One Secret Recipe to Great Memory is

Trying hard to forget it!

"The harder you try to forget something, the more likely you will remember it!"
- Zaid Ali Alsagoff

FORGET IT!

Have you noticed that when you try hard to forget something that you don't want to remember (e.g. a crappy presentation you did!), it becomes harder to forget it. It just sticks in your mind like glue....Forget! Forget! Forget! It isn't going to happen! Memorable incidents whether bad or good will stick longer (or are easier to retrieve from the memory archive).

Or you are preparing for an important exam trying really hard to remember something, and you simply can't remember anything! And then when you finally do remember it, you forgot something else! And it just continues in a stressful cycle until the end of the exam. Interestingly, within days after the exam many of those important memories are archived somewhere, nowhere to be found or retrieved anymore (unless used!). Memory or memory retrieval is a funny thing.

MALE BRAIN VS FEMALE BRAIN

Have you wondered why it is nearly impossible to win an argument with your wife (sister/girlfriend/mother/any women for that sake), especially if it's about personal, emotional, or social incidents. You will have one big point (It wasn't me!), and then she will have a few hundred small points that you can't challenge or remember. It will be like...but, but, but, but, but... Oh man, I wish I had such great memory for details. That would make my life easier (or worse)!

The secret? One word: EMOTION!

Don't believe me, watch this:

MY 32 CENTS! 

Have you wondered why subjects you enjoy to study are easier to learn and remember? What happens in your mind when you enjoy something? You keep on thinking about it! If you don't enjoy it? You think about something else!

The secret? One word: REPETITION
Things you like, you repeatedly think about in your mind.

To improve your memory you could eat healthy, exercise well, play brain games, use millions of memory techniques, and all the other who-ha prescribed by the memory gurus. I have tried them all without too much lasting success.

But I do know that when I try really hard to forget something, it usually sticks better than any other method that I have ever tried. I suppose in the process of trying hard to forget I am evoking an emotional state (e.g. angry), and by doing it repeatedly it makes it nearly impossible to forget.

In a never forgetting memory shell, make whatever you want to remember memorable by trying hard to forget it in an emotional state repeatedly.

Now, forget what you have just read! FORGET! FORGET! FORGET! FORGET!

If you can't remember, you haven't tried hard enough to forget! GET IT?

Who cares if you can remember (digital databases do a better job!), if you can't understand, apply or create some form of value from it! That makes more sense... Now I get it!

What about you? What is your secret recipe to great memory (with understanding!)?