Good memory is a powerful money-making tool.

I interviewed top memory expert Jim Kwik about supercharging your brain, and we had such an engaging conversation that I had to split it into 2 parts!

Click here to catch up on Part 1 of my podcast interview with Jim Kwik…

Click here to listen to Part 2* of my podcast interview with Jim Kwik…

*Part 2 focuses more on memory as a powerful tool!

Or… here are my biggest takeaways from Jim about A) how memory works in the first place, and B) how to improve your memory moving forward.

How Memory Works

First, let’s bust a widely held belief that’s just flat out untrue! People tend to think that they’re naturally born with either good or bad memory. According to memory expert Jim Kwik, there is no such thing as “good” or “bad” memory, but rather “trained” or “untrained” memory.

Like anything else, memory is a skill that can be mastered. All you need is an effective method. Powerful systems are the secret behind all successful people.

Note: this is the same principle as improving your money and health!

If you study people who have accumulated great wealth, you’ll notice that all of them have a method. For me, it’s my signature cash flow method that I teach in my money course. Likewise, if you look at people who are optimally healthy, they all have a method as well! It could be a nutrition plan, fitness routine, sleep schedule, so on and so forth.

The point is that just like making money or becoming healthy, memory is a skill that can be improved. And it gets easier with practice! Once you look at memory as a skill rather than as a genetic trait, you can start making real change.

Before adopting memory methods, however, it’s crucial to first understand the 3 stages of memory…

1. Encoding: perceiving an experience and imprinting it as a memory
2. Storage: saving the memory in either your short-term or long-term memory
3. Retrieval: being able to conjure up stored memories

During my interview with Jim, he mentioned the “3 R’s” that you might remember from elementary school: “Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic.” According to him, there should be a fourth “R” for Retrieval. Because that third stage of memory is where most people’s issues with memory are located.

Most of us have no problem encoding and storing information. But if we can improve our retrieval of that information, it can become an extremely valuable skill in the business world.

How to Improve Memory

So if memory is a skill, how do you practice it? Jim breaks it down into 3 steps. In order of importance, here they are…

1. Motivation
2. Observation
3. Mechanics

Notice that “mechanics,” or the actual exercises that can help with memory, is listed as the least important of the three. It’s easy to want to jump right to the exercises, but the most powerful first steps you can take exist in those first two steps.

Motivation is the Number 1 factor for improving your memory. At Jim’s conferences, he often asks guests if they remember the name of the first person they met at the conference. Many of them say no. But Jim then poses a follow-up question…

What if at the beginning of the conference, he promised people a briefcase with $1,000,000 in it if they can remember the name of the next person that they meet. Those people would be so motivated to remember the name. Do you think they’d have a better chance of keeping it in mind hours later? Of course they would!

Observation is the next most important step. And this refers to the act of paying close attention. People are so concerned with how they are being perceived at any given moment – or thinking about what they’re going to say next – rather than actually listening closely to what other people are saying.

Being present and aware goes such a long way toward improving memory. And like Step 1, or motivation, this all starts with an intention. Make an intention to try your best to live in the moment, be more present, and truly listen… and you might be surprised at how much your memory improves over time.

Mechanics is the third and final step to improving memory. And that’s where the master himself – Jim Kwik – comes in! He has built his multi-million dollar businesses on helping people master their brain and improve their memory.

In short, it all comes down to exercising the brain just like you would exercise your muscles. But instead of going to the gym, give your brain a workout! Challenge yourself to memorize people’s birthdays, grocery lists, phone numbers… anything that puts your brain to the test.

With that being said, Jim has all of this down to a science. And he goes much deeper on these strategies in our podcast interview. And he goes significantly deeper during his programs and live events.

Think about how big of a difference it would make to remember everything that you read in books and educational articles. Think about how valuable it would be to refer back to specific conversations with people you’d like to strike up a business relationship with. Remembering all of those names and conversations goes a long way, and they turn you into a serious threat in the business world.

Who would successful people want to partner up with? The person who forgets their name the next time they bump into each other at a conference? Or the person who remembers not only the other person’s name but is able to retrieve specific points out of their last conversation?

Click here to catch up on Part 1 of my podcast interview with Jim Kwik…

Click here to listen to Part 2 of my podcast interview with Jim Kwik…