Book 117 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title: The Year of Magical Learning is My Memory Palace!

Book – Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer

Book Description: An instant bestseller that is poised to become a classic, Moonwalking with Einstein recounts Joshua Foer's yearlong quest to improve his memory under the tutelage of top "mental athletes." He draws on cutting-edge research, a surprising cultural history of remembering, and venerable tricks of the mentalist's trade to transform our understanding of human memory. From the United States Memory Championship to deep within the author's own mind, this is an electrifying work of journalism that reminds us that, in every way that matters, we are the sum of our memories.

Reflection:

This book blew me away and I loved every minute of it.

I learned so much, which is what this journey is all about at the end of the day. I had never really noticed it before recently how many more notes I take on books that seemingly fill my head with all kinds of new knowledge versus ones that don’t. Recent books I’ve finished like Humankind, Never Split the Difference, and Moonwalking with Einstein have pages of notes that I take. Other books…only a few little notes or key themes jotted down that I want to remember.

When I look back on my notes to start my reflection for the Year of Magical Learning project, it is so hard to pick what I want to write sometimes with books like Moonwalking with Einstein as I want to share so much.  

I want to talk about how I learned that:

- We’re all just a bundle of habits shaped by our memories.

Memory is really about imagination - whoever can be the most creative and imaginative can remember the most.

- Monotony collapses time, novelty unfolds it. Learning and creating new memories is important as it stretches out time.

- If remembering is human, to remember more is more human.

- Our brains are really good at understanding time, place, and meaning…not necessarily words

I really want to write a full reflection on all of these topics and a handful more from what I learned from this book.

However, I’ll refrain at this time and just share one major thing that I couldn’t get off my mind after finishing this book…My Memory Palace for Emilia is this Year of Magical Learning Adventure!

My life changed the day that we lost Emilia in a million different ways. The biggest change for me was dedicating my life to live for 2 every single day for my daughter to honor her memory and how she taught me to live a life of values. What that means is it is my job to put those values into action for both of us each and every day of my life. One of those values in action is trying to learn something new every day, which is how this whole year of magical learning project even began.

As time passed from when we lost her to where I am today, I noticed myself starting to forget a lot of what I had learned on this journey. I was even beginning to forget reading whole books that I couldn’t remember anything about on some occasions. I came to realize this was happening because I wasn’t tying the learnings back to anything that had meaning. Learning just became about learning and checking off a new book off the to do list. This is not what this journey has ever been about. This has always been about exploring my values with Emilia every day and applying these learnings to how we live our life for 2 going forward.

It was when I realized this that I thought of this project idea. I didn’t want to forget anymore and wanted to find a way to document this journey for Emilia and I. So I started writing a reflection after each book to memorialize it.

Turns out, after reading Moonwalking with Einstein, that I’ve been basically making my own memory palace for Emilia and I to tie what we’ve learned from each book to times, places, dates, and meaning that we’ve shared together on this journey.

It has worked!!! When I think of a book we’ve consumed on this journey, I immediately think of the reflection at this point and how we’ve applied these lessons to our life. After that, then I start to remember the book itself and it locks in those memories forever in my mind.

The first book I wrote, I Can’t Imagine, was my memory palace honoring Emilia’s courageous fight and the lessons I learned along my own journey after losing her. That is a memory palace filled with pain and sorrow for the most part. It was necessary as I’ll never forget my why and purpose in this life after sharing that story.

The Year of Magical Learning journey is different. This is my new memory palace for my daughter and me. This one is filled with hope, purpose, values, love, and I hope to continue making memories of living our values for the rest of our life.

Question: What are some ways you can create your own memory palace to tie what you learning to meaning?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foe