deciding to act on my present environment in the certain way and grow bigger than it, i decided i want to excel at my business management studies.

i realized my university relies heavily on memorization and learning by heart. i'm not very talented in that realm (unlike elephants) and i'm looking for some good study material.

carlo

It seems to me that when you say you don’t have a good memory you’re not really stating a fact (like the Law of Gravity). You are merely expressing a current personal belief you have. But there may be a better way of looking at your feelings (beliefs) about your memory skills or talents. To me, the truth is, you probably have a VERY GOOD memory but you don’t realize (believe) it.

Let me ask you, “Is there some memory you have of something long past that you can remember vivid details of?” Maybe there is some wonderful family gathering you attended where you remember very specific details. Maybe you have a wonderful memory for how to play a great game of chess. Maybe you have a wonderful kinesthetic memory, like the ability to play a certain sport well. If so, then what this tells you is, your memory is extraordinary UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS.’

So, a ‘trick’ to increasing your memory ‘talent’ is to somehow key in these conditions to whatever it is you want to memorize.

For example, let’s say you meet a very beautiful girl and she shows great interest in you and you two decide you want to get to know each other more, so she gives you her phone number, but you have no pen or paper to write it down with. Well,… if this girl is MEANINGFUL enough to you, you will very likely find a way to remember her phone number (and her name, the details of her face and figure, the lilt and tone of her voice, etc., etc. -- it's remarkable how well we remember the things we have little resistance to).

Memory is like this. You will usually easily remember something that is VERY MEANINGFUL to you.

(Note: There is, in the above example, a condition that would cause you to inconveniently forget this girl’s phone number. That condition is, if you somehow had some overriding negative beliefs about getting to know this girl better, i.e., you already have a girlfriend and you’d feel guilty, or you doubt yourself and have a low self esteem, etc., etc.)

So, if you want to make your memory of your studies better, find ways to make the studies more MEANINGFUL to you. Find ways to make remembering the details much much more desirable. AND find ways to create improved beliefs about your memory skills.

One way to make the study more meaningful is, picture yourself in the ‘end result’. Picture yourself in some very wonderful and challenging management position and ask yourself what kind of knowledge, acumen and know how you would hope you would have. In other words, work backwards, from the end result you desire, and then your university education will take on more meaning.

When you know you’re getting ready for something very REAL to you, you are more apt to remember (learn) what you’re going to have to know. It’s like going to war. If you know your life is going to be on the line, you’re more apt to learn the necessary survival skills. You memory will seem to improve for these things because remembering these kinds of details will be more important to you.

Phil