How to Remember and Use Quotes

Anybody who knows me knows how much I love quotes. 

 Why? Because the right words at the right time are anti-INFOBESITY.

They have the power to align with our soul and inspire us to action. 

I co-hosted an "Inside the Author's Studio" meetup last night here in Austin.

During the course of the event, I was able to, several times, come up with a variety of writing quotes that were relevant for the situation including:

* "If you wait to write, you're not a writer, you're a waiter." - Dan Poynter

* "The purpose of life is to find your gifts, the meaning is to give them away." - Pablo Picasso

* "You can't edit a blank page." - Jodi Picoult

* "To be yourself in a world that is trying to turn you into someone else is the hardest battle you'll ever fight, and keep fighting." - e.e. cummings

* "Hold the vision, not the circumstances." - Mary Morrissey

" "Writing a book is like driving a car at night. You can only see to the end of your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." - E.L. Doctorow

* "Instructions for a life. 'Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.'" Mary Oliver

* "The purpose of life isn't to be happy; it's to matter, to feel that it has made some difference that you have lived at all." - Leo Rosten

* "I have never met any authors who were sorry they wrote their book. I have only met authors who were sorry they didn't write it...sooner." (That one's mine:-)

Several people came up afterwards and asked, "How are you able to remember so many quotes?"

I told them, "I wrote about this in my ConZentrate book (which Stephen Covey endorsed with, "Masterful, thought-provoking, highly-motivating.")

In it, I introduced my C.A.N. system for boosting memory (whether that's names, quotes, keys, content for presentations... anything.)

C = COMMIT. Tell yourself, right now, you're going to GET GOOD at remembering quotes. This is not petty, it's pivotal. If you see a one-liner that gets your eyebrows up (a sure sign of intrigue) it will probably get other people's eyebrows up. That means it's worth committing to memory.

A = ATTENTION. Write it down. Typing it into your phone or laptop won't work because it's way too passive. The kinesthetic exercise of INKING IT WHEN YOU THINK IT is more likely to (literally and figuratively) imprint it in your mind because you're giving this your FULL attention.

N = NUMEROUS INTENTIONAL REPETITIONS. Think of how and why this quote captivated you. How does it support a point you want to make, an action you want people to take? The more relevant it is, the more meaningful it is.

Now, think of where and when you'll use it. Could you put it in a blog or social media post? Start out a chapter in your book? Open your next talk with a POP!? Pleasantly surprise a podcast host by answering a question with it?

Your mind takes orders.

If you order your mind to remember something specific, and clarify why/when/where you'll use it, you just elevated a casual "What a cool insight" comment to a clear 'THIS is where I'll feature that insight" commitment.

Next, say the quote out loud and put it in a beat so it's easy to repeat.

Don't rush and blush. If we muddle words together, people miss their meaning.

Space the words out with a pause and a punch so people get them the first time they hear them.

Then, put a sock in it. Instead of just moving on to what you're going to say next, give people a moment reflect on what they just heard.

(And, of course, always, always, attribute. Someone else originated this, not us. Let's give credit where credit is due so we can use quotes in integrity.)

Remember Andy Rooney who used to close out the TV show 60 Minutes?

A reporter asked how he'd become the master of saying a lot in a little.

He smiled, "I just remember, I'm more interested in what I have to say than anyone else is."

If we want people to be interested in what we say, give them a reason to be.

Start keeping your antenna up for Purposeful, Original, Pithy (yes, that spells POP!) hook, line and thinkers that make you go "Aha!" or "Ha Ha!"

Use the C.A.N. system to commit them to memory so from now on when you want/need to communicate something YOU care about - you have a way to capture people's favorable interest so THEY care about it too.

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Want to create your own repeatable-retweetable quotes? You can discover how to craft a phrase-that-pays in my POP! and Got Your Attention? books.