“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the marching band has come down with a case of the sniffling sneezies.” The Mayor cried from the podium in front of city hall. The crowd was aghast. Everyone had turned out to see the Pinkville marching band’s first performance of the season. The whole town was upset, whatever would they do?
I was on vacation with friends and they have little girls, so I found myself watching “Pinkalicious” on PBS. I don’t recommend it. It’s horrible, but that’s not the point here.
As I was squirming in my chair, watching this debacle, I thought to myself… this “case of the sniffling sneezies” is a great example of how you can use storytelling to make diseases stick in your brain like a fly sticks to honey.
Here’s what you do. Take that marching band, and instead of the sniffling sneezies, you give them all the mumps. You picture the tuba player with his extra HUGE cheeks.
You make up a little story for yourself about how the doc had come to make a house call during band practice to give them all a check-up, but he had left the MMR vaccine at his office. So they were the only ones in town who didn’t get it.
Then you think for a minute or two on the course of the disease and how they eventually got better and were able to march at their next scheduled event.
It isn’t perfect, but you get the idea. Simple idea, simple story… sticky, sticky like honey.
All you need is the hint of an idea to run with it. So keep your eyes peeled. Ideas are everywhere.
You’re following, right? Of course you are.
The September issue of the Physician Assistant Exam Scholars Newsletter is going to cover the art of remembering. I’m going to show you how to take incredibly complex ideas and make them stick right in that brain of yours. The information is going to go in AND more importantly it will be there when you need it to come back out.
Check it out here:
Physician Assistant Exam Scholars
Brian Wallace
