"Sorry, What's Your Name Again?" - Six Steps to Relieve the Most Common Memory Worry

by Roger Seip
Author of Memory Training for Students

If you live in fear of forgetting prospects' names, sometimes within mere seconds of being introduced to them, you're not alone. Surveys show that 83% of the population worries about their inability to recall people's names. Ironically, while most of us hate having our names forgotten or mispronounced, the majority of us claim we just "aren't good at remembering names" or putting faces together with names when we meet people again.

If you have difficulty recalling names, you know that the two most common scenarios are forgetting the name instantaneously upon being introduced to someone new, and failing to recall the name of someone you've met and interacted with in the past and should know but just can't pull up from your memory bank.

Forgetting names becomes more than just an embarrassing social faux pas in sales. Straining to recall a name can so preoccupy you that you are unable to fully pay attention to your client or prospect. He or she may perceive you not only as unfocused and easily distracted, but also as not very bright if you're unable to devote your full attention to him or her. Even worse, if you forget the name of a client with whom you've worked in the past, he or she may view your memory lapse as a betrayal of trust, which can cost you a great deal of money if that client severs the relationship.

Integrating Learning Styles to Improve Name Recall

While common, this frustrating phenomenon can be relatively easy to overcome when you commit to taking steps to improve your memory. The most important key to really effective learning of any kind is understanding that there are three learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (physically interactive). The more you can apply all three of these styles to a task, the more quickly and solidly you will learn anything.

Practice each of the following steps to improve your name recollection in every sales and social situation.

When you're first introduced to someone, look closely at his or her face and try to find something unique about it. Whether you find a distinctive quality or not is irrelevant; by really looking for a memorable characteristic in a new face, you're incorporating the visual learning style. And a word of advice: if you do find something that really stands out about someone's face, don't say anything! Within minutes of meeting someone new, it's generally a bad idea to exclaim, "Whoa! That's a huge nose!"

The next step utilizes both auditory and kinesthetic learning styles. When you meet someone, slow down for five seconds, and concentrate on listening to him or her. Focus on the prospect and repeat his or her name back in a conversational manner, such as "Susan. Nice to meet you, Susan." Also make sure to give a good firm handshake, which establishes a physical connection with the prospect.

Creating a mental picture of someone's name incorporates the visual sense again. Many people have names that already are pictures: consider Robin, Jay, Matt, or Dawn to name just a few. Some names will require you to play with them a bit to create a picture. Ken, for example, may not bring an immediate image to your mind, but a "can" is very close. Or you might envision a Ken doll. The point is not to create the best, most creative mental image ever, so don't get caught up in your head during this step of the process, thinking, "Oh, that's not a very good picture. What's a better one?" The worst thing you can do when learning is to stress yourself out and overthink the process. If an image doesn't come to you right away, skip it and do it later. You'll undo all of your good efforts if you're staring dumbly at your prospect, insisting, "Hey. Hold still for a minute while I try to turn your name into a picture!"

Once you've identified a mental image that you associate with a person's name, the next step is to "glue" that image to the person's face or upper body. This bridges that gap many people experience between being able to recall faces but not the names that belong to those faces. If you met a new prospect named Rosalind, for example, you might have broken her name down into the memorable image of "rose on land." Now you must create a mental picture that will stick with you as long as you need it and pop into your head every time you meet her; this should be something fun, even a little odd, that will bring "rose on land" to mind when you see her face. You might imagine her buried up to her neck in earth, with roses scattered around her, for example. Because you created the image, it will come up next time you see her and enable you to recall her name.

At the end of the conversation, integrate auditory learning by repeating the prospect's name one more time, but don't ever overuse someone's name in an effort to place it more firmly in your mind. Use the prospect's name only right at the beginning of the conversation, and then again at the end; if you feel like you can do so naturally, you might insert someone's name once or twice in a natural fashion during the course of the conversation, too. But if you've ever had a stereotypically pushy salesperson use your name a dozen times in a five minute conversation, you know how annoying, even weird, this can be, so don't overdo it.

Writing is a form of kinesthetic learning - you're getting a part of your body involved in the learning process - so if you're really serious about wanting to remember people's names for the long term, keep a name journal or a log of important people you meet, and review it periodically.
Forget Me Not: It's the Effort That Matters Most

The most important thing to know about this memory process is that even when it doesn't work, it still works! For example, if you get stuck trying to make a picture out of someone's name, skip it for now. The next day, when you have a chance, give the matter a few minutes of concentrated thought. If you still can't get a picture, stop and take up the matter a week later. Even if you're still unsuccessful at creating a mental image, you've thought about the prospect's name so much, there's now no way you'll ever forget it! So you've actually accomplished what you set to do in the first place.

People can't remember names for one main reason: they're just not paying attention. This process forces you to think. If, for example, you struggle with the step of creating a mental picture, the other steps - looking at the prospect closely, shaking his or her hand confidently and repeating the name a few times - are easy to do, will solidify the name in your memory, and will ultimately convey a positive image of you to clients and prospects. That positive image will certainly make you memorable to prospects, enabling you to close more deals and increase your bottom line.

Various Speed Reading Techniques

by Melvin Ng
Author of 16 Minute Speed Reading Program

The ability to speed read is an important skill in today's world, where - whether we are students or at work - we are often expected to read hefty amounts of materials on a daily basis. As a result, improving your speed reading technique is something each and every one of us should not only do, but maintain. What, then, are speed reading techniques?

Speed reading - the essential elements

Before you start to learn any particular speed reading technique, you need to consider that all speed reading techniques rely on three essential elements:

1. A desire to improve you reading speed;

2. A willingness to give new ideas a chance; and

3. Motivation, discipline and continued practice.

Without these three key elements, no speed reading technique is going to succeed.

Speeding reading technique (1) - Skimming

Almost all successful speed readers will attest to the fact that they are a successful speed reader because they have a form of peripheral vision that allows them to see large amount of data on a page and to "skim" what they are reading. In short, speed reading like this means that one is not reading each and every word on the page, but merely scanning through the material. Using this speed reading technique, every now and then you will come across a keyword or phrase and it is this that will provide you with the essence of what is being written. The rest of the information on the page is discarded.

Although this speed reading technique would seem to indicate that the reader does not fully comprehend what has been written, in fact studies have shown this is not the case - majority of speed readers using this technique actually increased their comprehension of the reading materials!

Speed reading technique (2) - first sentence reading

Unlike speed reading technique (1), in speed reading technique (2), the reader will read the first sentence of each paragraph, in order to get the crux (main idea) of the idea behind the paragraph and will then skim read the remainder of the paragraph. This process is then repeated on down the page until such time as all the reading material has been exhausted.

Using speed reading technique (2), it is generally understood that the reader will glean enough information from the first sentence not to be overly concerned about the information contained in the remainder of the paragraph, where the writer will merely be reinforcing the notion set out in sentence one. However, this technique does fall-down on one major point - it pre-supposes that a paragraph only has one idea, which is clearly not always the case! If you find that you are reading material where the writer has used multiple ideas in the same paragraph, you may need to adapt your speed reading technique to one of the other speed reading techniques.

Speed reading technique (3) - Group wording

There is a term in speed reading circles that is seen as being one of the major demons of reading: "subvocalization". Subvocalization is a clinical term for word-for-word reading - and it's a huge no-no in speed reading techniques. Subvocalization slows reading down, without providing any upswing in comprehension to counter the lost reading time.

Group wording, as the name suggests, is where the reader looks at a group of words and phrases at the same time. Using the group wording technique, speed readers are able to read large chunks of information at the same time - thus, saving time.

Additional speed reading techniques

Aside from the specific speed reading techniques in 1 to 3 above, there are a number of habits/practices that are generally considered counter-productive to speed reading - thus will have an affect on your speed reading abilities. In no particular order, these include:

* subvocalization - as already stated, this is where you speak out the words you read. It's a major cause of slow reading. Unfortunately, as most of us are taught to speak out the words we read when we learn to read as children, it is also one of the hardest habits to break. All that can be said is that you keep plugging away at trying to eradicate this habit.

* digressing - digressing is where the reader will read a passage, then return to re-read it, usually in the mistaken belief that they will be able to comprehend better what has been written on a second read. Again, in speed reading circles this is seen as a major no-no, bad habit, which needs to be broken!

Conclusion

So, if you want to improve your speed reading skills, you need to remember not to subvocalize or re-read passages, and to read great chunks at one time by broadening your eye-span. Simple really! Actually, in fairness, it will take time to learn, and don't expect to get it right the first time. Don't push this issue too much, as pushing it may prove to be counter-productive.

What To Do If You “Bomb” A School Test Or Exam

by Dr Marc R. Dussault
Author of Speed Studying Techniques

Everyone’s had the unfortunate experience of studying endlessly for a test and yet still failing thanks to sheer anxiousness or some other outside problem.

You might be planning and hoping on becoming a great scholar in your chosen area of study, but human nature and past experience tells us that you will make some blunders along the way, you’re only human you have to expect this and not be deterred when it happens, but rather allow your failures to make you more determined.

Failure moves us closer to our goals, as that is when we cross analyse and study where we went wrong.

A baby doesn’t give up on learning to walk, it tries over and over again until it succeeds no matter what. Young adults and adults, however, often tend to give something only a few tries before abandoning hope, and we shouldn’t. Learn from mistakes, don’t be discouraged by them; you will succeed by putting thought into your efforts, and that ability can only come with experience. So in a way, you achieve success simply by making enough mistakes.

If you beat yourself more, you will only feel worse. When you feel miserable, your energy and motivation go down and you get trapped in a downward spiral. The only way to move out of this trap is to take a decision that you will not let yourself down and get mad and also that you will not give up thus letting you down.

No one will be drowned if they fall down in a puddle of water face down, unless they remained in that position; this is the mental make up you need to carry within yourself.

If you subscribe to the mindset that what is initially deemed as “failure” can actually lead to bigger and better successes in the future, you will find yourself motivated at times when all seems to be lost. For example, if you bomb an exam you spent weeks studying for, you should remind yourself that even though the results were not what you expected, you tried your best, and learned from the experience.

Thinking like this, you will never really fail a test, because mentally you will know that you’ve come out ahead whatever your grades say. So put yourself in a headspace where everything is progress towards eventual success, and you will be able to reach that success more easily no matter what you aim for.

When you feel especially vulnerable, you’re also more likely to feel as though you don’t measure up to others, as though your inadequacies loom large in comparison to your peers. But I can assure you that although others may sometimes count your areas of weakness as their areas of strength, you shouldn’t infer that you’re in any way inferior. On the contrary; you have your own unique set of strengths which cannot be duplicated. The only comparisons that are necessary to make are with your own personal best.

If you are absolutely committed to a goal, you will find a way to make it happen. Think of a recent accomplishment you’ve had that you worked hard to achieve. Was there any doubt that you’d get what you wanted? Is it not true, if you are really honest with yourself, that when you have come up short in the past it’s in part, because you really didn’t give it your all?

You have to be honest with yourself and match your level of intensity and effort with your results. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. If you don’t try very hard, don’t expect miracles overnight and sometimes even when you do try hard, the miracles still don’t come I once heard that miracles are hidden amongst a lot of hard work, determination and failure Pressure under fire creates diamonds and that will be your result also if you persist and long enough, study success and aspire to success, you will become your own miracle!