Four Rs of Self-Improvement

Introduction

I recently developed a four-step procedure which I rely on constantly in my pursuit to be a better person and I want to share it for two reasons. One is I hope that others will benefit from learning about this procedure of mine. And two, I couldn’t find anybody teaching this same procedure which I’ve found so helpful to me. And, since I haven’t found anybody else who’s taught it, I took it upon myself to call it the four Rs for self-improvement, the four Rs being resonate, remember, recall, and review.

To give some background, I developed this procedure because I noticed that I’ve learned or realized a lot of different things throughout my life which are very important, things like “I should exercise more”, “I should be more kind to others”, or “I should practice gratitude”. I wish I could always do or be aware of all of these important things, but they’re really easy to forget about when just going through life.

So, my problem was how can I remember these important things better? Well, I recalled there existed a memorization technique called the method of loci, a.k.a. the memory palace technique, where one maps information to a well-known space or location, and the spatial association helps them to better recall the information. So, I tried it out. I started to store these important things that I’ve learned or realized in a memory palace, and I used my own body to map it all out.

For example, to remind myself of the importance of gratitude, I stored the concept of gratitude in the palms of my hands. To remind myself of the importance of love, I stored the concept of love in my heart. I stored the concept of patience--of going at my own pace--in my legs. I stored the concept of judging myself before judging others in my eyes.

And it worked really well. The memory palace helped me to remember these things and to more often recall them as I go throughout my day so that I will more often be in a better state of mind and body. I’ve found this to be incredibly helpful for me.

So, that’s the background for this four Rs procedure which I’ve developed. Let me formally explain the four Rs now.

Four Rs

The first R is to resonate with something that’s important, whether that be some concept, notion, idea, or impactful quote.

The second R is to remember the thing that’s important. Make sure it’s not neglected and lost to obscurity in the passage of time. Write it down. I personally use a Google Doc which I can access from any of my devices.

The third R is to recall. I believe we have an incredible amount of information stored in our memory--and also stored on a separate physical or digital medium like a journal or smartphone--but a lot of information is never or rarely ever recalled. The info does no good if it is stored but never recalled. I’ve personally found the memory palace technique to be super helpful for recalling pertinent information.

The last R is to review. Review whether recalling a specific something actually helps as you go throughout life and adapt accordingly. Refine concepts or combine them. Figure out what works better. Scrap things if you have learned and internalized them well enough. Address any cognitive dissonance that arises. To give an example, I used to recall “judge myself before others” from my memory palace, but then I simplified it to just “judge” because I got familiar enough with the notion. Then, I eventually scrapped that too and made it part of another concept: attention.

Commentary

The mind is limited. We can only recall so much or actively think about so much at any given moment. Thus, I find it important to review my memory palace and make sure I’m being efficient about what I store and recall from memory. From what I know, we already do a form of memory consolidation during sleep and rest, but I find it good to also take control and consciously, discreetly do some of the consolidation.

To think about it all in another way, let me go back to the idea of using my body to map out things which I find important. As I go through life, my mind is going to wander and get pulled in different directions away from my important values. I want to be able to more easily gravitate back to my body and the important values there, and the memory palace technique helps me to do that.

Why is this effective?

Novelty is important for engagement and neuroplasticity. It is a given that I would want to improve myself and my life, but I’m not always able to muster the energy to do so. If I find novelty in doing self-improvement, then I will be more likely to actively pursue it and the changes will be more likely to stick. I find novelty in contemplating what specifically to recall from memory and where things should go in my memory palace, then experimenting to see how effective it is to recall from my memory palace as I go through life.

Additionally, the brain is better able to remember/recall things if there is (1) emotional resonance; (2) associations; and (3) repetitions involved.

The first R is to pick things that resonate with you, which directly links to emotional resonance.

Secondly, by using a memory palace that’s based on your own body, not only are you making associations to a physical location in space, but you also can make associations with the body part allegorically/figuratively/symbolically (e.g. when I associate “gratitude” with my palms in my memory palace, I am also associating it with the hand gesture where the palms are pressed together to indicate gratitude).

Third, it’s not hard to be reminded of your own body when you live in it, thus, you can easily get repetitions in recalling the associated memory palace.

Another benefit of using the body as the base for a memory palace is that the "recall" step gets you into a mode of interoception, which I think most people, including myself, don't spend enough time with. (We measure and scrutinize external variables and metrics in academics, work, etc., but our own bodies, our interoception, is so often neglected.) During this time of interoception, one can examine their physical state and realize that their:

• muscles are tight
• breath is weak
• gut is tense
• posture is bad
• mind is unfocused, juggling too many things
• eyes are strained
• eyelids are sagging
• etc.

Lastly, beliefs and mindsets are incredibly powerful. When one has the right belief or mindset, they are more capable of doing better. By having a procedure in place in which you practice switching to the right state of mind, you will gradually get better at engaging that particular state. This is similar to using meditation to train attention and focus.

Huberman Lab

To end, I’d like to give a big shout-out to Andrew Huberman and his podcast, Huberman Lab, for the great source of information that it is for self-improvement. For those familiar with the podcast, you should find that there are many connections between my writing and some of the content of the podcast.