Wish you could remember names? I know I've often wished that memorizing names was easier (it is). After all …
Forgetting names sucks, especially at events where you're meeting important new contacts. Business cards are fine and dandy, but you want to be looking that new person in the eyes and connecting, not constantly peeking at the sweaty lump of cardboard stuck to your palm.
Instead, you want to hold each person's name with the certainty that can only come from mastering your memory.
Or You Can Keep Living The Nightmare
You know the one. You hear a name and then just a few seconds later … it's gone.
The good news is, it's not your fault. There's a reason your brain doesn't grasp onto names and hold onto them like treasure. (Yes, treasure. Every name is as valuable as a rare coin.)
The better news is that, even if it isn't your fault that you can't remember names, you can eliminate the problem. With practice, you can remember the names of as many people as you want. Even if you make a mistake from time to time, even slip-ups can become powerful assets.
3 Key Reasons We All Forget Names (Including Memory Champions)
You can help yourself stop forgetting names by understanding why it happens.
First, names are abstract. Unless you're a philologist, most names will hold zero meaning for you. Though there are some ways that the meaning of names can be manufactured to help your memory.
Despite the fact that names are often abstract, however, get this:
As Lynne Kelly demonstrates in The Memory Code, memorizing even the most abstract names is a skill that has helped the human species survive for thousands of years. We wouldn't be here without memory skills.
Second, when we meet people, we might hear names, but we're not paying attention. We're either dazzled by their good looks or horrified by the food dangling off their faces. Worse, we're thinking about what we're going to say next. Our concentration is directed inward instead of outward.
Finally, we're bombarded by stimuli. The room is filled with noises, we may be drinking alcohol, suffering jet-lag. or moving around the meeting space. All of these elements distract us.
You know how you sometimes go into the kitchen from the living room and then forget why you're in the kitchen? This problem happens because the instant you leave the living room, the movement and change of locations floods all of your senses. Your intention isn't so much forgotten as it is suddenly pushed out to sea like a message in a bottle.
The same thing happens when you're introduced to a person. You hear the name, but then you ask where they're from and what they do. In combination with all the activity in the room, it's the same effect. Waves of information push that bottle out to the margins of your mind and the new name you just learned falls out your ear.
The Super-Simple Mechanics Of Memorizing Names
Let me tell you a story.
A few weeks ago, my friend Max Breckbill of Starting From Zero held one of his great entrepreneur dinners in Berlin. A bunch of people get together to network and just chill out in a relaxed restaurant. His dinners are amazing.
Max always begins the evening with a round of introductions. As each person said their name, I created a crazy image to help me recall their names. For example, there was a guy named Lars, so I saw Lars from Metallica playing drums on his head.
For Lukas, I saw Luke Skywalker using his Light Sabre to carve an S onto Lukas's chest so I wo
Published on 9 years, 6 months ago
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