It’s Christmas morning when your teenager opens the gift box with the car keys. Stand back and grab your angel; not him, the one on top of the tree. Johnny is going bonkers. It’s an amazing grip the power of association has on people. Did anyone tell your son he only got keys? Who said he’s getting a car? His association juices got the better of him.

Your boss just phoned. She wants to see you in the morning. Why is your head spinning after learning about the call?

It’s your surgeon’s first day on the job. Your surgeon’s first day? Why are your first thoughts to phone your priest?

Everything we do links with association. An iPod is an association with listening to music. A pencil is an association with writing, a chair with sitting, an oven with cooking, a tub with bathing, a doorbell with alerting, and the Division of Motor Vehicles with … waiting.

It’s a never ending list how much association comes into play, and how fast we react to it. For instance, a woman with a baby is sitting next to you on a cross country flight. With that in mind, you associate irritability, fussing, and crying. Then, you wonder what the baby will do.

To build a better memory we must harness the power of association. Try memorizing the following lists:

List #1
Egg, eggshell, Shell gasoline, Gasoline Alley, alley cat, catfish, fishbowl, bowling ball, ball of fire, fire truck.

List #2
Fire truck, bowling ball, egg, alley cat, Gasoline Alley, eggshell, ball of fire, fishbowl, Shell gasoline, catfish.

The first list flowed. It rolled off our tongue. When we got to egg we automatically shifted into eggshell. Once we got to eggshell we pulled into Shell gasoline. From Shell gasoline, we didn’t think about eggshell anymore. Instead, our mind went to Gasoline Alley. It was easy because we associated one word into another.

Each word became an anchor, reminding us to pivot to the next. When we got to fishbowl our mind leaped to bowling ball. If we got interrupted during the reciting of this list, we’d stop and search for our anchor, by asking, “Where was I?” Psst, bowling ball. “Oh, that reminds me, the next words are ball of fire.”

It would have taken much longer to memorize this list without anchors and associations. Each one of those words, beginning with egg, was an anchor at one time. After egg was an anchor, eggshell took its place. With the power of association, that reminded us the next word was Shell gasoline. Then, Gasoline Alley was an anchor, which by association reminded us that alley cat were the next words.

Anchors are the starting point. We would wander without them.

Using the power of anchors and association, recall the series of words, beginning with the anchor egg, ____________, ____________, ____________, alley cat, ____________, ____________, bowling ball, ____________, fire truck.

The retracing of our steps, after we forgot why we walked into another room of our home, is the anchor helping us remember. Also, the comment, “Where was I?”, asked after being interrupted, is the anchor helping us get back on track with the conversation.