* Association and Exaggeration

When a name is given, associate it with a mental image. The image you come up with should be off wall. Research has found that most bizarre images are ones most easily remembered. Exaggerate size, shape and action of associated image. This too promotes memory retention.

Examples of this techniques in action

Annie Davis

Think of a woman’s fanny and an Avis rent a car. Now picture fanny getting into car with a huge Avis sign on door.

Bill Dewar

Imagine a man covered with dollar bills digging for dew worms.

Connie Adams

Think of a woman in a striped prison uniform (CON) with a newspaper on her knee reading help wanted ads. con + knee + ads This should be enough to give you name when brought to mind.

As silly as these might seem, they do work. To practise this exercise go to phone book and select names at random and try to apply this technique to names selected. The more you practise easier process becomes. Pretty soon you will be able to recall names using this techniques without thinking much about it.

Mike Moore is an international speaker on humor and human potential. http://motivationalplus.com/cgi/a .cgi?blasters

Naptime beckoned, and as we were getting ready to head home, Alex came over to me and beamed. “That kid’s like a cat,” he said. “He likes round things that go around.”

It’s true that James loves wheels, but then I’ve known him for two years. In about 10 minutes, Alex had quietly ‘gotten’ James and taken it to meta-level.

Alex has strength called Strategic, which you either have or you don’t; it can’t be taught. He sees patterns where others simply see complexity. Strategics cut through clutter. Alex then verbalized what he’d discovered. “This person [Strategic] is likely to have a strength for putting his ideas and thoughts into words,” say Buckingham and Clifton. “Position this person on leading edge of your organization.”

Alex is also exhibiting strong right-brain traits, using a simile to describe picturesquely what he’s discovered, comparing two disparate things – a cat and a boy.

He’s also exhibiting Empathy. Understanding innately how James feels about things. James doesn’t just love things that go ‘round; he’s obsessed with them. Alex tapped into a feeling thing, and from feelings we know how to manage people, guide them and work with them. Once you know what James likes, you have key to motivating him, something that managers, therapists, and coaches need to be able to do.

These two traits of Empathy and Strategist also show up in his comment about neighbor. He’s made a big connection for a small boy – that a woman who reports her neighbor for watering on wrong day is going to be furious at a toddler throwing dirt on her driveway, i.e., that she’s fastidious and rigid about things.

KNOWING YOUR STRENGTHS

If you’ve been lucky, your parents keyed in on things like this, and your teachers, and your counselors, and your coaches, and your managers. If not, these natural propensities were ignored, or even considered weaknesses, and you’ve lost touch with them.

I have one client, for instance, who has Intellection, Learner and Ideation for 3 of her top themes. This means she’s intellectual, loves to learn and study, and loves ideas for their own sake. Her parents were farmers, and actually said to her, “Get your head out of that book and do something useful. That won’t be tolerated in this household.”

So you see how it goes.

MAKE YOUR OWN LUCK

If you were lucky in this respect, and have crafted your life around your strengths, congratulations. If you were not, you can do it for yourself. Take time this year to delve into your innate talents and strengths and take first step on one of paths to happiness.

Self-awareness will lead to better understand of others and will help you see and understand innate strengths in others as well.