How many times have you heard (or said): “I have a bad memory”? Once or twice?
The reality is that no one has a bad memory. Each and everyone of us is born with a perfect memory and unless a human being suffers from a condition that causes memory loss we can improve our ability to remember - throughout our lives.
There have been many excellent books written about how to improve memory and if you read them you will learn that one of the best ways to remember something is to create a “mental hook” or an “association”.
Can you recall a time when a smell or a tune returned you to a time and a place like it was yesterday. It was crystal clear in your conscious mind. That's the power of association.
When creating an association it is suggested that you create a ridiculous image or story. The more ridiculous the image is the easier it will be to remember the subject (name, place, colour etc…). I highly recommend delving into literature that covers how to improve memory.
So why am I talking about memory when the subject of this blog is EVOKE. Well let’s explore the meaning of EVOKE:
“The mental power responsible for recalling a memory, an image or a feeling is the power of EVOKING”.
You see, in isolation, creating a memory is only one part of bringing it back to your conscious mind. It is the power of being able to EVOKE that finds where the memory is located in your sub-conscious mind and then brings it to your conscious mind.
Some years ago my wife was diagnosed with a form of brain cancer (I am happy to report that she overcame the disease). The cancer first presented when she started to lose her ability to remember.
I remember at the time describing it as “losing her memory” but the reality is she never lost her memory. If she had “lost her memory” she would never have been able to recall anything after the treatment resolved the cancer. No, she didn’t lose her memory, she lost her ability to be able to access her memory.
To make sense of this I created an analogy that went something like this:
My wife’s memories were stored in a high rise building - on different levels and in different rooms within rooms.
When her cancer first presented she was not able to remember the address of the building therefore she could not get to her memories.
However, as the treatment progressed she was able to remember the building and get to the lift well but she was unable to remember the floor that the memory was on.
Ultimately, she was able to find the building, go to the correct floor, turn left, go the door of the room, enter the code for the door lock, enter the room and find the thing she was looking for.
You see, my wife never lost her memory she just lost the ability to recall it (access it) but this was not just because of the effect that the cancer had on her brain. It also had to do with her CONFIDENCE.
You can imagine that the impact of having brain cancer would be quite traumatic and it was. This trauma resulted in my wife losing her confidence and this meant that despite a very successful outcome to the treatment she still doubted her ability to recall. Her power to EVOKE was severely affected.
And this is the crux of this blog. In order to be able to recall our memories we must maintain an optimal “power level” in our conscious mind in order to be able to EVOKE (recall).
In the cockpit environment if we cannot maintain an optimal conscious mind state we will not be able to recall and this can have severe consequences. A simple example of this is a "Golden Rule" - Aviate. If our mental capacity has been severely affected we may not be able to "see" that the aircraft is in an undesirable state (unsafe trajectory).
The E in R.O.E stands for EVOKE. But note - the E is contained within the word R.O.E. The E, in isolation, will not be very useful. The other two components of R.O.E (Resilience and Order) must be manifested before we can EVOKE.
The understanding of the R.O.E Triune © is key to be able to employ the R.O.E Model©.
Models, mental hooks and other memory aids are not very effective (possibly useless) unless you understand HOW to access them when your conscious mind has been challenged.
To learn more about the R.O.E Triune © and HOW to EVOKE, come along to one of R.O.E Training Solutions’ courses.
Contact David today to learn more about the suite of R.O.E Training Solutions courses on offer.
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