Have you ever wanted simple memory improvement tips that you can use straight out of the box?

If so, then you’re in full a real treat. On this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast, Dr. Gary Small offers you some of the best ideas from his book, 2 Weeks to a Younger Brain.

It was such a pleasure speaking with memory training and brain health fitness expert Dr. Small that I’ve had the interview transcribed. You can read it below or download a PDF version of the interview using the link at the bottom of the transcription.

Enjoy!

Anthony: Dr. Small, what is your first memory of being interested in the subject of memory?

Dr. Small: Well, I think I got interested in it when I started studying Alzheimer’s disease and geriatrics. When I got into the field of gerontology, I realized that one of the biggest problems we face is cognitive decline as we age. Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of that decline. It turns out, before people get Alzheimer’s disease, they have milder memory complaints. There is just so much worry and concern among millions of people about these age-related memory slips and what we can do about them. That’s really how I got started.

Anthony: You mentioned in the book that memory can start decaying or getting worse even younger than we think. What is one of the typical ages that memory loss can start to occur?

Dr. Small: Usually people begin to notice it in their 40s and studies of neuropsychological testing, pencil and paper tests done on many, many research subjects, has found that for the average 40‑year-old a decline in memory performance can be detected. However, we have done some recent studies, collaborating with Gallop Poll, where we find that people even in their early 20s begin to start complaining about their memory. Now, their complaints are probably different from those of somebody who is in their 70s, but still the methods we’ve developed for the book apply to people of all ages.

Anthony: Given this wide age range, is there a common so to speak anti-memory activity that people are engaging in every day and if so what are those things and how can they be treated or how can people go about their daily activities differently so that they are honoring their memories and their brains?

Dr. Small: That is really what the book is about and it takes the latest science of the brain and explains it in a way that people can understand. It then translates that science into practical strategies that people can begin using.

In the 2-week program, we introduce them to these exercises, strategies and they gradually build up their mental strength, and memory power over that 2-week period and it is just long enough for those exercises to become habit-forming. It involves physical exercise, it involves mental stimulation, stress management, nutrition and learning techniques to compensate for any age-related memory challenges people are experiencing.

Anthony: You mentioned a lot of different memory exercises in the book. I am wondering if you have a personal favorite out of them all that addresses some of the prevention of Alzheimer’s and just longevity in general that you enjoy the most that you do yourself?

Dr. Small: Let me just clarify. I do not know that the memory exercises will prevent Alzheimer’s, but I think that physical exercise very well may delay the onset of symptoms as will general mental stimulation and proper diet. What the memory exercises will do is to compensate for the decline so people can have a stronger memory longer even as their brains age.

Now, if you look at all of these different exercises, it really boils down to two methods that we now call focus and frame. We need to focus our attention because the biggest reason people do not remember is they are simply not paying attention, they are not getting the information into their brains.

Frame is shorthand for trying to frame the information, providing a framework so that it has meaning. If something is meaningful, it will become memorable and we do that by using visual images. Our brains are hardwired to remember visually very effectively.

We can take a very common memory complaint like names and faces, forgetting names and faces, and teach people how to create visual images to link the name to the face. Therefore, if you meet Mr. Foreman, you might notice that he has a prominent forehead. You notice that distinguishing figure and that links it up with the name in a visual way.

Anthony: Many of the memory exercises do involve some sort of visual imagination, and one thing I hear from a lot of people is that they are just not visual. They are maybe more auditory or kinesthetic or conceptual. Is there any advice you would have who would feel they do not have the visual capacities that many of these exercises seem to call for?

Dr. Small: That gets down to a common principle that we want to train and not strain our brains and try to cross-train the brain. Everybody has innate strengths and weaknesses. In areas that are weak, it may be visual skills. Those can be built up gradually. In areas that are strong, we can leverage those strengths to help us compensate better. People who are better with auditory skills can say the name or word to themselves or think up a musical jingle that might help them remember something better.

Anthony: You mentioned in 2 Weeks to a Younger Brain a few times Einstein’s brain and maybe you can describe that a little bit. Why does not everyone have a brain automatically like Einstein’s brain?

Dr. Small: I think, to a certain degree, it is genetics. Let us face it some people are Einstein’s at birth and others are not. When they looked at Einstein’s brain remarkably, it looked very much like the average person’s brain except for this area called the corpus callosum, which is the connecting point between the right brain and the left brain. What we might theorize is that Professor Einstein was better able to process information quickly compared to the average person.

Another point we make in the book is that genetics is only part of the story. In fact, the MacArthur study on successful aging taught us for the average person nongenetic factors are more important to keeping your brain young. That is why we emphasize all the simple things that people can do every day to get their brains to function better and their memory to be sharper.

Anthony: One of the interesting stories in the book is you talk about chiding your son for playing video games and there is a bit of a surprising twist at the end of the story. What is going on with video games and memory?

Dr. Small: It is complicated, but we do devote a whole chapter to brain games and what people can do to use them effectively. That was an incident where I was annoyed by my son playing some kind of a violent videogame. Knowing that this kind of repetitive videogame playing may not be great for his developing brain, I shouted to him, “Harry, get off of that video game and come downstairs and watch television with me.”

Of course, I thought how ridiculous that sounded, but in my mind, I was thinking we are watching a public television program, it is educational, we will have a conversation, but what I did not realize was that my son was playing the videogame with his friends. There was a conversation going on. It was a social interaction.

I think our relationship with this new technology is very complex. In some ways, it can cause wear and tear on our brains when we are spending too much time doing email or searching online doing repetitive tasks. On the other hand, the technology actually augments our biological memory.

We could pick and choose what we try to remember like names and faces and socially that is very important, but we do not need to remember birthdates and appointments. We can use programs for that and we can look at a lot of stuff up. In addition, there are new video games that actually train our brains. They can boost IQ or improve multitasking skills. I am very excited about the technology we use it wisely and do not overuse it.

Anthony: Speaking of technology, there is something really interesting that you talk about. The brain has kind of a relationship to memory and information where the age of a memory somehow determines where it is located in the brain, and that memories travel from one lobe to the next. I have this picture of sorting files through my computer and they move according to date and rearrange themselves. What is happening in this idea that memories age and then that determines where they are found in the brain?

Dr. Small: The brain is very complex organ and there is a lot of neuroscience research understanding how memories are consolidated. We describe how there are very fleeting momentary memories we call sensory memories that we all experience from moment to moment and we do not notice them. If we pay attention, or if there is an emotional component to the memory, it is more likely to be consolidated in an area that is called the hippocampus underneath the temples.

Once that happens, it is like an information highway as the memory becomes stronger as it becomes more long-term it moves towards the front part of the brain very gradually. They also reside throughout the brain depending on the type of memory. If it is a visual memory, it will be in the back of the brain because that is where the visual cortex is.

It is quite an interesting phenomenon. These memories, in a sense, live in neighborhoods, which explain why it is often difficult to remember some information, but when you are reminded of a neighboring memory, then the memory you are looking for comes back to you.

Anthony: That is a very interesting metaphor. Given this neighborhood image where do memories go when people are having “senior moments?”

Dr. Small: Well they are not going anywhere. Memory is very much like a filing cabinet. You have to file the information in the proper place and know where to look to pull it out. When we cannot find those memories, we are distracted by other memories so we are a little bit mixed up in our filing system, and we need some help in how to locate those files, which many of the memory techniques we teach help us do.

Anthony: Well heaven forbid that you were to lose your memory, but if that were to happen, is there one memory in particular that you would never want to lose if all else was to disappear?

Dr. Small: Those are such tough questions, and I think to me the memory I would not want to lose is the memory of the emotion of love because I think that is so important to all of us. It is such a strong compelling feeling. It really draws people together and it defines who we are as a species. Humans are very social animals and those positive emotions that we experience really make life so worthwhile.

Anthony: Speaking of love I really loved 2 Weeks to a Younger Brain. I am grateful and honored that you gave us the time to speak about your book for the audience of this podcast. What is coming up for you next?

Dr. Small: In the short term, I am doing a public lecture on the book this afternoon. I am continuing my research on memory and brain aging. My wife and I are continuing to work on a monthly newsletter, Dr. Gary Small’s Mind Health Report. We are putting our heads together for the next book. We have not quite decided what we are going to do but it will probably be in the general area where our interests lie and we are looking forward to continuing our work together.

Anthony: Great. Well again thank you so much and 2 Weeks to a Younger Brain is such an excellent book. I hope everybody listening goes out and gets it.

Dr. Small: Thank you and I appreciate it.

The phrase “Don’t get emotional” implies that we normally aren’t.

Most of our news headlines can be interpreted as emotional responses gone overboard, becoming crime, scandal, corruption, greed, and bad policy.

The fact that these reactions are newsworthy seems to reinforce the idea that emotions are sporadic and exceptional, little whirlwinds that appear around significant events, making the odd day or week wonderful or awful.

But if you pay attention to your emotions as you read these headlines, it becomes obvious that even in our most mundane moments — reading the paper on a Monday morning — we are always feeling some way or another. Even a casual glance at a newspaper will begin to stir up familiar feelings like fear, amazement, disgust, admiration or annoyance. We’re never really in “neutral.”

We’re living through emotional reactions all day long, even to events as tiny as hearing a text message arrive, or noticing a fly in the room. Our emotions aren’t always overwhelming us, but they are always affecting us, coloring our perceptions and opinions about ourselves and our world.

This is the “fish in water” effect at work — because we are immersed in our emotions’ effects every moment of our lives, we tend to talk about them only when they’re exceptionally strong.

Even when it’s not obvious, though, emotions are the force behind almost everything we do. They’re the only reason our experiences matter at all. If every event triggered the same emotion, it wouldn’t matter to us whether we got out of bed or not, whether we were sick or healthy, or whether we thrived or starved. All of our values and morals, all of the meaning we perceive in life, stem from our knowledge that there are some very different ways a person can feel. 

What might be surprising is that there aren’t that many basic emotions, and that virtually all of us have experienced every one of them, many times. Each one has fairly predictable effects on us, and these effects are responsible for a huge proportion of our quality of life: whether we live a life of confidence or worry, whether we’re good with people or bad with people, or whether we believe the world is a good place or a vile place.

Yet we don’t make much of a point of understanding and adjusting for our emotional states. We even overlook the simple fact that we’re always in the middle of one, however subtle.

For example, if you’re aware that fear is prominent in you right now, you can remind yourself that the future is likely going to be easier than it currently seems, regardless of how strongly you might feel your impending doom. If you’re aware that anger is prominent, you can remind yourself that when you feel this way you tend to be highly critical of others, that you’re temporarily unable to experience gratitude, and that you may be taking your friends and supporters for granted.

Even a child could be taught this concept: that when we’re sad, for example, it’s hard to remember that the world itself hasn’t become a sad place, even though that’s exactly what it feels like. We’re just being visited by some feelings that make it seem that way.

Think of what a help it would be for any kid to understand — not just to be told, but to really understand — that the reason they want to say mean things to another student is because they’re feeling temporarily angry towards them, and not because the other student necessarily deserves to have mean things said to them.

Strong feelings pass, but while they’re here, they color and warp our vision, sometimes severely. So much hinges on this simple fact, and its implications, that it should be as fundamental a part of our education as learning language.

And it’s not that complicated. There aren’t that many different emotions, and we can learn their properties rather quickly if we make a habit of paying attention. Essentially, we spend our whole lives navigating a limited patch of emotional terrain, which contains magnificent peaks and well-known pitfalls, yet we don’t bother making use of a map. We have a sense of whether or not we want to be where we are, but we don’t think much about the name of the region, how we got to it, and what we know about it.

In the 1980s, psychologist Robert Plutchik identified 8 basic emotions, and expressed their basic relationships in a wheel:

He then expanded the wheel to show the emotions at different levels of intensity, and some of their combinations.

I don’t think it’s a perfect map, and there are some well-known criticisms. Anticipation and surprise do seem like direct opposites, but fear and anger don’t. Pride should probably also have a place somewhere.

What’s most valuable about it, however, isn’t the relationship between the emotions, but the fact that it gives us a small and reasonably complete list of them. If we could know, at least sometimes, roughly where we are in this well-trodden territory, we could mitigate a lot of the distorting and self-defeating effects our emotions have on us, just by remembering what those effects tend to be.

There are, as in a color wheel, infinite shades and tints. While you’re watching a whale swim beneath your tour boat, you might be feeling amazement, but also a tinge of apprehension. These shades bring a lot of richness to life. We aren’t simply stuck in one of eight emotional parking stalls at any given time.

But the point is that we are always somewhere in the realm of well-known human emotions, and that it can be extremely helpful to know where. Which general region, at least. Each region is hospitable to certain qualities, and hostile to others. In the region of anger, for example, compassion might have a hard time being present at all, but alertness is given a boost.

When we can identify the most prominent emotion right now, we’re less likely to project that emotion’s characteristics on the situation itself, or on the world at large. If you’re feeling annoyed, but not really aware of it, other people might appear more insensitive and apathetic than they usually do, and you might blame them for that, even though it’s you who changed, not them.

Most of this adjusting amounts to simply knowing which emotion is happening, and what each one usually does to your experience. The more often you reflect on your current state, the more you learn their tendencies.

When anger is present, I tend to get cynical. I become preoccupied with the apparent selfishness of others, and my mind is looking for reasons to condemn them. I become hyper-vigilant about my beliefs and it becomes almost impossible to consider new viewpoints.

When sadness is present, I tend to see adversity as more permanent than it really is. It seems like the world itself is what’s sad. I downplay my freedom to alter the circumstances, and sometimes I forget that I have any freedom at all. Gratitude seems impossible, even when I know what I should feel grateful for.

When fear is present, I tend to get preoccupied with the potential downsides of every upcoming event. I exaggerate the chances of failure, to the point where I forget that success is even a real possibility. My mind tends to look for excuses to hesitate instead of acting.

Emotions really do work like sets of spectacles. Your “fear goggles” might sharpen and magnify images of future trouble and pain, while images of future joy and relief become faint, or don’t appear at all. Your “admiration goggles” might give a particular person and their ideas a blinding glow, and obscure the appearance of their faults.

It is a huge help to know which lens you’re seeing the world through, at any given moment. This way you can know, intellectually, what you’re not seeing, and what’s being exaggerated. If you recognize fear, you can remind yourself to reconsider the rewarding side of doing the thing you’re afraid of. If you recognize ecstasy, you can remind yourself that the feeling is temporary, and that the thing you’re ecstatic about might not be worth basing your whole life around.

What I’m advocating for is the learning and teaching of a kind of basic emotional literacy. What do these eight or ten basic emotions do to us? Which one is prominent, and what do you need to be reminding yourself of right now?

Human emotions have a defining effect on the quality of our lives, and the kind of world we live in. A little bit of insight of this kind goes a long way, and applies to almost everything we do. If I had known in high school how to identify and respond to annoyance and apprehension, for example, I probably would have gotten better grades in Math, and English, and Phys Ed, and everything else.

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In fifteen years of coaching high potential and senior leaders, I’ve conducted thousands of hours of colleague feedback interviews. One of the themes that I hear a lot from senior executives talking about high potential leaders is that the client needs to play a bigger game. What the executives mean by that is that the high potential needs to start making an impact beyond their immediate function and start acting as a leader of the entire organization and not just their function.

With the performance reviews and goal setting sessions that come at the beginning of the year, now is a great time to think about how you can play a bigger game this year – the kind of game that really changes things and makes a big difference.

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve asked around three dozen high potential leaders to answer the question, “What’s the one thing you need to do to play a bigger game this year?”  I’ve boiled their answers down to seven ways to play a bigger game. If you’re ready to play a bigger game, you’ll want to take a look.

1. Take the risk:  My observation, which just about all of my clients agree with, is that most leaders overestimate the risk and underestimate the rewards of taking the initiative or saying what needs to be said.  To play a bigger game, take the risk.

2. Prioritize:  An effective strategy is probably more about what you’re not going to do than what you’re going to do.  To play a bigger game, you need to pick your spots.  Prioritize.

3. Collaborate: In the bigger game, 1+1 = 3.  To get bigger results, you have to work and play well with others.  Proactively reach out to people of different interests. Seek input from a broader group.  Collaborate.

4. Fight the legacy – If you’re organization is stuck in a rut, a bigger game can look like fighting the legacy of the way you’ve always done things.  The bigger game here is leading an energetic shift from “not possible” to “possible.”

5. Customer focused creativity – Customer expectations get higher every year and can change at light speed.  Part of the bigger game is to lead creative efforts that are focused on the customer experience.

6. Move faster – A big component of your bigger game may be encouraging others to move faster.  Small experiments, shorter decision cycles, being clear about when it needs to be perfect and when good enough is good enough are all components of playing a faster, bigger game.

7. Show up everyday willing to be fired – There’s an iconic scene from the movie Risky Business in which an instigating friend counsels the protagonist, Joel that “Sometimes you just gotta’ say, ‘What the ****.’ Because saying ‘What the ****,’ gives you freedom.  And freedom gives you opportunity and opportunity is your future, Joel.” The freedom to do what you need to do to play the biggest possible game only comes if you’re willing to be fired and believe that if it doesn’t work out here, it will work out somewhere else.

One other important point in addition to these different ideas on how to play a bigger game is that you still have to nail the basic expectations of whatever role you’re in.  That’s the price of admission to play a bigger game.

What about you?  What’s the one thing you need to do this year to play a bigger game? Please share your thoughts in a comment.

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The best leaders are those who lead people to believe in themselves.
People believe in themselves when they have a reason to commit to something significant and meaningful.
When people feel inspired by their leader, leadership is at its best. When people are made to feel important, when they know they matter and they have an important role, they bring their best to all they need to accomplish. Inspiration drives motivation.
When people understand the direction of the vision, leadership is at its prime. People need to know where they are heading and why they are headed there. Once they have that knowledge, they can leverage their talent to achieve great results. Direction fosters purpose.
When people feel safe to make mistakes, leadership is supportive. While success relies on innovation and creativity, it also takes many mistakes to succeed. When your people feel safe to fail, you have done your job in preparing them to meet challenges and letting them know they will go unscathed when they make mistakes. A safety net promotes security.
When people experience trust in their own ability, leadership is at its peak. Those you entrust feel important and empowered. Trust encourages people to bring their talent and knowledge and become part of the team. Trust leads to confidence.
When people know they can contribute in a meaningful way, leadership is optimal. It is important for people to know that they have a genuine contribution to make, that what they do is instrumental in achieving significant results. Meaning creates justification.

Give your people a reason to believe in themselves and watch them create something meaningful and significant.

Lead From Within: When you believe in people, you get people to believe in themselves. And when that happens you can achieve great things together.
- See more at: http://www.lollydaskal.com/leadership/lead-people-believe/#sthash.aatfVICm.dpuf

The best leaders are those who lead people to believe in themselves.
People believe in themselves when they have a reason to commit to something significant and meaningful.
When people feel inspired by their leader, leadership is at its best. When people are made to feel important, when they know they matter and they have an important role, they bring their best to all they need to accomplish. Inspiration drives motivation.
When people understand the direction of the vision, leadership is at its prime. People need to know where they are heading and why they are headed there. Once they have that knowledge, they can leverage their talent to achieve great results. Direction fosters purpose.
When people feel safe to make mistakes, leadership is supportive. While success relies on innovation and creativity, it also takes many mistakes to succeed. When your people feel safe to fail, you have done your job in preparing them to meet challenges and letting them know they will go unscathed when they make mistakes. A safety net promotes security.
When people experience trust in their own ability, leadership is at its peak. Those you entrust feel important and empowered. Trust encourages people to bring their talent and knowledge and become part of the team. Trust leads to confidence.
When people know they can contribute in a meaningful way, leadership is optimal. It is important for people to know that they have a genuine contribution to make, that what they do is instrumental in achieving significant results. Meaning creates justification.

Give your people a reason to believe in themselves and watch them create something meaningful and significant.

Lead From Within: When you believe in people, you get people to believe in themselves. And when that happens you can achieve great things together.
- See more at: http://www.lollydaskal.com/leadership/lead-people-believe/#sthash.aatfVICm.dpuf

The best leaders are those who lead people to believe in themselves.
People believe in themselves when they have a reason to commit to something significant and meaningful.
When people feel inspired by their leader, leadership is at its best. When people are made to feel important, when they know they matter and they have an important role, they bring their best to all they need to accomplish. Inspiration drives motivation.
When people understand the direction of the vision, leadership is at its prime. People need to know where they are heading and why they are headed there. Once they have that knowledge, they can leverage their talent to achieve great results. Direction fosters purpose.
When people feel safe to make mistakes, leadership is supportive. While success relies on innovation and creativity, it also takes many mistakes to succeed. When your people feel safe to fail, you have done your job in preparing them to meet challenges and letting them know they will go unscathed when they make mistakes. A safety net promotes security.
When people experience trust in their own ability, leadership is at its peak. Those you entrust feel important and empowered. Trust encourages people to bring their talent and knowledge and become part of the team. Trust leads to confidence.
When people know they can contribute in a meaningful way, leadership is optimal. It is important for people to know that they have a genuine contribution to make, that what they do is instrumental in achieving significant results. Meaning creates justification.

Give your people a reason to believe in themselves and watch them create something meaningful and significant.

Lead From Within: When you believe in people, you get people to believe in themselves. And when that happens you can achieve great things together.
- See more at: http://www.lollydaskal.com/leadership/lead-people-believe/#sthash.aatfVICm.dpuf

Howard Shultz, CEO of Starbucks, once said, “The hardest thing about being a leader is demonstrating or showing vulnerability… When the leader demonstrates vulnerability and sensibility and brings people together, the team wins.”

Almost everyone seems to think that being vulnerable is a bad thing – it implies that you’re weak or defenseless. In fact, when someone is willing to admit they’re vulnerable, it demonstrates a level of trust and respect with the person or people they’re opening up to. Great leaders recognize the importance of bringing vulnerability to work because it is the foundation for open and nonjudgmental communications. The boldest act of a leader is to be publicly vulnerable.

While it may not come naturally to leaders or people – no one wants to open himself or herself up to being emotionally challenged – vulnerability can mean a complete transformation in relationships and performance. Being vulnerable in the workspace doesn’t mean you walk around with a box of tissues and share your deepest, most personal secrets with everyone. Being vulnerable at work simply means you are ready to let your guard down, put aside any pretenses, and be your real self. A vulnerable leader is one who checks his or her ego at the door, is comfortable with not having all the answers, and is ready to wholeheartedly embrace the perspectives, opinions, and thoughts of his or her people.

A leader who shows vulnerability is someone who stops feeling compelled to be the first one with an idea or the first one to answer a question. Becoming vulnerable requires a mindset shift where you start to see the aspirations of the business through the eyes of the people you lead. This invites them to become more involved in – and in fact to become the drivers of – the conversation. When you are vulnerable, your employees feel more connected, invested, respected, and vital to the organization. Everyone benefits.

"A vulnerable leader is one who checks his or her ego at the door, is comfortable with not having all the answers, and is ready to wholeheartedly embrace the perspectives, opinions, and thoughts of his or her people."

Boldly vulnerable leaders are exceptional at discovering the authentic perspective of the people they lead and continuously see the business through the eyes of the people they serve. Here are three key things to think about so you can put titles aside and open up the lines of honest communication and vulnerability in the office:

Leaders feel an almost constant pressure to perform at a higher level than others. They are the ones expected to paint a vision, develop the ideas to execute the vision, and answer the tough questions along that path. But sometimes the boldest thing a leader can do is to just sit and listen – rather than drive the conversation. No, this doesn’t mean you’re lazy. In fact, it’s enabling you to fully hear and embrace your people’s ideas.

Being vulnerable isn’t a bad thing and it doesn’t make you weak; it actually makes you a better leader because you stop wasting energy protecting yourself from what you think other people shouldn’t see. It allows you to start showing your authentic self. By accepting vulnerability as a strength, you stop worrying about having every answer and realize that yes, it’s okay to even be wrong. Regardless of what you don’t know, or whatever skill you don’t possess, your people are there to assist. You helped put these people here and it’s important to leverage all they bring to the table.

Most of us need to practice being vulnerable because we’re used to working to impress others through our actions and words. A vulnerable leader is an active listener who isn’t worried about saying the “right” thing and can remain engaged and focused on the conversation. This results in being able to better motivate and encourage your people as they develop the next great idea and then work shoulder to shoulder to bring it to life.

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