Our memory underpins everything we think, say and do. Many of us consider it a basic brain ability that allows us to (sometimes) remember a shopping list, birthday or anniversary. Memory is far more fundamental than that. It supports basic activities such as breathing and movement, right through to complex activities such as performing surgery and flying an aircraft.
For such a fundamental skill, it's surprising that school does not teach us more about how to learn and how to use our memory well. Many people still consider learning a "hit and miss" affair. They hope that some of what they learn by rote sinks in to allow them to pass a test.
If you have ever tried to find out more about learning though, you probably found few guides on how to learn more effectively. Our brain doesn't come with a user's manual. You also may not have the time to find valuable information. A wide range of methods and techniques out there claim to improve memory. Many do not work. Some bad experiences may push you to stick to the ways you already know.
I believe this book answers the question "how do I improve my learning and memory?" Over the past few years, I've used flight training and other activities to help work out that answer for myself. In researching this book, I've reviewed more than thirty books, many articles and countless web references to add to and refine my knowledge. I've tried to avoid the unproven ideas and only include techniques shown to work by reputable organizations or direct experience. I've then turned that knowledge into an easy-to-understand system you can easily apply to any learning objective.
I call this approach Memletics. Memletics combines the words Memory and Athletics. I chose this name because there many parallels between athletic skill and learning skill. Let's look at some of those.
While you may believe you have a poor memory, your brain's performance does not differ that much from the rest of the population. Think of your brain like your muscles. The strength and endurance of your muscles comes mostly from repeated exercise and training. Almost anyone can improve their fitness and strength through training. There isn't much variation between individuals at the muscle cell level, nor at the brain cell level. You mostly get fit, and lose fitness, at a similar pace as the rest of the population. We remember and forget at a similar pace. You don't have a poor memory, you just have an untrained memory.
You can improve your athletic fitness through many activities. Similarly, you can also improve your memory fitness through many activities. Some are easy, some are challenging. Just like athletic fitness, it takes time to build your memory fitness. You don't expect you can run a marathon the day after going for a jog for the first time in five years. Similarly, you can't learn one memory technique and suddenly your memory drastically improves.
Like improving your athletic fitness, improving your memory fitness has benefits in many areas of your life. Employment, relationships, confidence and leisure are a few. I strongly believe that in today's economic climate, self-directed learners have a great advantage over those who wait for the next organized course to come along. This book helps you become a self-directed learner.
The more varied your memory training, the more you can use your memory fitness in different ways. Comparing back to athletics, if you only learn one technique you are like someone who only does the javelin. If you instead learn several disciplines, you are like someone who can also run, swim and jump. Someone capable in these areas can also apply and enjoy their fitness in new sports, physical games, and other activities. Similarly, knowing several memory techniques allows you to enjoy the benefits of good memory in many other areas of your life, not just in your studies.
Athletics and Memletics do differ on a particular point though. Athletics typically focuses on a particular event. For example, an athletic meet, championship or even the Olympic Games. Memletics differs because it focuses on lifelong learning. Let me explain a little more. We often measure the effectiveness of a training course by how effectively we can perform certain skills at the end of the course. For example, we use an exam to test our learning. This measure of effectiveness does not consider how much we forget three months, six months or a year after training"usually the most important time! If we used long-term retention as the measure of success for today's courses, we would find that many rate poorly.
Memletics does not just focus on training for an exam or test. It provides you with techniques to help keep what you've learned in your immediately accessible memory for the long term"for the rest of your life if you wish.
You can apply Memletics to many goals involving some form of learning. In doing so you further develop your Memletic fitness. Indeed, if you don't already have a goal in mind I recommend you find one to help you learn Memletics at the same time. In the Overview chapter, I list many examples, however here are a few: Use it to learn professions such as flying, medicine and law. Use it to develop personal skills such as communication, presentation, leadership and consulting. School and college students can apply it to their studies. If you want to focus on pursuits unrelated to work, why not try your hand at sailing, photography, languages, cooking or wine appreciation? Lastly, Memletics works well with sports and other physical activities.
Throughout this book, you will find practical examples from some of these areas. I often use these examples to show how to apply a particular technique. Many of the examples are from learning to fly, however I've also included examples from public speaking, sailing, photography and others. The word example appears over four hundred times in this book.
At first, using Memletics may take more time. As a society we have tried to take shortcuts in learning. Memletics will help you relearn practices so you can learn any topic quickly. Once you learn how, the extra effort repays itself many times over.
This book is your Memletics training guide. Use it to help you develop Memletic fitness. The first chapter gives you an overview and then the following five chapters take you through Memletics in detail. You learn the fundamentals of the Memletic State, Process, Techniques, Styles and Approach. Any worthwhile effort likely involves various challenges. Chapter seven of the book, "Deal with Challenges," provides examples on how you can overcome some common learning challenges. The last chapter, "Closing Comments" provides further ideas on how you can continue building your Memletic fitness, as well as some final words.
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As you can see, you can apply Memletics in almost any area of your life. You may be still in school, in the middle of a career or retired. For younger individuals, Memletics provides a great head start in education. Those who are working can use Memletics to advance their career faster. Memletics can help you make the most of recreation time. For older individuals, Memletic fitness helps ward off the effects of ageing on the brain.
I want to mention one last parallel between athletic fitness and Memletic fitness. Like athletic fitness, your Memletic fitness doesn't improve if you don't get up and do something. Reading this book alone may slightly improve your Memletic fitness, however to get the benefits you need to start learning and using the system. A good memory comes from practice. As you read, start thinking of ways you can practice Memletics. How can you start to apply the system in your life? If you don't already have a goal in mind, start thinking of ideas.
Be excited about learning! Read on and find out how.
IMPORTANT. This book is for informational purposes only. Read and understand the disclaimer in the front section of this book. It's your sole responsibility to decide the usefulness, applicability, completeness and correctness of the content in this book. If you do not accept the disclaimer, please don't continue reading the book.