Pareto Path

What does an eight-time World Memory Champion (Dominic O’Brien), Sherlock Holmes and the great orator Cicero have in common…?

They all use Mind Palaces to solve problems like the one I had:

My heart was pacing and my palms were sweating. My turn was coming and I knew it was just a matter of time before they called my name.

“Please welcome Robert to the stage!”

I closed my eyes and accessed my mind palace. I opened the door to a bank in Ramsgate that was converted into a fancy apartment. I walked through and saw Death standing there, a reminder that all things fade in the end. Death pointed to a huge button, about 6 feet high, which reminded that even if I could get rid of nerves before public speaking, I wouldn’t, because then every public talk would be boring to me. Having a bit of nerves beforehand makes it real and fun. Next to the button was the word “Stress”, although this word had arms and was doing a bench press, a reminder that stress can be positive or negative, that it’s your decision to make it work for you. Lastly, a mirror at the end of the path faced me, a reminder that making things about yourself just makes you more self-conscious, and focusing on others removes that self-consciousness significantly.

Several minutes later I had many laughs from the crowd and a round of applause as I walked back to my seat.

What I used was a mind palace to actively manage my psychology and physiology in real-time, and I will help you build yours today.

If you’ve ever asked questions like:

How do I build a memory palace?

What is the method of Loci?

How do I use the method of Loci?

What is a mind palace?

What is a mind palace used for?

How hard is it to build a mind palace?

Then you’re in the right place.

What is a Mind Palace?

A mind palace is a visualisation technique that allows you to store and access information, which has been around for millennia and has been used by great real thinkers like Cicero and the eight-time World Memory Champion (Dominic O’Brien), as well as fictional characters like Sherlock Holmes.

A mind palace is a dynamic system you can use for an infinite amount of things: it’s like an application on your phone that can give you advice on anything, anytime, and never runs out of battery. Any feature you want to add, you can, and anything you want to remove, you can. It also never has adverts.

You can use it for standard stuff like storing your shopping list or remembering birthdays. Or you can do what I do and use it as a storehouse of wisdom that you can access at anytime to stop yourself from doing stupid things and running into walls that are easily avoidable.

For example, concepts like Death, Stress, and Self-Consciousness can be built into the mind palace, much the same way I explained them in the above example. Furthermore, you can use real people or fictional characters to help you sort through the difficulties of life and to handle difficult situations, like an argument with your partner, a bereavement or a high-stakes business case.

How can I build a mind palace?

A simple example is this: let’s say you’re always struggling to reply to people’s texts or messages, and you’d like to fix this problem. I’m sure you can easily bring someone to mind who would be able to easily solve this problem. Let’s pretend this person is Professor X from the X-Men. You can put Professor X into your mind palace and ask him things like “Hey X, I’m trying to be better at replying to my friends but sometimes I just get overwhelmed. What do you recommend I do?” And he will give you an answer. Whether it’s “to schedule time in the evening for replies, like between 7pm and 7:30pm you reach back out”, or something else, doesn’t matter. What does matter is that someone you admire and respect will give you a solution in real-time, all you have to do is ask them.

This is an example of a dynamic form of a mind palace that you can use to consult anyone, anytime, anyplace. And if you think about it, who better to give you advice than your own self? After all, no-one knows you better than you know yourself, right?

Mind Palace 101

So try this now: think of one person you really admire and respect because of the way they are or because of a characteristic they have that you want. They can be dead or alive, fictional or non-fictional. It could be a relative you love and look up to, or a fictional person like Morpheus from The Matrix.

Do you have someone that pops up?

Now think of a place that invokes a feeling of calm, collectedness and peace in you. It might be a beach you went to when you were a child, a library you studied in when you were a student or a hotel that you felt at home in.

Got the place?

Now simply place the person in the place.

You might imagine walking towards this person on the beach, seeing them sitting on a blanket enjoying the sunshine. In your mind you can walk over to them, see them wave at you and invite you over, sitting down and asking them a question or telling them a problem you’re facing. And then listen.

Try this now. Close your eyes and give it a go.

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I hope this has been of value, you can let me know in the comments. And remember AFQ: Always Follow Quality. 

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