Latest / The Art of Public Speaking / Episode 28: Memory Training - Art of Public Speaking - Dale Carnegie

Transcript

Episode 28: Memory Training - Art of Public Speaking - Dale Carnegie · The Art of Public Speaking

0:00
Chapter twenty eight, Memory Training quote lull'd in the countless chambers of the brain,
0:08
our thoughts are link'd by many a hidden chain awake, but one and
0:13
low what myriads rise, Each stamps its image as the other flies. Hail
0:19
memory, Hail in thy exhaustlest mine from age to age, unnumbered treasures shine
0:26
thought and her shadowy brood, Thy call obey and place and time a subject
0:32
to thy sway unquote Samuel Roger's Pleasures of Memory. Many an orator like Thackeray,
0:41
has made the best part of his speech to himself on the way home
0:45
from the lecture hall. Presence of mind, it remained for Mark Twain to
0:50
observe is greatly promoted by absence of body. A hole in the memory is
0:56
no less a common complaint than a distressing one. Henry Ward Beecher was able
1:03
to deliver one of the world's greatest addresses at Liverpool because of his excellent memory.
1:08
In speaking of the occasion, mister beech has said that all the events,
1:12
arguments, and appeals that he had ever heard, or read or written
1:18
seemed to pass before his mind as oratorical weapons, and standing there he had
1:23
but to reach forth his hand and quote, seize the weapons as they went
1:29
smoking by unquote. Ben Johnson could repeat all he had written. Scaliger memorized
1:37
the Iliad in three weeks. Locke says, quote without memory, man is
1:42
a perpetual infant unquote. Quintillian and Aristotle regarded it as a measure of genius.
1:52
Now, all this is very good. We all agree that a reliable
1:55
memory is an invaluable possession for the speaker. We never dissent for a moment
2:00
when we are solemnly told that his memory should be a storehouse from which a
2:05
pleasure he can draw, facts, fancies, and illustrations. But can the
2:09
memory be trained to act as the warder for all the truths that we have
2:15
gained from thinking, reading, an experience? And if so, how let
2:21
us see? Twenty years ago a poor immigrant boy employed as a dishwasher in
2:28
New York wandered into the Cooper Union and began to read a copy of Henry
2:32
George's Progress and Poverty. His passion for knowledge was awakened, and he became
2:38
a habitual reader. But he found that he was not able to remember what
2:44
he read, so he began to train in his naturally poor memory until he
2:49
became the world's greatest memory expert. This man was the late mister Felix Beryl.
2:55
Mister Beryl could tell the population of any town in the world and five
3:00
thousand inhabitants. He could recall the names of forty strangers who had just been
3:05
introduced to him, and was able to tell which had been presented third,
3:08
eighth, seventeenth, or in any order. He knew the date of every
3:14
important event in history, and could not only recall an endless array of facts,
3:20
but could correlate them perfectly. To what extent mister Beryl's remarkable memory was
3:25
natural and required only attention for its development seems impossible to determine with exactness,
3:31
but the evidence clearly indicates that, however useless were many of his memory feats,
3:38
A highly retentive memory was developed, where before only a good forgettory existed.
3:46
The freak memory is not worth striving for, but a good working memory
3:50
decidedly is. Your power as a speaker will depend to a large extent upon
3:57
your ability to retain impressions and them fourth when occasion demands, and that sort
4:02
of memory is like muscle. It responds to training heading what not to do
4:10
it is sheer misdirected effort to begin to memorize by learning words by rote,
4:15
for that is beginning to build a pyramid at the apex. For years,
4:19
our scores were cursed by this vicious system. Vicious not only because it is
4:25
inefficient, but for the more important reason that it hurts the mind. True,
4:30
some minds are natively endowed with a wonderful facility in remembering strings of words,
4:36
facts, and figures, but such are rarely good reasoning minds. The
4:42
normal person must be labor and force the memory to acquire in this artificial way.
4:48
Again, it is hurtful to force the memory in hours of physical weakness
4:53
or mental weariness. Health is the basis of the best mental action, and
4:59
the operation memory is no exception. Finally, do not become a slave to
5:04
a system. Knowledge of a few simple facts of mind and memory will set
5:10
you to work at the right end of the operation. Use these principles,
5:15
whether included in a system or not, but do not bind yourself to a
5:18
method that tends to lay more stress on the way to remember than on the
5:24
development of memory itself. It is nothing short of ridiculous to memorize ten words
5:30
in order to remember one fact heading the natural laws of memory, Concentrated attention
5:40
at the time when you wish to store the mind is the first step in
5:44
memorizing, and the most important one by far. You forgot the fourth of
5:48
the list of articles your wife asked you to bring home, chiefly because you
5:54
allowed your attention to waver for an instant when she was telling you. Attention
5:59
may not be concentrated attention. When a siphon is charged with gas, it
6:03
is sufficiently filled with the carbonic acid vapor to make its influence felt. A
6:10
mind charged with an idea is charged to a degree sufficient to hold it.
6:15
Too much charging will make the siphon burst. Too much attention to trifles leads
6:20
to insanity. Adequate attention, then, is the fundamental secret of remembering.
6:28
Generally, we do not give a fact adequate attention when it does not seem
6:31
important. Almost everyone has seen how the seeds in an apple point and has
6:38
memorized the date of Washington's death. Most of us, have perhaps wisely forgotten
6:43
both. The little nick in the bark of a tree is healed over and
6:46
obliterated in a season, but the gashes from the trees around Gettysburg are still
6:51
apparent after fifty years. Impressions that are gathered lightly are soon obliterated. Only
7:00
deep impressions can be recalled at will. Henry Ward Beech has said, quote
7:06
one intense hour will do more than dreamy years unquote to memorize ideas and words.
7:14
Concentrate on them until they are fixed firmly and deeply in your mind,
7:18
and accord to them their true importance. Listen with the mind, and you
7:24
will remember. How shall you concentrate? How would you increase the fighting effectiveness
7:30
for a man of war? One vital way would be to increase the size
7:35
and number of its guns. To strengthen your memory, increase both the number
7:41
and the force of your mental impressions by tending to them intensely. Loose skimming
7:47
reading, and drifting habits of reading destroy memory power. However, as most
7:54
books and newspapers do not warrant any other kind of attention, it will not
7:59
do all together to condemn this method of reading, but avoid it when you
8:03
are trying to memorize. Environment has a strong influence upon concentration. Until you
8:11
have learned to be alone in a crowd and undisturbed by clamor when you set
8:16
out to memorize a fact or a speech, you may find the task easier.
8:20
Away from all sounds and moving objects. All impressions foreign to the one
8:26
you desire to fix in your mind must be eliminated. The next great step
8:33
in memorizing is to pick out the essentials of the subject, arrange them in
8:37
order, and dwell upon them intently. Think clearly of each essential one after
8:43
the other. Thinking a thing not allowing the mind to wander, and non
8:48
essentials is really memorizing. Association of ideas is universally recognized as an essential in
8:58
memory work. Deed, whole systems of memory training have been founded on this
9:03
principle. Many speakers memorize only the outlines of their addresses, filling in the
9:09
words at the moment of speaking. Some have found it helpful to remember an
9:13
outline by associating the different points with objects in the room. Speaking on peace,
9:20
you may wish to dwell on the cost, the cruelty, and the
9:24
failure of war, and so lead to the justice of arbitration. Before going
9:30
on the platform, if you will associate four divisions of your outline with four
9:35
objects in the room, this association may help you to recall them. You
9:39
may be prone to forget your third point. But you remember that once when
9:43
you were speaking, the electric lights failed. So arbitraley the electric light globe
9:50
will help you to remember failure. Such associations, being unique, tend to
9:56
stick in the mind. While recently, speaking on the six kinds of imagination,
10:01
the present writer formed them into an acrostic, a visual, auditory,
10:07
motor, gustatory of factory, and tactile furnished the nonsense word vamgut. But
10:16
the six points were easily remembered in the same way that children are taught to
10:20
remember. The spelling of teasing words separate comes from sepa and as an automobile
10:26
driver remembers that two seas and then two h's lead him into cast A Road,
10:33
Cottman Street, Haines Street, and Henry Street. So important points in
10:39
your address may be fixed in mind by arbitrary symbols invented by yourself. The
10:46
very work of devising the scheme is a memory action. The psychological process is
10:50
simple. It is one of noting intently the steps by which a fact,
10:56
or a truth, or even a word has come to you. Take advantage
11:01
of this tendency of the mind to remembered by association. Repetition is a powerful
11:07
aid to memory. Thurlough Weed, the journalist and political leader, was troubled
11:13
because he so easily forgot the names of persons he met from day to day.
11:18
He corrected the weakness, relates Professor William James, by forming the habit
11:24
of attending carefully to names he had heard during the day, and then repeating
11:28
them to his wife every evening. Doubtless, missus Weed was heroically long suffering,
11:35
but the device worked admirably. After reading a passage, you would remember,
11:41
close the book, reflect and repeat the contents aloud if possible. Reading
11:48
thoughtfully aloud has been found by many to be a helpful memory practice. Write
11:54
what you wish to remember. This is simply one more way of increasing the
12:00
number and strength of your mental impressions. By utilizing all your avenues of impression.
12:05
It will help to fix a speech in your mind. If you speak
12:09
it aloud, listen to it, write it out, and look at it
12:13
intently, you have then impressed it on your mind by means of vocal,
12:18
auditory, muscular and visual impressions. Some folk have peculiarly distinct auditory memories.
12:26
They are able to recall things heard much better than things seen. Others have
12:33
the visual memory. They are best able to recall sight impressions. As you
12:39
recall a walk you have taken, are you able to remember better the sights
12:43
or the sounds? Find out what kinds of impressions your memory retains best,
12:48
and use them the most to fix an idea in mind. Use every possible
12:54
kind of impression. Daily habit is a great memory cultivator. Learn a lesson
13:00
from the marathon runner. Regular exercise, though ever so little, daily will
13:05
strengthen your memory in a surprising manner. Try to describe in detail the dress,
13:11
looks, and manner of the people you pass on the street. Observe
13:16
the room you are in, close your eyes and describe its contents. View
13:20
closely the landscape and write out a detailed description of it. How much did
13:26
you miss notice the contents of the show windows on the street? How many
13:31
features are you able to recall? Continual practice in this feat may develop in
13:37
you as remarkable proficiency as it did in Robert Oudin and his Son. The
13:43
daily memorizing of a beautiful passage in literature will not only lend strength to the
13:48
memory, but will store the mind with gems for quotations, But whether by
13:54
little or much, add daily to your memory power by practice. Memorize out
14:01
of doors. The buoyancy of the wood, the shore, or the stormy
14:05
night on deserted streets may freshen your mind, as it does the minds of
14:09
countless others. Lastly, cast out fear. Tell yourself that you can,
14:18
and will and do remember by pure exercise of selfism. Assert your mastery.
14:26
Be obsessed with the fear of forgetting, and you cannot remember. Practice the
14:30
reverse. Throw aside your manuscript crutches. You may tumble once or twice,
14:35
but what matters that for you are going to learn to walk and leap and
14:39
run. Heading memorizing a speech. Now, let us try to put into
14:46
practice the foregoing suggestions. First, reread this chapter, noting the nine ways
14:52
by which memorizing may be helped. Then read over the following selection from Beecher,
14:58
Applying some any of the suggestions as are practicable, Get the spirit of
15:03
the selection firmly in your mind. Make mental note of write down, if
15:09
you must, the succession of ideas. Now memorize the thought. Then memorize
15:15
the outline the order in which the different ideas are expressed. Finally, memorize
15:20
the exact wording. No. When you have done all this with the most
15:26
faithful attention to directions, you will not find memorizing easy unless you have previously
15:31
trained your memory or it is naturally retentive. Only by constant practice will memory
15:39
becomes strong. And only by continually observing these same principles will it remain strong.
15:45
You will, however, have made a beginning, and that is no
15:48
mean matter quote heading the Reign of the common People. I do not suppose
15:56
that if you were to go and look upon the experiment of self government in
16:00
America, you would have a very high opinion of it. I have not
16:03
either, if I just look upon the surface of things. Why men will
16:07
say, it stands to reason that sixty million ignorant of law, ignorant of
16:12
constitutional history, ignorant of jurisprudence, of finance and taxes and tariffs and forms
16:19
of currency, sixty million people that never studied these things are not fit to
16:25
rule. Your diplomacy is as complicated as ours, and is the most complicated
16:30
on earth. For all things grow in complexity as they develop toward a higher
16:36
condition. What fitness is there in these people? Well, it has not
16:41
democracy merely. It is a representative democracy. Our people do not vote in
16:47
mass for anything. They pick out captains of thought. They pick out the
16:52
men that do know, and they send them to the legislature to think for
16:55
them, and then the people afterwards ratify or disallow them. But when you
17:00
come to the legislature, I am bound to confess that the thing does not
17:04
look very much more cheering on the outside. Do they really select the best
17:10
men? Yes, in times of danger they do very generally. But in
17:14
ordinary time kissing goes by favor. You know what the duty of a regular
17:18
republican democratic legislator is, It is to go back again next winter. His
17:26
second duty is what His second duty is to put himself under that extraordinary providence
17:33
that takes care of legislator's salaries. The old miracle of the prophet and the
17:40
meal and the oil is out done immeasurably in our days. For they go
17:44
their poor one year and go home rich in four years. They become money
17:48
lenders, or by a trust in that gracious providence that takes care of legislator's
17:55
salaries. Their next duty after that is to serve the party that sent them
18:00
up. And then if there is anything left of them, It belongs to
18:04
the Commonwealth. Someone has said very wisely that if a man traveling wishes to
18:10
relish his dinner, he had better not go into the kitchen to see where
18:14
it is cooked. If a man wishes to respect and obey the law,
18:18
he had better not go to the legislature to see where that is cooked.
18:25
Henry Ward Beecher, from a lecture delivered in Exeter Hall, London, eighteen
18:29
eighty six, when making his last tour of Great Britain, heading in case
18:36
of trouble, But what are you to do if, notwithstanding all your efforts,
18:41
you should forget your points and your mind for the minute becomes blank.
18:47
This is a deplorable condition that sometimes arises and must be dealt with. Obviously,
18:52
you can sit down and admit defeat. Such a consummation is devoutly to
18:56
be shunned. Walking slowly across the platform may give you time to grip yourself,
19:03
compose your thoughts, and stave off disaster. Perhaps the surest and most
19:08
practical method is to begin a new sentence with your last important word. This
19:15
is not advocated as a method of composing a speech. It is merely an
19:18
extreme measure which may save you in tight circumstances. It is like the fire
19:23
department. The less you must use it, the better. If this method
19:27
is followed very long, you're likely to find yourself talking about plum pudding or
19:33
Chinese Gordon in the most unexpected manner. So, of course you will get
19:37
back to your lines the earliest moment that your feet have hit the platform.
19:42
Let us see how this plan works. Obviously your extemporized words will lack somewhat
19:48
of polish, but in such a past, crudity is better than failure.
19:53
Now you have come to a dead wall after saying quote Joan of Arc fought
19:59
for liberty unquote. By this method you might get something like this quote.
20:04
Liberty is a sacred privilege for which mankind always had to fight these struggles platitude,
20:12
but push on fill the pages of history. History records the gradual triumph
20:18
of the serf over the lord, the slave over the master. The masters
20:23
continually tried to usurp unlimited powers. Power during the medieval Ages accrue to the
20:30
owner of the land with a spear and a strong castle. But the strong
20:34
castle and spear were of little avail. After the discovery of gunpowder. Gunpowder
20:41
was the greatest boon that liberty had ever known. Unquote. Thus far you
20:47
have linked one idea with another rather obviously, But you are getting your second
20:52
wind now and may venture to relax your grip on the too evident chain.
20:56
And so you say, quote, with gun powder, the humblest surf in
21:00
all the land, could put an end the life of the tyrannical baron behind
21:04
the castle walls. The struggle for liberty with gunpowder as its aid, wrecked
21:11
empires and built up a new era for all mankind. In a moment more,
21:18
you've gotten back to your outline, and the day is saved. Practicing
21:22
exercises like the above will not only fortify you against the death of your speech
21:27
when your memory misses fire, but will also provide an excellent training for fluency
21:33
in speaking. Stock up with ideas, heading questions, and exercises. One,
21:41
pick out, and state briefly the nine helps to memorizing suggested in this
21:45
chapter. Two. Report on whatever success you may have had with any of
21:52
the plans for memory culture suggested in this chapter, have any been less successful
21:56
than others? Freely criticize any of the suggested methods. Four, Give an
22:04
original example of memory by association of ideas. Five, List in order the
22:11
chief ideas of any speech in this volume. Six, Repeat them from memory.
22:18
Seven, Expand them into a speech using your own words. Eight.
22:22
Illustrate practically what you would do if, in the middle of the speech on
22:26
progress, your memory failed you and you stopped suddenly on the following sentence quote
22:33
the last century saw Marvel's progress in varied lines of activity. Nine. How
22:41
many quotations that fit well in the speaker's tall chest can you recall from memory?
22:48
Ten memorize the poem on page forty two. How much time does it
22:52
require? End of Section twenty eight