exact chapter, the paragraph, and the sentence in which this idea is to be found, but this is impossible, because some will find it in one place, while others will find it somewhere else.
You will have to find it for yourself, and when you do, you will readily recognize it. We know that it is here, because this magazine covers all of the principles through which the human mind works,
and the human mind is first cause for all that any person ever accomplished or ever will accomplish.
Through this course in applied psychology, you have gone back to the first cause of all the power that man has or can use in any sort of achievement. You are at the fountainhead from which all human
achievements are drawn! It makes no difference what life work you have selected, or what work you intend to follow; you will have to make use of the principles which are covered by this course; therefore, in the study of the course, you are preparing yourself for success in whatever field of endeavor the future may find you engaged in.
We want you to get this viewpoint, because it will help you to search diligently and with intense interest for the ‘‘end of the thread’’ which, when unwound, will lead you to your desired station in life. As a befitting close for this chapter on memory, we quote the following from the work on applied psychology by Dr. Warren Hilton, author of Applied Psychology (12-volume set) and founder
of the Society of Applied Psychology.
A Scientific Memory System for Business Success
‘‘We recall things by their associates. When you set your mind to remember any particular fact, your
conscious effort should be not vaguely to will that it should be impressed and retained, but analytically and deliberately to connect it with one or more other facts already in your mind.
‘‘The student who ‘crams’ for an examination makes no permanent addition to his knowledge. There can be no recall without association, and ‘cramming’ allows no time to form associations. ‘‘If you find it difficult to remember a fact or a name, do not waste your energies in ‘willing’ it to return. Try to recall some other fact or name associated with the first in time or place or otherwise, and lo! when you least expect it, it will pop into your thoughts.
‘‘If your memory is good in most respects, but poor in a particular line, it is because you do not interest yourself in that line and, therefore, have no material for association. Blind Tom’s memory was a blank on most subjects, but he was a walking encyclopedia on music. ‘‘To improve your memory, you must increase the number and variety of your mental associations. ‘‘Many ingenious methods, scientifically correct, have been devised to aid in the remembering of particular facts. These methods are based wholly on the principle that that is most easily recalled is associated in our mind with the most complex and elaborate groupings of related ideas.
‘‘The same principle is at the basis of all efficient pedagogy. The competent teacher endeavors by
some association of ideas to link every new fact with those facts which the pupil already has
acquired. ‘‘In the pursuit of this method, the teacher will compare all that is far off and foreign to something that is near home, making the unknown plain by the sample of the known, and connecting all the instruction with the personal experience of the pupil—if the teacher is to explain the distance of the sun from the earth, let him ask, ‘If anyone here in the sun fired off a cannon straight at you, what should you do?’ ‘Get out of the way,’ would be the answer. ‘No need of that,’ the teacher might reply; ‘you may quietly go to sleep in your room and get up again, you may wait till your confirmation day, you may learn a trade, and grow as old as I am— then only will the cannonball be getting near; then you may jump to one side! See, so great as that is the sun’s distance!’
‘‘We shall now show you how to apply this principle in improving your memory and in making a more complete use of your really vast store of knowledge.
‘‘Rule I: MAKE SYSTEMATIC USE OF YOUR SENSE ORGANS.
‘‘Do you find it difficult to remember names? It is because you do not link them in your mind with
enough associations. Every time a man is introduced to you, look about you. Who is present? Take note of as many and as great a variety of surrounding facts and circumstances as possible. Think of the man’s name, and take another look at his face, his dress, his physique. Think of his name, and mark the place where you are now for the first time meeting him. Think of his name in conjunction with the name and personality of the friend who presented him. ‘‘Memory is not a distant faculty of mind in the sense that one man is generously endowed in that respect while another is deficient. Memory, as meaning the power of voluntary recall, is wholly a question of trained habits of mental operation.
‘‘Your memory is just as good as mine or any other man’s. It is your indifference to what you call
‘irrelevant facts’ that is at fault. Therefore, cultivate habits of observation. Fortify the observed facts
you wish to recall with a multitude of outside associations. Never rest with a mere halfway knowledge of things. ‘‘To assist you in training yourself in those habits of observation that make a good memory of outside facts, we append the following exercises:
‘‘(a) Walk slowly through a room with which you are not familiar. Then make a list of all the contents
of the room you can recall. Do this every day for a week, using a different room each time. Do it not
half-heartedly, but as if your life depended on your ability to remember. At the end of the week, you
will be surprised at the improvement you have made.
‘‘(b) As you walk along the street, observe all that occurs in a space of one block, things heard as well
as things seen. Two hours later, make a list of all you can recall. Do this twice a day for ten days.
Then compare results.
‘‘(c) Make a practice of recounting each night the incidents of the day. The prospect of having this to
do will cause you unconsciously to observe more attentively. ‘‘This is the method by which Thurlow Weed acquired his phenomenal memory. As a young man with political ambitions, he had been much
troubled by his inability to recall names and faces. So he began the practice each night of telling his
wife the most minute details that had occurred during the day. He kept this up for fifty years, and it
so trained his powers for observation that he became as well known for his unfailing memory as
for his political adroitness.
‘‘(d) Glance once at an outline map of some state. Put it out of sight and draw one as nearly like it as
you can. Then compare it with the original. Do this frequently.
‘‘(e) Have someone read you a sentence out of a magazine, and you then repeat it. Do this daily,
gradually increasing the length of the quotation from short sentences to whole paragraphs. Try to
find out what is the extreme limit of your ability in this respect compared with that of other members
of your family.
‘‘Rule II: FIX IDEAS BY THEIR ASSOCIATES.
‘‘There are other things to be remembered besides facts of outside observation. You are not one
whose life is passed entirely in a physical world. You live also within. Your mind is unceasingly at
work with the materials of the past, painting the pictures of the future. You are called upon to scheme, to devise, to invent, to compose, and to foresee.
‘‘If all this mental work is not wasted energy, you must be able to recall its conclusions when occasion requires. A happy thought comes to you— will you remember it tomorrow when the hour of
action arrives? There is but one way to be sure, and that is by making a study of the whole associative
mental process. ‘‘Review the train of ideas by which you reached your conclusion. Carry the thought on in mind to its legitimate conclusion. See yourself acting upon it. Mark its relations to other persons. ‘‘Note all the details of the mental picture. In other words, to remember thoughts, cultivate sense observation to remember outside matters. ‘‘To train yourself in thought-memory, use the
following exercises:
‘‘(a) Every morning at eight o’clock sharp on the minute, fix upon a certain idea and determine to
recall it at a certain hour during the day. Put your whole will into this resolution. Try to imagine what
activities you will be engaged in at the appointed hour, and think of the chosen idea as identified
with those activities. Associate it in your mind with some object that will be at hand when the set time comes. Having thus fixed the idea in your mind, forget it. Do not refer to it in your thoughts. With practice, you will find yourself automatically carrying out your own orders. Persist in this
exercise for at least three months.
‘‘(b) Every night when you retire, fix upon the hour at which you wish to get up in the morning. In
connection with your waking at that hour, think of all the sounds that will be apt to be occurring at that particular time. Bar every other thought from your consciousness and fall asleep with the intense
determination to arise at the time set. By all means, get up instantly when you awaken. Keep up this
exercise, and you will soon be able to awaken at any hour you may wish.
‘‘(c) Every morning, outline the general plan of your activities for the day. Select only the important
things. Do not bother with the details. Determine upon the logical order for your day’s work. Think
not so much of how you are to do things as of the things you are to do. Keep your mind on results.
And having made your plan, stick to it. Be your own boss. Let nothing tempt you from your set purpose. Make this daily planning a habit and hold to it through life. It will give you a great lift toward whatever prize you seek.
‘‘Rule III: SEARCH SYSTEMATICALLY AND PERSISTENTLY.
‘‘When once you have started upon an effort at recollection, persevere. The date or face or event
that you wish to recall is bound up with the multitude of other facts of observation and of your
mind life of the past. Success in recalling it depends simply upon your ability to hit upon some idea so indissolubly associated with the object of search that the recall of one automatically recalls the
others. Consequently, the thing to do is to hold your attention to one definite line of thought until
you have exhausted its possibilities. You must pass in review all the associated matters and suppress or ignore them until the right one comes to mind. This may be a short-cut process or a round-about
process, but it will bring results nine times out of ten and, if habitually persisted in, will greatly improve your power of voluntary recall.
‘‘Rule IV: THE INSTANT YOU RECOLLECT A THING TO BE DONE, DO IT.
‘‘Every idea that memory thrusts into your consciousness carries with it the impulse to act upon it. If you fail to do so, the matter may not occur to you, or when it does, it may be too late. ‘‘Your mental mechanism will serve you faithfully only as long as you act upon its suggestions. ‘‘This is as true of bodily habits as of business affairs. The time to act upon an important matter that just now comes to mind is not ‘tomorrow’ or ‘a little later,’ but now.
‘‘What you do from moment to moment tells the story of your career. Ideas that come to you should
be compared as to their relative importance. But do this honestly. Do not be swayed by distracting
impulses that inadvertently slip in. And having gauged their importance, give free rein at once to
the impulse to do everything that should not make way for something more important.
‘‘If, for any reason, action must be deferred, fix the matter in your mind to be called up at the proper
time. Drive all other thoughts from your consciousness. Give your whole attention to one
matter. Determine the exact moment at which you wish it to be recalled. Then put your whole self into the determination to remember it at precisely the right moment. And, finally, and perhaps most
important of all—
‘‘Rule V: HAVE SOME SIGN OR TOKEN.
‘‘This memory signal may be anything you choose, but it must, somehow, be directly connected with
the hour at which the main event is to be recalled. ‘‘Make a business of observing the memory signs
or tokens you have been habitually using. Practice tagging those matters you wish to recall with the
labels that form a part of your mental machinery. ‘‘Make it a habit to do things when they ought to be
done and in the order in which you ought to do them. Habits like this are ‘paths’ along which the mind ‘moves,’ paths of least resistance to those qualities of promptness, energy, persistence, accuracy, self control, and so on, that increase success.
‘‘Success in business, success in life, can come only through the formation of right habits. A right habit can be deliberately acquired only by doing a thing consciously until it comes to be done
unconsciously and automatically. ‘‘Every man, consciously or unconsciously, forms his own memory habits, good or bad. Form your memory habits consciously according to the laws of the mind, and in good time, they will act unconsciously and with masterful precision.
‘‘ ‘Amid the shadows of the pyramids,’ Bonaparte said to his soldiers, ‘twenty centuries look down
upon you,’ and animated them to action and victory. ‘But all the centuries,’ says W. H. Grove, ‘and the eternities, and God, and the universe, look down upon us—and demand the highest culture of body, mind, and spirit.’ ‘‘A good memory is yours for the making. But you must make it. We can point the way. You must act. ‘‘The laws of association and recall are the combination that will unlock the treasure-vaults of memory. Apply these laws, and the riches of experience will be available to you in every need.’’
Summary
In this lesson, you have learned that concentration on the subject to be remembered is one of the chief factors in accurate memory. You have learned that by associating that which you wish to remember with something with which you are familiar and which you can easily recall, your ability to remember is greatly increased. You have learned that the subconscious mind classifies the sense impressions reaching your mind and files those which are similar or which bear a close association together, so that when the thing with which a sense impression is associated is called into the conscious mind, it brings with it that sense impression.
You have learned that repetition enables your subconscious mind to get a clear picture of the sense impression that you wish recorded in your memory, and that by repeating over and over the name of that which you wish to remember, you will have no trouble recalling it when wanted. ASSOCIATION—CONCENTRATION—REPETITION are the three chief allies of memory!
You have learned that indifference at the time a sense impression is made is the chief reason for a poor memory. Next to this in the list of the three chief enemies of memory are divided attention at the time of the sense impression and lack of concentration. You have also learned, through the story of Mr. Farrell, the relationship between an accurate memory and success in your lifework. If the subject of memory had to be defined in one short sentence, we would word that sentence as follows:
‘‘Concentrate your full attention on that which you wish to remember, picture it in your mind, repeat it aloud, then associateit with some person or place which you can readily recall at any time.’’
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon