I have competed in the USA Memory Championship 4 times and never finished less than 4th place.

2008 I was 12 weeks away from the sands of Afghanistan and competed and came in a very respectable 4th place. I was happy considering I had no clue what to expect!!

2009 I was a MAN ON A MISSION! The USA Memory Championship was all I could think about the entire 12 months prior. I not only won…I dominated

2010 I was a defending my title and feeling a little bit of stress. Being on top you have a bull’s eye on your back and people who were friendly to me before weren’t so friendly anymore. I guess I was ok with that and understood. I am very proud of my win in 2010, I won despite only having 45 minutes sleep the night prior!

2011 I was a 2 Time USA Memory Champion and once again defending my title. I was relaxed as I could be and more than I expected. I was having fun and enjoying it but still defending a title

2012…I have NOTHING to prove and NOTHING to defend!! No pressure and loose as a goose! 2012 is all about FUN for me…going for broke and just having a ball. I do have a few things up my sleeve to insure the event is a blast for me and will reveal those March 24th (the date of the tournament!)

The www.usamemorychampionship.com is a TON of fun and I do predict this year I will have more fun and enjoy it more than any year prior. If you even have the slightest interest in competing in the USA Memory Championship read my article on it.

What are the odds of me winning? I say about 30%. I would also say the other top competitors chances are all about 30%. Anything can happen in a playoff format. Not great odds of winning but don’t think anyone else has greater odds. I did receive a speaking request to speak in London on March 24th that would have paid at least 5 figures….so declining that speaking engagement makes it even more important to hit my goal of:

1. Having fun

2. Making it memorable

3.Handling myself in a way I can be proud of.

I promise to update you March 24th!!

Also, remeber stress is the worst enemy to your memory. The more relaxed you can stay in life the better for your memory. That is your memory improvement tip of the day

In the meantime, have FUN!! I will!!

One of the greatest lessons I learned when training for the USA Memory Championship was the impact of focus on your memory and brain. To hone my focus, my US Navy SEAL coach (yes, I actually had a Navy SEAL coach me) had me train in situations that would normally distract me.  While my competition was training at home in complete silence he had me training in less than desirable situations. The girl I was dating at the time had three fantastically awesome and playful kids. Instead of getting away from them to train, I would train with them running all around me. I was pretty good at ignoring them except the time the 4 year old tapped me on the arm while I was memorizing and said, ‘Mr. White, I love you.’ It melted my heart and I was completely distracted.

Probably the training sessions that got most of the attention from the media, was when I would memorize cards under water. I ordered plastic playing cards, got a wet suit and snorkel gear and would memorize cards UNDER WATER!! I got to the point where I could memorize a deck of cards under water in 1 minute 30 seconds. At the time, no one had come close to that above water in the USA. I trained with distractions and learned to focus under pressure. I would even enlist pretty waitresses to give me a list of numbers and I would memorize them as they watch to test my nerves.

If you want to improve your memory, improving your focus is really a key to that. My suggestion to you would be what my Navy SEAL coach suggested to me. Whatever it is that you want to be able to focus doing, do whatever you can to cause distractions and force yourself to focus. Then when the distractions are gone hopefully you will have trained your brain to focus under pressure.

It certainly worked for me. I set a record for the fastest to memorize a deck of cards at 1 minute 27 seconds that stood for 2 years.

Today, I have new areas of focus that are challenges. I get very distracted when writing my book. Yes, I am writing another book and swore I would never do that again! I have written 3 books and my last was written in 2004. Now in 2012, I am embarking on publishing 2 new books. The focus training I do is not to write with distractions but to give myself very small goals every day so I only have to focus for 30-45 minutes per day on the project. This sets me up for success and allows me make progress every day with realistic expectations of focus.

Oh, good nutrition and exercise also help your ability to focus and improve your memory.

Hope this helps

Ron

So I am at home working on my email newsletter and I get a phone call from a pretty well known political website called politico.com

The reporter, Patrick began asking me questions about my presidential campaign. From my hesitation in my answers I think he could sense much of my campaign was really just playfulness or joking around. But like any good reporter he kept after me asking me questions about my campaign and my platform. Honestly, my platform includes things like, ‘Vote for me if you don’t want the world to end in 2012′ and ‘I will memorize the names of every man, woman and child in the USA including your birthday and any known allergies that you may have.’ So obviously there is more playfulness in my campaign than seriousness.

After some probing I think Patrick sensed this and I know he for sure did after we hung up the phone and he watched my campaign video, which you can watch at www.ronwhiteforpresident.com

But I did get to make some legitimate points that Obama using a teleprompter isn’t necessary and even diminishes him as a speaker in my eyes. I also made the point that Rick Perry could have used memory training to recall debate point or Herman Cain could have used memory training to remember facts about Libya. Well, I won’t tell the entire story for you. Here is the article. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/72632.html

I am THRILLED THRILLED THRILLED!!! A MAJOR political website did a story on my ‘presidential run’. Now I much admit I got a TOTAL kick out of this! So much fun and I get to spread the word about good memory skills.

I enjoyed the article Patrick wrote and I hope you did as well….

Vote Ron White for a SMARTER America!!!!

Sure, it was fun to be on the History Channel, Nat Geo and Martha Stewart Show. But it was nice to also be asked by the local news station to be on their broadcast.

Here is a link to a video I did for the local Dallas news station.

I explained the memory training method for them and how it works. I also memorized a deck of cards and some numbers for them. It was a fun segment.

Take a look….

http://www.the33tv.com/about/station/newsteam/kdaf-usa-memory-champ-explains-how-you-can-improve-your-memory-20120113,0,2609678.story

What would it be like to have a president who could memorize a deck of cards in 60 seconds? Well, maybe you will find out!!

Ron White here, two time USA Memory Champion, and I am announcing that I am running to become the 45th president of the United States!!!

Join me in this fight for a SMARTER America!

So, am I really serious that a guy who is an expert on memory improvement and brain training is really going to run for President of the United States…

Check out my campaign video here to see

www.ronwhiteforpresident.com

In March of 2010 I memorized every page of Martha Stewart’s magazine and then when I went on her show she quizzed me. She opened up the magazine and said what is on page 113 and I told her, ‘It is a page covered with flowers.’ I was RIGHT!! Then she said, ‘Tell me about page 25.’ On that page I had memorized it word for word and I recited it! She was impressed and then went on to quiz me on multiple things I had interacted with that day.

People always ask me, ‘How did you memorize her magazine?’ To be honest it was a very simple method that anyone can learn and here in this video I describe the Roman room method I used to memorize her magazine. This is the same method I use in the USA Memory Championship and it is also the method I teach everyone from six years old to business people to maximize performance in their life. Students can use this method to improve their grades and business people can use this memory improvement technique to give business presentations without notes, retain data from a workshop and more.

As a 2 time USA Memory Champion and once holding the record for the fastest to memorize a deck of cards in the USA (for 2 years), people often think that I have some natural memory ability that they don’t have. With the help of a very cute 6 year old I have broken that myth. Her name is Kailey and she once asked me to teach her how to memorize the presidents. I had taught her brother and she wanted in on the challenge. At first, I didn’t think she could do it but once we started going my eyes were WIDE OPEN and I was so proud of her!

She was without a doubt one of my best students ever. Check out this video of a very cute 6 year old little girl memorizing the presidents of the United States