Improve Your Memory and Learning with the 4C's. Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horsley.

EPISODE 227

"Unlimited Memory" by Kevin Horsley is a self-help book that aims to improve memory and enhance overall cognitive performance. It provides various strategies, techniques, and exercises to help readers develop a powerful memory and optimize their learning abilities.

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"Unlimited Memory" by Kevin Horsley is a self-help book that aims to improve memory and enhance overall cognitive performance. It provides various strategies, techniques, and exercises to help readers develop a powerful memory and optimize their learning abilities.

Buy The Book on Amazon

https://geni.us/UnlimitedMemory

Get the summary via Blinkist

https://blinkist.o6eiov.net/jrnRqb

Become a Moonshot Member

https://www.patreon.com/Moonshots

Watch this episode on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haua-xaFVqw&t=3s

Here's how the book can help in achieving high performance:

1. Memory Improvement: The book offers practical methods for improving memory retention and recall. It introduces memory techniques such as visualization, association, and creating memory palaces to enhance the ability to remember information more effectively. By implementing these techniques, readers can remember important facts, details, and concepts with greater ease, which benefits students, professionals, and anyone seeking to enhance their memory capacity.

2. Learning Enhancement: Effective learning is crucial for high performance, and this book provides insights into accelerated learning strategies. It teaches readers how to absorb information more efficiently, organize their study material, and develop effective study habits. By applying these techniques, individuals can optimize their learning process, acquire knowledge faster, and retain information for longer periods.

3. Productivity and Efficiency: Individuals can enhance their productivity and efficiency with improved memory and learning skills. The book offers techniques to help readers organize their thoughts, prioritize tasks, and manage their time effectively. By implementing these strategies, individuals can reduce the time spent on relearning and reviewing information, leading to higher productivity and better performance in various areas of life.

4. Cognitive Agility: The book also emphasizes the importance of mental flexibility and agility. It provides exercises and techniques to improve focus, concentration, and the ability to think critically. By training the mind to be more agile, individuals can adapt to new situations, solve problems more effectively, and perform at a higher level in academic, professional, and personal endeavors.

5. Confidence and Motivation: Improving memory and learning abilities can boost self-confidence and motivation. The book addresses common memory challenges and offers strategies to overcome them, empowering readers to believe they can improve their memory capabilities. Increased confidence and motivation lead to a positive mindset and a willingness to take on challenges, contributing to high-performance outcomes.

Overall, "Unlimited Memory" equips readers with practical techniques to enhance memory, accelerate learning, increase productivity, and achieve high performance in various areas of life. By implementing the strategies outlined in the book, individuals can unlock their cognitive potential and optimize their mental abilities.

Buy The Book on Amazon

https://geni.us/UnlimitedMemory

Get the summary via Blinkist

https://blinkist.o6eiov.net/jrnRqb

Become a Moonshot Member

https://www.patreon.com/Moonshots

RUNSHEET

INTRO
Kevin Horsley at TEDxPretoria introduces us to the power of memory
Attention Problem (3m12)

WHAT ARE THE COMMON METHODS
Dreamlet provides a quick breakdown of the memory methods available
The 4 C’s (2m50)

MASTERY METHODS
Productivity Game breaks down the two Master Memory Method
SEEing (3m42)

Productivity Game breaks down the two Master Memory Method
Placing (2m09)

OUTRO
Kevin closes the show by telling us to how fun with our memory
Celebrate learning (1m50)

Buy The Book on Amazon

https://geni.us/UnlimitedMemory

Get the summary via Blinkist

https://blinkist.o6eiov.net/jrnRqb

Become a Moonshot Member

https://www.patreon.com/Moonshots

TRANSCRIPT

Mike Parsons: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Moonshots Podcast. It's episode 227. I'm your co-host Mike Parsons, and as always, I'm joined by Mark Pearson. Freeland. Good morning, mark.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Hey, good morning, Mike. Good morning listeners. Good morning members. Good morning viewers. Is there any other media, Mike, that we could try and call out and get, uh, individuals around the world listening in and join us as we learn out loud on the Moonshot podcast?

Mark Pearson Freeland: I think we nearly have maxed it out.

Mike Parsons: Maybe it's, we need an additional audience. Maybe it's the memorizers.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Ooh. I think the memorizes would find the topic of today's episode very, very, uh, revealing. Very exciting, and very, very insightful because today, listeners, members, and viewers, we have [00:01:00] a powerhouse of a book.

Mark Pearson Freeland: We are diving into Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horsley. Now this mic, as you can see on the book title, that's just behind us. And for listeners who can't see us, this is by, uh, grand Master. Kevin Horsley and the reason why individuals like Kevin get such an amazing, uh, headline, should we say, is because they have proven themselves to be extraordinary.

Mark Pearson Freeland: When it comes to the power of recognition and memory, boy, Mike, I think that is a pretty good, uh, uh, call out as we are within this good thinking series for somebody who can join the ranks of our moonshot, uh, library, who's a grand master of memory, and they're gonna make the case for us today on how you and I and our listeners can also activate that advanced level of memory recognition.

Mark Pearson Freeland: I think that's a pretty good, uh, pretty good addition, wouldn't you say?

Mike Parsons: I, I do. I think, you know, the, the title of [00:02:00] grandmaster sounds pretty intense if you ask me. Uh, I dunno what he, do you know what he specifically did to be a grandma? Has he, is this a, a, an officious title that he's received through, through something?

Mark Pearson Freeland: It is. Yeah, that's correct. It's a, it is an official title that Kevin received by proving himself on the, uh, let's say the, the world stage of memory. Okay. So there's a lot of work and a lot of situations, um, exhibitions and so on that people can go through. Uh, such as, even though Guinness World Records, for example, he's essentially a Guinness World Record, uh, legend when it comes to memory.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Holy smoke, holy smoke.

Mike Parsons: Now see, he spent a lifetime, um, pursuing an unlimited memory. And I think we have to confess to our listeners that we actually both were really surprised in preparing this show and studying this book [00:03:00] because we both were like, Gee, I hadn't thought that I could work on my memory as actively, uh, as what Kevin suggests.

Mike Parsons: And in fact, it's a bit, uh, analogous to the Happiness series. We both walked away from that going, wow, you can really kind of work on happiness, like going to the gym. And I have to say, I think memory's exactly the same,

Mark Pearson Freeland: don't you? Yeah, I, I think that's an interesting build, Mike. I mean, Kevin was one of those individuals who necess, who wasn't necessarily born with, you know, an ultra large brain.

Mark Pearson Freeland: You know, he wasn't necessarily remembering, uh, his ABCs any quicker than anybody else. Instead, he was actually dyslexic. And he actually struggled through going through school, but he was able to train his brain. Wow. Similar to, as you've just said, any other muscle to retain information much more substantially than anyone else.

Mark Pearson Freeland: And through the work that he did, [00:04:00] through analysis, through, uh, trial and error, figuring out the things that worked well for him, he was then able to put that into practice, like I said earlier, to win, um, medals and prove himself on the. Uh, world record stage through repetition. Mm. So he essentially had figured out a lot of the tips and tricks and techniques that worked for him.

Mark Pearson Freeland: He complimented that with some scientific research and has developed this book based on what he's understood from a scientific as well as proven, uh, stage that enabled him to get to the grand master, um, level within the memory game. And,

Mike Parsons: and I think, I think memory and knowledge as, as we've discovered on this good thinking series, but also previously with the likes of Jim Quick, I think memory is a really important faculty in our daily operations.

Mike Parsons: Cuz I think one of the things is we just are presented with a whole [00:05:00] lot of information. So knowing how to filter through it, knowing how to, Organize it. Tiago Forte with the second brain. But I think with memory, I think we have a choice to allocate the, the random access memory that we have as humans, our ram.

Mike Parsons: I think using that, working that out like a muscle, but more even simply still, like let's load our minds with positive. Valuable knowledge and wisdom that we've accumulated that really helps us be the best version of ourselves that really helps us in our craft, in our art, doing our life's work. And I think that's all ahead for us here on this show, mark.

Mike Parsons: So why don't we rip into it? What have you got first to, to launch into the Grand Master's world of unlimited memory?

Mark Pearson Freeland: Look, I think we've gotta launch straight into Grandma master, Kevin Horsley, who's presenting at [00:06:00] Ted in Pretoria, uh, which is where he's from. So let's actually hear straight away. Enough of you and me, Mike.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Let's hear from Kevin Horsley himself. Introduce us to the power of memory. There is no such

Kevin Horsley: thing as a good or bad memory. There is only a good or bad memory strategy. Now some people think I have a bad memory because I can't remember where they put their car keys. Have you had that experience? Well, that's not a memory problem.

Kevin Horsley: That's an attention problem because when you put your car keys down, you just didn't pay attention. But if you look at your car keys and you dunno what they're for, now that's a memory problem. But what about if you park your car to shopping mall and you get back and it's gone? Well, sometimes it is gone.

Kevin Horsley: But if you always wanna remember where you parked your car, you just need to turn around, mark it as something in the environment, obviously not the car next to you, and you'll obviously be able to remember your car. So most of the things that we call memory [00:07:00] problems are quite normal and can be solved with a bit of attention, but memory is so much more than this.

Kevin Horsley: So why is it important for us to improve our memory? Well, how many of you have read the book, seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. Okay, what are the seven habits?

Kevin Horsley: What's the use of reading or learning anything if you can't recall what you know? Because no matter how much you discover or experience here today, it's value vanishes. If you forget it all tomorrow, you can only live information if you can remember it. The quality of your thinking is determined by the facts that you have remembered, because your thinking relies on short-term and long-term storage of information.

Kevin Horsley: The great [00:08:00] innovator Thomas Edison said, I didn't read a few books. I read the library, and he remembered everything that he read. Because the more information that you can process, the more ideas you can generate. When you have laser-like focus and you improve your memory, you also improve your speed of learning and recall.

Kevin Horsley: You improve your self-confidence and you'll be known as someone that knows their stuff. Tell me, would you allow a doctor to operate on you if they had to continually refer to a manual or would you hire someone for their ability to Google information? No, you wouldn't. So we really need to get back to our brain and start storing information in our brain.

Kevin Horsley: In our brain again, because that is where the magic of creativity happens. There's a saying that says that the shortest pencil is better than the longest memory. Well, that's not true [00:09:00] because when information is on paper or on a screen, you are observing knowledge. But when it is in your brain, you have an inward experience of knowledge and the more memories you have properly stored in your brain, the more potential you have to make unique combinations and connections.

Kevin Horsley: And the more you know, the easier it's to get to know more.

Mike Parsons: Uh, unique combinations and connections that almost surmises our battle mark of trying to remember everything we learn on the show. Right? We're constantly That's right. Looking at those, those connections. And it's a great trick. I mean, we've studied, uh, Stephen Covey's seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and when you don't put me on this spot, What are the actual seven habits you're like, oh boy.

Mike Parsons: And it's funny, I can't recall all seven and we studied, I've read the book and I can't recall all seven cuz there's so much coming in my [00:10:00] brain every week and every day. And I do think that, you know, so many problems that we see in the world have been solved before. And so I think if you have the ability to go back into history, For example, if you look at Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, you might argue that a lot of self-improvement books that have come following that book riff on very similar themes, right?

Mike Parsons: So what you see is that. Historically speaking, like mankind's been around for millennia solving problems, so your ability to recall learnt wisdom or thinking models, aah. Elon Musk or even you and Mema. Just trying to remember what has been shared on this show, for example, with Stephen Cubby. [00:11:00] Oh my gosh.

Mike Parsons: Like the circle of influence and focusing on that, that circle that you do in fact control and not worrying about things beyond that. What a powerful thought. I'm so glad that that really stuck with me. But on the other hand, maybe if I'd listened to Kevin, I could remember the other six as well.

Mark Pearson Freeland: I know, I know.

Mark Pearson Freeland: But I think that's a really interesting, um, Inside Mike, there's been so many individuals and so much work done before us that a lot of the time the problems that we are facing have probably been solved elsewhere. Yes. Or they've been solved before. And like you say, there's been so many times when us both on the podcast as well as in our own working lives, we'll be picking up these books to try and help us, all of us do, whether they're problems with, uh, careers, with relationships, with decision making.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Or just using our time efficiently or happiness. Yes. All of these books and so much wealth [00:12:00] and knowledge within them, it can be hard to, to really crack down and remember all of that stuff. Absolutely. And Kevin's really made that case for, for me because at the end of the day, my relationship to my memory is fairly, um, um, light.

Mark Pearson Freeland: It's light touch. I don't take a lot of ownership when it comes to improving my memory. Yes. Instead, it just feels like it's fairly fixed. Which then goes against the, uh, the insights that we've always shared. Yeah. Which is, you know, growth mindset. Yeah,

Mike Parsons: yeah, yeah. So here's the interesting thing. I think I'm quite conscious and active of the inputs, but.

Mike Parsons: I haven't been nearly as active and aware of the retention of the good stuff. Like I said, I, I instantly can recall the most powerful and vivid, uh, habit from the Seven Habits, um, book. But I can't, you know, I'd have to really go back and write it out a bit to see if I can remember the others. [00:13:00] And I think this is the opportunity that when we are presented with complex problems, If we can recall the lessons of history or even still make it even easier, at least we can recall the thinking models, the mindsets or approaches that would be available to us.

Mike Parsons: Like say there's a problem, maybe I can think about it in a couple of different ways. Being able to recall those actively, and this takes me back to Cal Newport's Deep Work, this active recall of knowledge. Is so very crucial because that's when you make connections, synergies, imagination happens, all of those good things.

Mike Parsons: So he's certainly made a great case and I'd like to make a case to you, mark, that we, we truly have some great members

Mark Pearson Freeland: as well. Oh, that's right, Mike. Indeed we do. And I'm gonna confess, I don't have everybody memorized off the top of my head yet, but maybe inspired by today's show I will be able [00:14:00] to remember everybody's name.

Mark Pearson Freeland: But until then, let me read out from my piece of paper that I prepared earlier. Please welcome our annual members. Bob, John Terry, Ken DeMar, Marj, and Connor, Rodrigo, Lisa, Sid, Mr. Bon, Paul Berg, Kelman. David, Joe, crystal, Ivo, Christian, Samoa, Barbara, Andre, Eric, Chris, Deborah Lase and brand new graduate. Who has joined the ranks of the annual members this week, Steve, but again, close on those heels include Craig, Daniel, Andrew, Ravi, Yvette, Karen Raul, and pj, Nico, RA, Ola, Ingram, Dirk, Emily, Harry, Karthik, and Vata, Marco, Roger, Steph Gabi, Anna Ni, and Eric.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Di, uh, Diana Wade, Amanda Christophe, Denise Teresas Ra, Laura Smitty. Corey, Andre, Gayla, max, Bertram, Daniela and Mike. Woo Mike. [00:15:00] Maybe one day I will be able to remember all of those people back to back. If anyone's gonna teach me how it's probably gonna be the Grandmaster himself. Mr. Kevin Horsley, don't you think?

Mark Pearson Freeland: Oh,

Mike Parsons: think so. And a big thanks and a big shout out to all of our members, all of our viewers. So if you are listening on the audio show, Head over to YouTube because you can get the show over there or check the show notes, uh, in your app of choice and you'll find a link to YouTube as well. So, um, okay.

Mike Parsons: The Grandmaster Mark, he made his case, but the good news is that he has a very memorable acronym for us to actually start applying It, doesn't he? That's right. We're gonna

Mark Pearson Freeland: now hear from a breakdown with Dream Lit, who does a fantastic YouTube channel. He's gonna provide us a breakdown of some of the memory methods available, and they are called the four Cs.

Mark Pearson Freeland: In

Dreamlet: order to master memory, you need the four Cs concentration, create imagery, connecting concepts, [00:16:00] and continuous use. Concentration means purpose, interest, and curiosity. Create imagery means to practice your imagination and senses. The more creative you are, the easier the memory methods are. Connecting concepts means to practice relating the known to the unknown.

Dreamlet: Continuous use means review and practice as often as you can. Those are the four Cs that will guide you to gaining superhuman memory. All right. Here are the memory methods. Most methods use the journey or mind movie tool where you imagine certain events happening in your head first, the car method. In this method, you imagine going through your car and seeing events or objects in a particular sequence that represent what you need to memorize, for instance, If you wanna memorize the seven habits of highly effective people, you might make up a story with a Be for, be Proactive, and a brain running to a finish line to represent, begin with, the end in mind, and so on.

Dreamlet: Basically what you have to do is imagine a story with notable characters and the environment is your car for the body method. Instead of a car, replace it with your body. You can start at your toes and move your way up, [00:17:00] or vice versa. And that's it for the Body Method. There are two peg methods. First, the rhyme method.

Dreamlet: Come up with rhymes for numbers such as one bun, two shoe, and so on. Then soar. Whatever you need to memorize in the object. Next, the shape method. Imagine objects that are shaped like numbers, such as a pencil for one and a duck for two, and then use those objects to make connections to information you wanna memorize.

Dreamlet: Next is the places or location method. This is essentially the same idea as the car and body method, but you use a place you're very familiar with. This is Kevin's method for memorizing 10,000 digits of pie and achieving unlimited memory. Next is the link method. Come up with a story to memorize a list.

Dreamlet: For instance, you see a man washing a tin with a large Adam's apple, a chef and her son hand him medicine, and then so on. That's for memorizing presidents. Another approach is to combine images and create a story from them. Here's the first 10 elements of the periodic table. Next is memorizing names.

Dreamlet: First, the comparison method. Think of somebody with the [00:18:00] same name as the person you met and compare facial features. Connect them in your mind. For the second method, find an outstanding feature in the person's face, like their nose, eyes, or ears, and link them to their name. Finally, memorizing numbers.

Dreamlet: Assign each number to a sound. Zero for the sound, one for the Tu or duh sound. Two for the mm sound. Three for the mm sound. Four for the raw sound, five for the LA sound. Six for the Sha or cha sound. Seven for the cha Sound. Eight for the V. Or Fa sound. Nine for the ba or pu sound. Vowels are ignored. So United States of America is two one, one zero, one one zero eight three, four seven.

Dreamlet: Use this to remember phone numbers, dates, stock prices, restroom codes, and so on.

Mike Parsons: That was so intense. Mark, do you know my first reaction there is like I am doing absolutely

Mark Pearson Freeland: none of that. That's exactly the insight I have scribbled down as well, Mike. There were so many, [00:19:00] obviously that's born out of the four Cs from Kevin Horsley who, uh, as, as a quick reminder, we'll come back to the, the framework later on, Mike as well.

Mark Pearson Freeland: But concentration create imagery, create, uh, connect concepts and continuous use. When you then add on those layers that we heard specifically around how you remember names, numbers, and, and certain places, I'm not doing. Any of those things. Again, as I mentioned earlier, my relationship to my memory is very passive.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yes, I will remember what I remember and, and that's about it. Sometimes I'll, I'll obviously make notes and write the things down. That I deem, uh, areas that I might struggle to recall later, such as key pieces of information to-do, lists, that sort of thing. I'll obviously write it down and I'll use a combination of both digital as well as analog for some of those things.

Mark Pearson Freeland: But really, Mike, that that's probably about the, the level that I go to. It's, it's lists. It's. Uh, columns, it's [00:20:00] categories and so on. Maybe more familiar to what we were hearing from Tiago with this building a second brain. But when it comes to memory, really, I'm, I'm not utilizing any of those techniques yet.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Um, which I think is surprising, isn't

Mike Parsons: it? Yeah. It, it, it's such a wake up call, but also did I hear it correctly that Kevin Horsley remembered how many characters of the pie number.

Mark Pearson Freeland: 10,000. He can,

Mike Parsons: he remembered it so he can remember the entire 10,000 number set

Mark Pearson Freeland: through, uh, the technique of places. No wonder he

Mike Parsons: gets Graham master in the title.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Exactly. These, these are one of the, and that's, uh, that could well be the, the Guinness World Record. He has actually, because he is. Able to, and, and we'll dig in a little bit more later in the rest of this episode as well. We've got a couple of other clips coming up that'll bring that to life. But just the [00:21:00] concept of remembering 10,000 items, oh my God, 10,000 numbers specifically that are essentially random.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Um, at least to, to an amateur like myself. It baffles me. I, I, I can't, I can't comprehend that that's the sort of thing that you would assume people who have spent, um, their entire lives and their families, you know, they've inherited this fantastic memory. But really, as I mentioned at the beginning, Kevin Horsley was not that individual when he was at school.

Mark Pearson Freeland: It's something that he's trained himself. Yes. And I think that's such a powerful reminder, isn't it? That we could all do this if we are disciplined enough. I think that's one of the. Key takeaways that I can pull outta this? If you're disciplined enough to put into practice some of those methods. Yeah, yeah.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Maybe we can strive for that.

Mike Parsons: What do you think at first, listen from that clip, which do you think, if you were to start, okay, I'm gonna work on my [00:22:00] memory now, at least. Let's try and remember the seven habits. Yeah. Ok. Let's just start there. Which technique would you be, would be your go-to?

Mark Pearson Freeland: Well, I'm not choosing this one because it was the first one and my memory isn't so good.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Uh, I do, I do have a list here actually. I think the car one is, is, uh, a fairly, um, easy one for myself to, to get into because, and the reason why I quite like that idea is I can visualize the inside of my car fairly easily. It's a contained space. There's not too much in there. Mm. And therefore, if I was to attach or place certain memories that I was trying to remember, let's say the seven habits within that space, and therefore I'm looking around and visualizing each of those elements, I believe that that could be, Of the methods that we just heard within those four Cs.

Mark Pearson Freeland: That could be the one for me that, that stands out actually, Mike, more so perhaps the the, the numbers [00:23:00] at the end. Yeah. The different intonations. Yeah. Yeah. That, that one. I, I, I need, I need a crash course to, to dive a little bit deeper, but do you

Mike Parsons: know what's kind of exciting? Visual. Visual? Yeah. It sounds fun.

Mike Parsons: It does, but it, but like, it's like a whole universe of memory and association. That you're like, I didn't even know this stuff existed. Right. It's so exciting to think that, oh wow, I could better recall knowledge and wisdom data and information so that I can use, it can be at my fingertips. Like, fantastic.

Mike Parsons: I'm in, I'm in.

Mark Pearson Freeland: It. It, it makes so much. Sense it. It feels to me again, a build on Tiago last week. We now know that our brains are not necessarily the best categorized space. There's information out, out and about. Now that is pretty overwhelming. However, if you. Um, condense it and utilize that second brain, then you utilize some of these methods when it comes to memory.

Mark Pearson Freeland: I [00:24:00] mean, that sounds pretty unstoppable, Mike. That sounds we'd be, uh, really performing at the best of our abilities. I'd say.

Mike Parsons: So. I think, um, I think it is. Just exciting to think that there is just so much to explore in performing better. I mean, that's certainly the moment that I'm having here and it's great that we've kind of set this framework of the four Cs and I'm, you know, I'm really looking to forward to jumping into it with you.

Mike Parsons: I think one important note is if you are watching or listening and you want to grab. The show notes that are associated, uh, with this so that you can improve your memory, mark, what is the destination that you can go and pick up all those show notes?

Mark Pearson Freeland: It's very, very simple. You just pop along to www.moonshots.io.

Mark Pearson Freeland: You can get access to all of our archive shows. First of all, that's [00:25:00] all 227, Mike, that, you know, maybe if we use our unlimited memories, we could name. Back to back. Ooh seven. Kevin Horsley certainly could. Um, you've got show notes, you've got transcriptions, you've got, uh, frameworks. We've got our upcoming list, as well as the ability to sign up and become a member.

Mark Pearson Freeland: It really is the one stop shop for all things moonshots. And that's moonshots.io.

Mike Parsons: Yeah, I feel like we almost need to be able to associate that with a numerical number if we are to, you know, tip the hat to, to Kevin. But Mark, we are not done on frameworks, models, and ways to improve our memory, I don't think.

Mark Pearson Freeland: No. If anything, Mike, I'm afraid to say we might just be getting started. So next up we're gonna hear from Productivity Game, a moonshot's favorite, who's now gonna help us break down even further. One of Kevin horse's very, uh, condensed and specific master [00:26:00] memory TE techniques, which is called Seeing

Productivity Game: the two Methods are Seeing and Placing.

Productivity Game: First See it. S e e s e e is the act of bringing information to life in your mind. Think of it like taking a PowerPoint presentation and turning it into an amusement park ride. S e e stands for sense. Exaggerate and energize. When you encounter information you want to remember, turn that information into a rich sensory experience in your mind.

Productivity Game: If you wanted to remember the last name of the author, Horsely, you could see a horse in your mind. You could touch it, smell it, hear it, or even taste it. Okay? Tasting a horse is a big roast, but it's memorable. Then exaggerate the images you've imagined. Make the horse pink and make it the size of a house.

Productivity Game: The goal is to be extreme, ridiculous and funny. Horseley says, the more illogical the image, the more it will stick. There is no scientific evidence to prove that [00:27:00] learning should be serious. And finally, energize the image in your mind by tapping into your inner Walt Disney and turning still images into motion pictures.

Productivity Game: S e e sense, exaggerate and energize. I use the s e E method whenever I give a presentation. When I was preparing for a talk on the five feel good neurochemicals that are naturally released in a state of flow, that optimal state where you feel your best and perform your best. I use the s e e method to to remember these association between each neurochemical and a familiar drug to help my audience understand the effect of each neurochemical.

Productivity Game: Now it's worth noting that you can't take these five drugs and experience flow because the five neurochemicals have to be in perfect balance, which the brain naturally does in the state of flow. The first neurochemical was dopamine. When dopamine is present in the brain, you feel excited. A well-known drug that temporarily spikes dopamine in the brain is cocaine.

Productivity Game: To remember the [00:28:00] association between dopamine and cocaine. I imagine dopy one of the doors from snow white drinking a giant can of Coca-Cola Dopy. Sounds like dopamine, and Coca-Cola sounds like cocaine. The second neurochemical anandamide provides a feeling of bliss, and it's associated with the psychoactive component in marijuana.

Productivity Game: To remember the connection between anami to marijuana, I imagine Wolverine from the X-Men grunting while he attacks a giant marijuana plant with his adamantium clause. The word adamantium reminds me of Anandamide, the third neurochemical. Serotonin provides feelings of happiness and self-confidence, and it's often associated with antidepressants like Prozac.

Productivity Game: To remember the connection between serotonin and Prozac, I imagine comedians, Sarah Silverman standing on stage in a loud comedy club, making out with Zack Ephron. Sarah reminds me of Serotonin, and Zack reminds me of Prozac. The fourth neurochemical is norepinephrine. And it helps you stay focused and attentive.[00:29:00]

Productivity Game: A drug associated with norepinephrine is Ritalin to remember this association, I imagine the ridler from Batman in his bright green suit fighting Batman at the cold and icy North Pole. North Pole reminds me of norepinephrine, and the ridler reminds me of Ritalin. And the last neurochemical endorphins is known to blunt the feeling of pain, much like the opiate Oxycontin.

Productivity Game: To remember this association I imagine Dolphins, which sounds like endorphins jumping out of a giant pool filled with white Oxycontin pills. These ridiculous images made the Neurochemical and Drug Association stick in my mind. But what ultimately made it easy to remember all five neurochemicals in order was where they were placed in my mind.

Mike Parsons: Wow, Mike, that was the craziest assortment. And I, I mean, I can totally, um, see how the, the ridiculous [00:30:00] contrast there grabs your attention and sort of calves it permanently into your memory. Right. But some it does. Yeah. But I, I have to say like, Such an elaborate exercise and I can see why it works, but I'm, I'm almost a little bit, um, just surprised at the, the work that you need to do to really cultivate this, this memory aspect.

Mike Parsons: You know what I mean?

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah. I, I I do know what you mean. It, it, uh, when you break it down as, as productivity game has there for us, which, which is quite a nice, let's say case study. Trying to remember those specific, uh, drugs and, and ingredients and so on. I think it demonstrates to me how tongue in cheek your approach to memory can be.

Mark Pearson Freeland: And what I mean by that is it does not need to be something that's very, very dry for me in my past doing exams as a child, [00:31:00] uh, university, college, so on. The way that I was trying to retain information was repetition, repetition, repetition, writing it down again and again and again until my belief, at least this is the way that I was raised.

Mark Pearson Freeland: If you write it down enough, it's gonna stick. What I find a real interesting call out through that clip, as well as the work that we're getting from from Kevin Horsley, is that it doesn't need to be that straightforward or dry or simple. You know, sitting there writing it out, you Yeah, and, and it can be, that's exactly the words I was writing down.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah. It can be fun. And actually in a funny sort of way, there are now. References that we've just heard in that clip that I'm now gonna remember Yes. Because of seeing somebody else come up with, with a, a slightly crazy or creative solution. You're right, Mike. It does seem as though there's a little bit of work that has to go in to, to setting it up totally, at least from a [00:32:00] creative perspective.

Mark Pearson Freeland: But I guess the, the proof is, as they say in the pudding, if you're then able to retain that information from just that Right. Small amount of work that you would do upfront. To then, let's say for the, for life. Now remember it maybe that is a, a fairly good, um, value equation. Well,

Mike Parsons: yeah. Certainly worthwhile, but it shows you that, you know, Because so few of us, I'm gonna assume that if you and I are like not doing this work, I'm gonna assume that a ton of our viewers and listeners are also like, geez, I'm not doing any of this as well.

Mike Parsons: Okay. It shows you like how much is untapped. It makes, it makes me walk away going, oh my gosh, how much memory, wisdom, and knowledge is untapped. Just cuz we simply can't

Mark Pearson Freeland: recall it. Yeah. And, and actually that to me is one of the key takeaways that I'm already having from this. [00:33:00] How much am I wasting from a knowledge perspective?

Mark Pearson Freeland: How much of my memory am I treating as, as disposable? I suppose all of those pieces of information are just, you know, the iceberg, uh, the tip of the iceberg, isn't it? We all learn so much every single day. We're exposed to so much. And we naturally deprioritize a lot of it. But actually if you are to, you know, spend that time structure it, remember those certain, certain facts, it really can be probably something that gets easier over time.

Mark Pearson Freeland: It probably does come naturally. Once you start, you know, pulling out the wolverines and so on, uh, once or twice, it probably does, uh, make it a little bit easier each time. But boy, it does sound like I've been under utilizing this aspect of my life until now.

Mike Parsons: But, but let's now go on the other side of this.

Mike Parsons: How exciting that there are all these ready-made models, tools, uh, [00:34:00] available for us to go and to. Used to accelerate, improve the efficiency of our memory to be able to recall the good stuff in life. And we just talked about seeing, um, Kevin's got this other one called placing right?

Mark Pearson Freeland: He does indeed. So now let's jump straight back in to productivity game.

Mark Pearson Freeland: He's now gonna give us the second half of Kevin's master methods.

Productivity Game: If you ever have a long list of items you want to remember, like five stories for a presentation or 10 ingredients for a recipe. Place the items of that list in the memory of a familiar environment. See, our minds are great at remembering the details of the environments we've been in.

Productivity Game: Just close your eyes and try to imagine walking through your house after a second or two. I'm sure you'll be able to imagine your front door, then your kitchen, then your TV room, then maybe your stairs and your bathroom. You can leverage the ease with which you recall environments to easily remember new information.

Productivity Game: In the case of that [00:35:00] neurochemical presentation I gave, I imagined dopey greeting me at the front door of my house with a giant can of Coke. Then I walked into my house and saw Wolverine attacking a giant plant of marijuana with his adamantium clause in my kitchen. Then I walked into my TV room, and on the TV I saw Sarah Silverman making it with Zach Efron.

Productivity Game: Then I walked upstairs and saw Ridler fighting Batman at the top of my ice covered staircase. Then I went into my bathroom and saw mini dolphins jumping out of the bathtub, which was filled with thousands of white Oxycontin pills. Author Kevin Horsley says, the journey is like the paper and the images are like the ink.

Productivity Game: The placing method allows you to use every building you've lived in, worked at, or visited to store new information. You can walk through and place information in your parents' house or in the hallways of your high school or in the aisles of the grocery store you're familiar with. You can place information on the route to work or on the route you take to your favorite restaurant author, Kevin Horsley [00:36:00] says, some people say, I will run outta space, but if I gave you a truck full of objects to place in a shopping mall, would you be able to do that?

Productivity Game: Of course you would. If you look for it, you'll find thousands and thousands of places just waiting to be used in your mind. There are no limits to the system. Only limits. In your own thinking, get rid of the excuses like, I'm not creative, or I don't think like this. This isn't how I thought either. This is how I train myself to think because it works.

Productivity Game: Perfect. Memory is a skill, not some special gift, like

Mike Parsons: so much of life, right? Mark? It's like crazy if you just work on it. It's amazing what you can master. Why do you think the, the placing works so well?

Mark Pearson Freeland: Uh, for me, uh, it's, in fact, it's, it's probably why I was gravitating towards all of the, as we heard within the four C clip, we had a plethora of different approaches there.

Mark Pearson Freeland: We heard car, [00:37:00] body, peg, shape, places, link names and numbers. Yeah. For me, that first one, you know, the, the car space actually stood out a lot because it was somewhere that I was able to visualize so well. Yeah, and I think that's where Kevin. What Kevin's trying to make the case for, with the idea of the placing principle, if you, uh, think about the place that you, or a space, I suppose that you frequent the most, it's probably gonna be your own home.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Mm. Obviously, as we are hearing at the end of the clip, you can obviously expand it into shopping malls, villages, um, your neighborhood, whatever it is, if you need more space. But for me, the placing seems so ownable. And unique. Yeah. And I can visualize my house so well that if I was to place those unusual situations or unusual moments within my house, I'm therefore going to remember it.

Mark Pearson Freeland: It's like seeing something unusual when you're out and about. Maybe it's, um, a whale swimming by in the ocean. Right, right. Maybe [00:38:00] it's something strange. Maybe it's a posh car that you've never seen before, driving along the road. You're more likely to probably remember those things that are, as we saw in the seed principle, exaggerated, it's something unique, something weird.

Mark Pearson Freeland: If you're seeing it in your familiar, in your normal familiar environment, perhaps that's even more memorable because it is so unusual. I think for me, that's really what I'm starting to understand when it comes to Kevin's work on this memory. If you create new memories, That are then reinforcing the memories that you're trying to remember, right?

Mark Pearson Freeland: You've almost gotta have a memory to

Mike Parsons: remember, but isn't it? And that memory has to be, isn't it, uh, hilarious that creatively in your imagination, placing ideas and these moments and memory in a physical place helps you. It's like, Storing them in your imagination requires you to imagine a [00:39:00] real place.

Mike Parsons: That's such an ironic twist, isn't it?

Mark Pearson Freeland: Well, I, I think the case for me, and, and here's, here's how I interpret the value of that. It isn't too dissimilar to writing down your thoughts or your, um, considerations into a journal. Or on a piece of paper or whatever it might be. Because what you're doing there, and this works for me, is you are making them physical.

Mark Pearson Freeland: You're bringing them into a new dimension. Let's say it's coming out of my head onto a piece of paper. If I can then do the same when it comes to memories and I'm attaching them to real world situations, let's say, or real world locations, that for me feels a little bit more, um, unusual. A little bit more, uh, memorable.

Mark Pearson Freeland: It's certainly not something I, I ever really got taught at school. Mm. It isn't necessarily something that I really invested a lot of time in my early career or or early adult life to really understand or, or [00:40:00] utilize. But actually, as we've started to understand today, this idea really. Has already helped me remember a few things from just the eclipse that we've learned today.

Mark Pearson Freeland: That's right. That's crazy. Cause it's so strange and

Mike Parsons: unusual. It's, it's, um, yeah, it's really distinct in sort of, I, you know, I always, in marketing and advertising have always seen the power of evoking emotions really creates a memorable moment. When you watch, um, for us to say, for example, a television ad or when you create a beautiful creative asset that evokes emotion, you know what I've always understood is scientifically it creates a physical response and that really marks it in the memory, which is why we can always remember sometimes good and bad here.

Mike Parsons: You know, we carried trauma because there was so much emotion in a moment that we can always remember it. [00:41:00] What's really interesting is this creative, imaginative way of storing, placing, seeing, using the four Cs are all ways for us to hold on. And I think this is the real story of empowering yourself is hold onto the memories, the ideas, the wisdom that you choose.

Mike Parsons: To own, to memorize, like hold onto the stuff that matters, hold onto the stuff that makes you a better person. Hold onto the stuff that helps you do better work, um, in your life. I think that's really powerful. So it's really framed in those four big Cs you've got on screen, right? Concentrate, create the imagery connect concept, and then perhaps the only area where I may have.

Mike Parsons: Explore, this is continuous use, coming back to the same frameworks, ideas, models. Like we do a lot on this show, but now we get like a whole new universe to create for ourselves to even just to remember the [00:42:00] show.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah, you, you'd totally right Mike. And actually on those four Cs, that's probably the one that I've been closest to utilizing as well.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Mm. That repetition and so on. Um, but what I liked about your reference to, you know, sparking emotion, And that creating substantial memories for us. I think that really hits the nail on the s e e principle. Mm, the C principle from, from Kevin Horsley, because that's attaching it to your senses. So we are hearing about taste, we are hearing about, um, touch, um, even hearing.

Mark Pearson Freeland: But imagine how much. Um, me how, how many memories are revoked through smell. Smell of cut grass. Oh my

Mike Parsons: gosh. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I think,

Mark Pearson Freeland: I think that's a great demo, right? It's a great demonstration of the power that you can, um, attach an evocative memory yes. To those senses. So if you can create a couple of tears, you know, in your, in your listeners or your viewers, maybe we're trying to get our, our [00:43:00] moonshots team to start crying.

Mark Pearson Freeland: I dunno, Mike, but maybe that's how. It really can spark a lot of, uh, substantial memories within people is down through human interaction and senses.

Mike Parsons: Well, it feels like we have like put a huge package together for our viewers and our listeners, our members. But Mark, we got one more idea to come from Kevin

Mark Pearson Freeland: Wright.

Mark Pearson Freeland: We do. We have one more clip that's gonna close out the show for us today, and that's gonna help us really understand how to celebrate learning.

Kevin Horsley: You know what I find amazing is that all Chinese children can speak Chinese, don't you think? It's amazing. All English children can speak English. All Zillow children can speak Zillow and all South African swimmers can speak American.

Kevin Horsley: We all have the genetic ability to speak, but what we speak is 100% environment. If you [00:44:00] expose a child to 10 different languages, they'll learn all 10 without any instruction, and a little clue on how they learn is imagine there's a puddle in the road. What does a child do with that puddle? They jump in, they experience a moment, they have a bit of fun.

Kevin Horsley: What does an old person do? They walk around, they blame the government for the potholes, don't they? So to accelerate learning, it's not what you need to do more of. It's sometimes what you need to do less of, less judgment, less overwhelm, less excuses. So have a bit of fun with your memories, because your memory is where your life is lived.

Kevin Horsley: If you didn't have a memory, you'd be totally stuck in time. You'll be unable to learn, grow, or change because there is no intelligence with out stored facts. [00:45:00] So we seriously need to stop outsourcing our brain. We are outsourcing our brain to devices, and we've gotta start coming back to the most powerful technology that we have between our ears because imagination and memory are the engines.

Kevin Horsley: Of innovation. I trust you. Learn something new. Thank

Productivity Game: you very much. Thank you.

Mike Parsons: He's so right, but this is where I think there's the perfect relationship with Tiago Forte saying, organize all of that information and then Kevin Horsley is saying, and then choose to master, adopt and learn the wisdom that is most relevant to you.

Mark Pearson Freeland: I think that's really strong Agree, don't you? Yeah. I, I do. I I see that very much too. If you can create that, um, memory fortress, you know, you, you [00:46:00] hear ideas of, of Sherlock Holmes, uh, and magicians and so on, right. Remembering all these facts. In fact, you know, Kevin Horsley himself, 10,000 digits of pie.

Mark Pearson Freeland: You know, it all seems very, very unlikely, but, oh, sorry, unlikely for me at least. But that call to action around. Outsourcing your brain, particularly nowadays. Yeah, as we were learning from Tiago, so much information. I don't need to necessarily remember my geography anymore because I can open up Google or Apple Maps.

Mark Pearson Freeland: However, by doing so, it removes a, and releases a lot of ability that I have, and I think Kevin's really made the case for for us today. That we should stop doing that. Yes, we can take back ownership. We can train that brain like a muscle as we were talking about earlier, and only become, you know, better versions of ourselves through doing so, and make life just that little bit more easier.

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah,

Mike Parsons: absolutely. And um, what a wake up [00:47:00] call in many respects, like if we want to remember. Um, let's just start with the, the seven Effective Habits, right? Highly Effective Habits. Um, you know, a book that we all really acknowledge as being wonderful. Then we actually, you know, if that, if you had read that book and you thought that it really mattered, then you should actually place it and see it so you can recall it more easily and use the wisdom

Mark Pearson Freeland: better, right?

Mark Pearson Freeland: Yeah. That's it. That's it. And in fact, what I'm gonna try and do, Mike, is actually utilize some of those techniques, uh, today as I'm trying to remember all of those different variations of the memory techniques. Yes. So to me, to remember the memory techniques are utilized, some of the memory techniques Good for

Mike Parsons: you.

Mike Parsons: So are you seeing or placing what's gonna be your first protocol?

Mark Pearson Freeland: I'm going to experience the pla uh, the seeing first. Yep. I think placing is something I've started to, uh, [00:48:00] potentially understand, uh, in the past. You know, I, I can see the benefit of that, but what I haven't necessarily utilized before is the seeing aspects.

Mark Pearson Freeland: So that's where I'm gonna begin. Mike, what about you?

Mike Parsons: Absolutely. I think seeing is my starting point. That seems more natural for me. I feel like I've got a world of learning ahead of me and I just can't wait. So I wanna say thank you to you, mark. I wanna say thank you to our members, our viewers, and our listeners to thank you for joining us on Show 227 with Kevin Horsley and his work.

Mike Parsons: Unlimited memory and it really started with an introduction to the power of memory. That's right. You can remember 10,000 digits, just like the grandmaster himself. And we have available to us all sorts of methods and methodologies. The four Cs being the one that Kevin brings to us today. And the two that we really enjoyed discovering was the seeing and the placing.

Mike Parsons: Get out the senses, exaggerate, [00:49:00] energize. Place your ideas in a location and you will store that memory so that you can use it to be creative and imaginative, to fuel your innovation, to be the best version of yourself. And that's what we're all about here on the Moonshots podcast. That's a wrap.[00:50:00] [00:51:00] [00:52:00] [00:53:00] [00:54:00] [00:55:00] [00:56:00] [00:57:00] [00:58:00] [00:59:00]