Has this ever happened to you?

You’re out somewhere and a person you don’t remember ever having met before walks right up to you, addresses you by name and with a broad smile says, “How are you, haven’t seen you for ages?”

You stare blankly at this person and, with total embarrassment say, “I’m sorry, I know your name Bob, but I can’t remember your face.”

Of course, this hasn’t happened. It’s the faces we remember. The names, however? That’s the problem.

How many times have you run into a familiar face and just cannot attach a name to it? Have you ever asked yourself, how can I remember names better?

How to remember names

We are not the product of poor memories; we are the product of poor training.

Remembering names, numbers, locations, facts, lists, data, scripts, news stories and even jokes is simply a matter of learning centuries-old methods and techniques and then taking the time to practice them.

Many years ago, I watched a memory demonstration by the famed stage hypnotist Reveen.

He stood at the front of the stage. Behind him was a large whiteboard with numbers from 1 to 20. He asked his audience to randomly shout out names of objects and as they did so, he repeated the name of the object once while his wife wrote it down alongside the next number on the board.

Once there were 20 items on the board, Reveen effortlessly recited the list to his audience and then asked the audience to randomly yell out either one of the objects on the board, or one of the numbers.

Without fail, he Reveen could tell them which number on the board the object belonged to or the object the number was attached to.

He repeated this demonstration several times and by the time he was done the audience was mesmerised.

Remember, he accomplished all of this before hypnotizing a single soul.

I was fascinated by his ability to do this and for the next few months I immersed myself in studying every book, magazine or article I could find about memory.

Then I began practicing. I remember memorizing telephone numbers, license plates, grocery lists, names and, in fact, anything else that could attach to my memory. Within a very short time I became very skilled at remembering just about anything and everything.

And a few short years later I was delivering “Memory Magic” workshops on a regular basis to audiences that grew week after week.

I did this for several years and at some point, as my life progressed, I moved on to other things and it wasn’t long before memory workshops became, well, faded memories.

Naturally, as I stopped practicing, my own skills deteriorated and, except for rare occasions over the next 25 years, I seldom brought up the topic of memory. Then, a little over one year ago during a conversation with a client, I felt this overwhelming need to shake off the cobwebs that I had allowed to grow in my head and start practicing these amazing memory techniques again.

As so famously expressed by Yogi Berra, it was “like déjà vu all over again.” It didn’t take long before I was memorizing telephone numbers, license plates, grocery lists, names and, in fact, anything else that could attach to my memory.

Over the last few months I have completed four “Memory Magic” workshops for small groups of selected friends and clients and have been encouraged by all to bring this workshop back into the inventory of programs offered by my company, Strategic Pathways.

My purpose in writing this blog is to ask for your input. Consider it a form of market research. Would you be interested in attending a workshop in which you would learn multiple techniques that can be easily applied to remembering just about anything?

I’m looking for two types of answers. The first is a yes or no answer to tell me whether you would consider attending a workshop of this nature.

The second answer is only for those who answer yes to the above question.

Would you prefer to attend a half day (4-hour) or a full day program (8-hour, meal included) event.

Please take a moment to send an email to events@strategicpathways.net and share your thoughts with me. Your input will be invaluable.

I thank you in advance.

Till we read again.