 You need to be active. You need to push yourself not by being very, very pushy here, but just do something new. Doing something new every and each day helps your brain to be fresh and young. And it's about music. It's about sports activity, new sports activity. It's about conversation, about meeting people, about playing cards. Yeah. What's up everybody and welcome to the show today. We drop great content each and every week and we want to make sure that you guys get notified. And in order to do that, you're going to have to smash that subscribe button and hit that notification bell. And if you've gotten a lot of value out of this, make sure you give us a like and share our videos with your friends. I know for myself, I've been in situations where there's so much tension and pressure that I feel like my mind actually goes blank. And I can't recall anything. Has that happened to you? And what do you do in those moments where even if you're training and trying to get to that state may not have worked, and now everything is blank? That happens to everyone. And that might have happened to everyone already. Even happened to me. And I think, yeah, I mean, this is a strange strategy is you try to be aware of that. Okay, now I have a blackout. Everything is blank. And but it's not the truth. This is just because I'm nervous because there's so much tension. And it's really like, what I'm, yeah, what I do is I try to put myself back into a comfortable situation in my mind, just closing my eyes, breathe in, breathe out. And I mean, it sounds very simple, but it is really a matter of training if you do that very often. And in many tension situations where there's a lot of tension, you get better at this. And maybe in the beginning it doesn't work, but second time it works a bit better and then a bit better. And I mean, in the end, just be honest with your counterpart, just say, okay, sorry, I just have a blackout here. Very sorry about that. Can you give me five minutes and a bottle of water? I mean, since everyone has been in this situation, maybe then almost everyone would be that kind and say, okay, come down, everything's fine. Just relax and then you might feel better. So being honest in that situation is also, yeah, maybe a simple tip here, but I think that works also pretty well. You brought up a great point that you can't really work through that until you've put yourself in those situations before. And understanding that it's going to happen to the best of us, there's going to be those moments where we do have too much tension and pressure and we maybe draw a blank or anxiety overwhelms us. The best way to actually work through that is to find other ways to put yourself in that tension and pressure outside of the competition. So you work on managing those moments when it doesn't count so that that practice can come into play when it does count. And I think that's a big strategy that we have in coaching our clients in unstoppable and building their confidence. Understanding that this is completely normal. Even a world champion in memory sports has drawn a blank is enough consolation for you to know, okay, so this is normal. So what can I do to prepare myself in these situations that I may encounter later? And I know for all of us memory as we were talking about earlier is such an important part of our lives. We think about getting older and losing these memories that we hold near and dear. And in talking to Michael, he said you have some simple daily strategies and trainings we can use even if we're not necessarily entering memory sports competitions to strengthen that. And I love viewing it like a muscle because many of us aren't really thinking about it in that way. We just hope that as a strategy we'll hold on to these memories. So what are some things our listeners can do on a daily basis to continue to strengthen their memory so they can recall these presentations, these job interview preps or even names when they're meeting new people? Yeah, you're right. It's almost like training a muscle. Luckily for me, it's not like training a muscle because my muscles don't work anymore. So it's always people tell me, yeah, it's like a muscle. Yeah, somehow. But of course, you can rephrase it like that. And the most important part is doing a regular thing out of it. So it's like brushing your teeth. So let's say you just brush your teeth for two hours once a month. That doesn't make any sense, I would say. So do it every day, every day. That's the first thing. And then just start small. You don't have to memorize 50 words or a deck of cards. Just start small and do little exercises, five minutes, 10 minutes. It's already enough. Just do it regularly. And then maybe you write down a list of, let's say, 10 words and you just try to create a nice little story out of it. And just try to be creative, create a nice fantasy story and try to recall them. And if you do that every day, you will see you become better, you become faster. And then you go up to 15 words, for example. And so it's really a matter of doing it in a regular basis and just get it started. And many people, even in my coaching, say, I don't have the time. I cannot find the time for that. Five minutes. If you cannot find five minutes, then you should really think about your schedule. And what I say is, okay, let's go through your day. What do you do after getting up, maybe having a coffee and then what you do then? Yeah, I watch a YouTube video for 10 minutes. Okay, maybe you can do something else here. And so you can find during the day, after lunch and the evening before going to bed, five minutes and every day. And then you will have nice success very soon. It's something that I think many of us are not realizing that it can be trained number one and number two. It doesn't take that much effort to work to become better at utilizing your memory. Now, being in memory sports, I'm assuming that as these world records are set, there's new strategies that come out and even new science that helps you in building that ability, that strength to compete at a high level in memory sports. What are some of the biggest myths or misconceptions that we have as mortals around developing your memory and competing in memory sports? I think the most important part is that everyone can use these strategies. Even if you don't, if you think you have a bad memory, you might not have the capability to become a world champion, but you have the capability to break your own records by far. And it's really about trying it. And I mean, AJ, if you want, we can also make an exercise here about that because it's really, you really have to try it to get the experience out of that. Before we get to the exercise, which I'm very excited about, there has been some loose science pointing that for musicians and the memorization of patterns in music helps with as you get older to hold your memory together. And as we know, you use it or lose it. Have you seen any of the science supporting any of that with the muscle memory games or for what the work that people are doing here? Yeah, I think it's not just about music. It's about everything you do with your brain. If you're getting older, maybe you go for a retirement, if you just sit in front of your TV, then you will lose it, right? But if you do something each day and if it's just reading a book or doing like a little, how do you say that like crossword puzzles? Yeah, crossword puzzles every day or just trying something new. That's what you need. You need to try something new. And if it's just like walking another way through the supermarket, it pushes your brain, it gives you some new insight. And that's what you need. You need to be active. You need to push yourself, not by being very, very pushy here, but just do something new. Doing something new every and each day helps your brain to be fresh and young. And it's about music. It's about sports activity, new sports activity. It's about conversation, about meeting people, about playing cards. Yeah, a lot of possibilities, but do something. We drop great content each and every week and we want to make sure that you guys get notified. And in order to do that, you're going to have to smash that subscribe button and hit that notification bell. And if you've gotten a lot of value out of this, make sure you give us a like and share our videos with your friends. I think some of the most astonishing things I've seen that have to do with memory is certainly the videos on YouTube. There'll be somebody who's sitting in an old folks home who has been sitting in dementia or have lost their memory a while ago and they'll put headphones on them of music that was maybe they had danced to it as a child or had a choreography routine that was burning their mind. And all of a sudden they come to life. They begin moving in ways that the music and those memories have unlocked. And I just find that fascinating. And there's also an incredible, but yet at the same time, horrific record made. And you ever heard of it? The artist is the project is called Caretaker. And the record is a six hour record of what this person feels and thinks that memory loss would be like. And as the record progresses, it's basically it's one song. And as the record progresses, it kind of degrades. And by the end of the six hours, though, you hear the last notes being played and put you in such an, at least for myself, it would put myself in such an emotional state because the important memories to me and how much they make me feel and then to put myself into this situation where I'm now observing somebody losing their memory as this record does was so sad. But yet the the song and the emotions that brought out in the beginning of it allowed you to understand the joy that this person gets from hearing this music. And so as the six hours goes on and that song slowly degrades and starts to slip away, you can't help but become upset and scared for this person who's losing their last memories. Yeah, that's also an image, right? You're describing that story, very visual here. And this song which decreases shows how the memory fades away, right? So, yeah. For anyone who's interested in experiencing that, you can find on YouTube, it's called Caretaker and the album is called Everywhere at the End of Time. It's a fascinating look and as an art project, it's fascinating, it's sad, it's beautiful all at the same time. Yeah, so Caretaker, I have to memorize it now to look it up on YouTube later. Well, I think that touches on a great point that many of us are reliant on technology or smartphones to be that extra memory bank for us and augment our intelligence. And I find myself that, you know, growing up before a smartphone, I would have to memorize locations and routes to get places, but now I don't need to rely on my memory as much to drive, to get around, to go or need to go. Can you touch on why you think memory is so important when many of us right now feel like we're relying on it less and less? Yeah, that's a major point for me and my coachings and because people ask me why I should memorize anything, I can use my smartphone and have everything in my pocket, my pocket brain. And yeah, it's true somehow. I also use my smartphone. I also have all the numbers in there and contents and it's okay. Of course, you can do that. But when it comes to a point when you stop, yeah, making a conversation about a specific topic, but instead of talking about something, you just look it up in the internet, then the whole conversation just breaks down. And that's one point. And the other point is that when you just looking everything up, never memorizing anything, how can you ever put something in perspective? How can you put it in the right context? I mean, if you have no knowledge around a specific point in your own memory, it's quite hard. And in times of fake news, it's like, if you if people would memorize more, have more in their general knowledge, then they would have been there would be more able to put that in context. And that's an important point, I think. So having a good memory means to connect different topics, being able to make new connections. And it's not just about memorizing a bank account number or something. It's really about making connections, being creative, putting things in context and perspective. And yeah, I don't know where that goes in 20 years. I'm still using my navigation system in my car, my GPS. My girlfriend is always like she is always like using it. And I say no, today, I want to do it without. So I memorize the map. And then I drive. And she's always like, it's never the right place. And I wait for it, wait for it. And then I'm, okay, sometimes I'm just driving around. And I'm not sure about where I am. But at some point, I find out, okay, the sun is over there, that must be south. And then I most of the time find the right place. And it's, it's so it feels so good if you can do that in the end, isn't it? So because you're relying on GPS and then standing somewhere, I don't know if I would ever feel happy about that. So yeah. Well, Johannes, you had given us your aid. So I'm going to give you mine. I am 47. And what I'm seeing from young people today, and I mean, we've even seen this in our own company, where we'll be talking or we'll be giving a lesson or showing one of our employees how to do something. And they're being very studious about it. They're taking all the notes in the world. But none of those notes go into their head. Their notes go into the ear and then out their fingers into the computer or their phone, never to be heard of scene again. And I'm like, listen, I know that you're doing the thing that you were told to do and whether to take notes, but the notes, these things are supposed to end up in your head. What is the point if they go on to a Google Doc, never to be seen again? Exactly. And they have been research about that topic. It's it's really if there have been students and one group has their smartphones with them. And the other group has to be has to switch off their smartphones. And the group with the smartphones was in a like a test. I don't know the exact test, but the smartphone group was not that good as the non smartphone group. So if your brain knows, I can look it up, you don't even try. That's very, that's very interesting, because you know, I can look it up later. I don't have to memorize that. So your brain will adapt to that and it will not memorize anything. But if you have to, if you are forced to do it, because your smartphone is off, then your memories just start memorizing stuff. So it's that easy.