You Can Learn to Remember: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life pdfdrive com

the interview journey
EXERCISE TWENTY ONE
One of the most stressful environments in which we find ourselves is an
interview. When we feel judged, the pressure of needing to do well can weigh
heavily upon us. We forget key points that will help our case, and we might also
forget what we are told about the job. The following tips will focus your mind
for an interview and help you succeed.
1. Breathing or meditation exercises before the interview can help to put you into
a more relaxed state of mind.
2. Use memory techniques to fix in your mind 10 key points about yourself –
positive qualities that equip you for the job under discussion, as well as key
questions you want to ask. You might find the peg system is more appropriate

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than the journey method, because you will have no control of the interview’s
agenda.
3. When you ask questions, concentrate fully on the answers. Try to visualize
each key piece of information you are given – perhaps linking it with a
memorable surreal image. After the interview, note down what you remember.
You may be called for a second interview, where this information could be useful.
time travelling
A
fter practising memory techniques over a long period, we become adept at
storing and retrieving new information. But what about all those memories that
have gone before? The past is an important part of our character: it defines who
we are.
Time travelling, or pulling back the curtain of lost time, is one of my
favourite memory exercises. Its purpose is to return us to a particular time and
location in our past, so that we remember the experience as richly as possible.
We start with a single detail and work from there, gradually building up a picture
by exploratory, step-by-step association. If we open up our minds, in a suitably
quiet, comfortable, dimly lit room, we may be able in time to conjure even
sounds, textures, tastes, scents and emotions. For example, try to remember
individual sounds – a squeaky chair, a door creaking, a crackling fire. Work from
a detail that is clear to you – let’s say a loudly ticking longcase clock in your
grandparents’ entrance hall. Think of the sound of the longcase clock as it
chimed. Any visitor to the house would have passed by this clock. What would it
have felt like walking up the path to the front door, entering the hall, and looking
up at it as a child? What emotions did the clock evoke? As you imagine it, are
the hands set to any particular time? What did your grandparents routinely do at
that hour?
You might attempt a Mind Map of your childhood (see pp.
112–13
), starting
with the homes you lived in and your relatives’ homes. Probe others’ memories
too – just one recollection from another witness can spark a whole chain of new
associations in your own mind.