'No One Has a Bad Memory'

He had worked as a software developer and a vet tech for years, but in 2009, Nelson Dellis decided it was time for a career change.

His grandmother had just passed away from Alzheimer's disease, and Dellis had become fascinated with how someone could essentially lose all recollection.

"When she passed, it really hit me," he said. "I had never lost anyone close to me at the time. I always credit that as the catalyst."

Dellis began working hard to improve his own memory — and eventually started entering memory competitions across the world.

Two years ago, he won the U.S.A. Memory Championship. He’s also the author of the book "Remember It!" in which he shares some of his critical frameworks to recall past events.

The Daily Coach caught up with Dellis recently to discuss his career transition, why it's pivotal for leaders to have good memories, and what we can do to get better at learning names.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Nelson, thanks a lot for doing this. Tell us a little about your childhood and some key lessons from it.

I was born in Wimbledon, United Kingdom, and we moved as a family throughout my childhood. From Miami, to Paris, back to London, and then back to Miami again. As a kid, it was hard. I always had to leave my friends and make new ones. Of course, looking back now, I realize how powerful it was for me growing up to have such international experiences. And I now have friends all over the world!

You worked as a software developer and a vet tech for several years. How did those early work experiences shape you?

I've always been interested in how the world works. I originally studied physics for that very reason. I'm not a religious person at all, so getting my degree in physics was, in my way, how I went about getting answers about the world. Then, I transitioned to Computer Science for my Master's degree so I could actually apply the physics I learned in the workplace. That led me to be a software developer for a brief stint. I loved the problem-solving aspect of it all, but I hated the corporate workplace lifestyle. I wasn't made for that. So, I was making my own moves behind the scenes (with my memory career).

You began seriously studying memory and trying to improve your own in 2009. Why, in your opinion, is having a good memory so critical for leaders?

Memory is in everything we do. It helps you retain information from the past that can propel you forward. The sharper your memory, the better you can navigate through the world. As a leader, I can't think of any other skill that would be more important for success. Sure, you can surround yourself with a team that can be your "memory," but having it yourself is like this instant superpower in life.

How much of memory in your opinion really just comes down to focus?

I think that focus is 90 percent of memory. One could even argue that memory techniques themselves are just fancy ways of paying a lot of attention to something.

If you think of your brain and sensory organs as receivers of data, for most things, they can only receive data when the antenna is pointed at the source (metaphorically speaking). This isn't always the case, though. There are plenty of things we pick up intuitively or without knowing, but most information is processed in that way. So if you're not paying attention or focused, how can you expect to remember something?

What advice would you give someone who doesn’t think he/she has a good memory?

Try to change that narrative. Understand that no one has a bad memory, just an untrained memory. If you learn some simple memory techniques, you'll see really quickly that, you too, have a great memory. And once you realize that? Your memory's potential is unlimited.

What are some of those techniques leaders can utilize?

The most powerful one is called "The Memory Palace." You basically think of a familiar place like your home, gym, workplace, etc. and you imagine pictures of the things you want to memorize interacting with in different locations around that place.

So for example, if you were memorizing a list of 10 grocery items, you could imagine a picture in your mind of the first item (say it's milk) interacting with your front door (imagine a deluge of cold, white milk pouring down the front door). Then you imagine walking through the door, and the next location is maybe the entryway. Place the next item at that location. Repeat this until all ten items are placed.

Then, when you want to remember the list, go back to your familiar place and walk through it, picking up the images of things as you go. It may sound complicated but it works amazingly well. This is the technique we memory athletes use to memorize decks of cards and thousands of digits of pi.

Why do so many of us struggle with names and how can we get better?

It's not necessarily the names we struggle with. It's the pairing of a name to a face. We remember faces really well, but it's difficult to label a face with this random nonsense word that we call a "name." So the goal with names is to turn a given name into something meaningful. What does it remind you of? Think of that, for example, and then connect it to some distinguishing feature on the person's face.

By "connect" I mean, imagine a weird or bizarre (memorable) relation between the meaningful image you came up with for their name and the feature. That will help ensure that every time you see that one person, their name will be attached to them and you'll remember it.

Q&A Resources

Nelson Dellis ― Website | Book: Memory Superpowers! | Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube