It’s Easier Than You Think
When I was a young boy, I was captivated by magic. All kinds of it.
I loved tricks with playing cards, of course, but what really drew me in were the mental feats that fall under the broader umbrella of mentalism. I studied methods that made it appear as though I could read people’s minds or even predict future events before they happened. It felt like discovering a secret language of the mind, one that most people never knew existed.
And memory tricks were a huge part of that.
I learned to do things that seemed impressive, even impossible. For example, if you were to give me a list of random objects, pausing briefly between each one, I could repeat them back to you perfectly. Not just in the order you gave them, but also in reverse, and sometimes even by naming only the odd or even-positioned ones.
It would not matter if the list had ten items, or thirty, or more. Once you understand how memory works, it becomes surprisingly manageable.
Because here’s the real secret. Memory is not about raw intelligence or photographic recall. It is all about connection. All memory works by association.
When you connect a new piece of information to something you already know, especially in an interesting or emotional way, it sticks. That is what makes it powerful. You are not just memorizing. You are creating meaning.
The best part is that this is not some obscure magician’s trick. It is an ancient method that goes back thousands of years.
The Greeks and Romans used a technique known as the memory palace to deliver persuasive speeches without relying on notes. They did not try to remember every word.
Instead, they memorized the structure, the main ideas, and the sequence, so they could speak freely and naturally. It gave them both clarity and confidence.
I used the exact same method to prepare my keynote at HypnoThoughts Live in Las Vegas. The talk ran thirty minutes and I did it entirely from memory. No notes. No slides. Just a clear mental map that guided me from beginning to end.
Here is how it works.
You begin by choosing a place that you know extremely well. It could be a room in your home, your daily commute, or a familiar walking trail. For me, one of my go-to locations is the sunroom at the back of my house. I know every detail of it without even thinking. That familiarity is the key.
So let us say I need to memorize a list or a speech. I start by mentally placing each item at a specific location in the sunroom. The first thing I see when entering the room is the short set of steps. If the first item is a black cat, I imagine the cat lounging across the steps, refusing to move, watching me with glowing eyes as I try to step past him.
Next, I see the Scandinavian leather chair in the corner. If the second item is a glass of water, I imagine placing it on the chair’s seat, only to have it tip over and soak into the leather, leaving a spreading dark stain.
I continue in this way, walking through the room and placing each item at a new, vivid, memorable point. The trick is to use imagery that is emotional, exaggerated, or strange. If it is ordinary, your brain might forget it. If it is weird or funny or uncomfortable, your brain grabs hold of it.
To recall the list, I just walk through the room in my mind. One location at a time, one image at a time. Each picture reminds me of the item I placed there. It becomes a kind of mental tour, and because it is built on a structure I already know, the new information feels surprisingly easy to retrieve.
But there is an even simpler method that can be used on the fly.
Let us say you are going to the grocery store and you want to remember a handful of items without writing them down or using your phone. You can use a simple linking system that takes just seconds to set up.
Say your first three shopping list items are soap, a barbecued chicken, and paper towels.
You start by imagining a massive bar of Irish Spring soap. Make it cartoonishly big, green, and maybe even pulsing with light. Now imagine washing a hot, greasy, fully cooked barbecued chicken with that bar of soap. The skin slides off and the soap melts in your hands. It is absurd. And that is the point.
Next, picture using paper towels to dry off the chicken, but they stick to the skin and tear apart messily. Now you have a sequence of connected images, each one strange and vivid, and each one linking directly to the next item on your list.
You can do this with five items, ten items, even twenty. As long as you exaggerate the imagery and connect each item clearly to the next, your brain will hold onto the sequence.
The key to this is deliberate attention. You must choose to remember, rather than passively hoping the list sticks. When you engage your focus and add visual intensity, your brain responds by creating stronger pathways. On a biological level, this activates protein kinase C, which plays a role in forming new long-term memories.
And like any skill, it improves with practice. The more you use these techniques, the faster and more natural they become. Eventually, you will find yourself remembering names more easily, delivering talks without notes, or even studying more effectively for complex material.
Most people believe memory is something fixed. You are either good at it or not. But the truth is that memory is highly trainable. You just need the right tools and the willingness to use them.
Once you understand how to link new information to what you already know, your memory becomes a tool you can rely on, rather than a frustrating mystery.
You do not need to be gifted to have a great memory. You just need a method.
And once you have that, your brain becomes an ally instead of something you are constantly working against.
And next time you go shopping and find yourself smearing soap on a chicken, don’t blame me…
- Mike Mandel
P.S. our "Memory Power" program is included in the Brain Software Syndicate
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