The secret to living a memorable life is having a collection of powerful and happy memories of your life.
Much of this is down to which memories you choose to remember and how you reconstruct them.
There is much more choice than you think and you can take control of this process.
A memory is a reconstruction in the moment of a past event.
Much of the memory is actually made up in the moment from information available to you at that moment.
Your mind stores away a very simplistic representation of the past event.
When you retrieve it the missing bits are filled in with what is available to you at that moment.
Memories are as accurate a picture of what actually happened as a verbal description of something is.
For example if I ask you to think about a ball you will have many possible images.
If I tell you it has black and white patches on it you discard tennis balls and possibly start to think of footballs.
You still have a lot of choice and you don't know yet what it is made of, what it smells of, what it is like to touch and whether it is inflated or not.
This level of description of a ball is about the same level of detail a memory has in your mind of an event that took place.
In the same way the ball I describe could be a football, rugby ball, leather, plastic and so many other forms in your mind so can the memory you recall be filled in with detail that is happy or sad for you.
The first step is to choose the right memories to construct your memorable life.
If the memory you recall is a bad one ask yourself if it is helpful for you to recall it.
Often it is not and only makes you feel worse.
Let go of it and seek another memory and keep doing this until you find more pleasant memories.
When they come along grab them and start to enjoy the feelings they give.
Now fill in the gaps with the most positive and powerful descriptions you can think of.
A large proportion of what actually happened has disappeared and much of the memory you are recreating in the moment is made up in the moment.
You may as well make up a good story if all of this is really under your control and good stories make you feel better.
Have a go as the way you remember it is not actually how it happened anyway.
Live a memorable life.
Much of this is down to which memories you choose to remember and how you reconstruct them.
There is much more choice than you think and you can take control of this process.
A memory is a reconstruction in the moment of a past event.
Much of the memory is actually made up in the moment from information available to you at that moment.
Your mind stores away a very simplistic representation of the past event.
When you retrieve it the missing bits are filled in with what is available to you at that moment.
Memories are as accurate a picture of what actually happened as a verbal description of something is.
For example if I ask you to think about a ball you will have many possible images.
If I tell you it has black and white patches on it you discard tennis balls and possibly start to think of footballs.
You still have a lot of choice and you don't know yet what it is made of, what it smells of, what it is like to touch and whether it is inflated or not.
This level of description of a ball is about the same level of detail a memory has in your mind of an event that took place.
In the same way the ball I describe could be a football, rugby ball, leather, plastic and so many other forms in your mind so can the memory you recall be filled in with detail that is happy or sad for you.
The first step is to choose the right memories to construct your memorable life.
If the memory you recall is a bad one ask yourself if it is helpful for you to recall it.
Often it is not and only makes you feel worse.
Let go of it and seek another memory and keep doing this until you find more pleasant memories.
When they come along grab them and start to enjoy the feelings they give.
Now fill in the gaps with the most positive and powerful descriptions you can think of.
A large proportion of what actually happened has disappeared and much of the memory you are recreating in the moment is made up in the moment.
You may as well make up a good story if all of this is really under your control and good stories make you feel better.
Have a go as the way you remember it is not actually how it happened anyway.
Live a memorable life.