One of the greatest lessons I learned when training for the USA Memory Championship was the impact of focus on your memory and brain. To hone my focus, my US Navy SEAL coach (yes, I actually had a Navy SEAL coach me) had me train in situations that would normally distract me. While my competition was training at home in complete silence he had me training in less than desirable situations. The girl I was dating at the time had three fantastically awesome and playful kids. Instead of getting away from them to train, I would train with them running all around me. I was pretty good at ignoring them except the time the 4 year old tapped me on the arm while I was memorizing and said, ‘Mr. White, I love you.’ It melted my heart and I was completely distracted.
Probably the training sessions that got most of the attention from the media, was when I would memorize cards under water. I ordered plastic playing cards, got a wet suit and snorkel gear and would memorize cards UNDER WATER!! I got to the point where I could memorize a deck of cards under water in 1 minute 30 seconds. At the time, no one had come close to that above water in the USA. I trained with distractions and learned to focus under pressure. I would even enlist pretty waitresses to give me a list of numbers and I would memorize them as they watch to test my nerves.
If you want to improve your memory, improving your focus is really a key to that. My suggestion to you would be what my Navy SEAL coach suggested to me. Whatever it is that you want to be able to focus doing, do whatever you can to cause distractions and force yourself to focus. Then when the distractions are gone hopefully you will have trained your brain to focus under pressure.
It certainly worked for me. I set a record for the fastest to memorize a deck of cards at 1 minute 27 seconds that stood for 2 years.
Today, I have new areas of focus that are challenges. I get very distracted when writing my book. Yes, I am writing another book and swore I would never do that again! I have written 3 books and my last was written in 2004. Now in 2012, I am embarking on publishing 2 new books. The focus training I do is not to write with distractions but to give myself very small goals every day so I only have to focus for 30-45 minutes per day on the project. This sets me up for success and allows me make progress every day with realistic expectations of focus.
Oh, good nutrition and exercise also help your ability to focus and improve your memory.
Hope this helps
Ron
