Learning the Almost Impossible — Or How to Say the Alphabet Backwards

People often fail to grow and develop because they give up on their own abilities. New tasks and assignments are automatically seen as too difficult to master. To move closer to the things you want, you must first believe you have the capability to change. Then, acquiring the things you want normally involves:

  • exposure to new knowledge or finding shortcuts (The Secrets of the Successful)

  • and then immediately practicing what you have learned (Risk Taking)

Without immediate, frequent practice, a person will forget what he or she is trying to learn.

The secret or shortcut to learning to say the alphabet backward is creating a mnemonic (memory aid). A mnemonic is a personal, fun, and logical way of remembering something difficult.

To say the alphabet backward, the mnemonic I use involves remembering four sentences that relate to a strange, hard-to-forget story/scene I picture in my mind. I begin by picturing a hundred-year-old, ex-Viking warrior named Zeewhy. Zeewhy's hobby is collecting cute baby alligators. Zeewhy is being sent to the store with a coupon for free milk to feed his cute baby alligators. Being a hundred years old, he can barely see what's written on the coupon he is holding... or remember why he is going to the store. Zeewhy asks his wife, "Vut's our coupon for?" She says, "Milk jugs to feed the cute baby alligators."

To say the alphabet backward, remember these sentences as your mnemonic for the letters.

Zeewhy (the) ex-warrior (asks)... z, y,       x, w (Sound & First letters)

"Vut's our coupon (for)?"... v, u, t, s,        r,        q, p, o, n (Sound)

[Answer] "Milk jug(s)... m, l, k,        j, i, h, g (Spelling & Sound)

(to) feed (the) cute baby alligators.”… f, e, d,        c, b, a (Spelling & First Letters)

If you begin with this strange picture in your mind and then practice saying these four sentences out loud, you can learn to say the alphabet backward in the next five minutes.

Key Point: This strange secret (the mnemonic) may help you quickly teach yourself something you didn't initially believe you could learn... but without regular practice for about 10 days, the skill will soon be lost. (To practice, write the alphabet backward on a Post-It note and place the Post-It note where you see it every day.) Once mastered, only occasional practice will be necessary to do something that other find almost impossible.

Courtesy of Chuck Hickok

Predicting a Game of Tic Tac Toe

This is a gem from the brilliant mind of Martin Gardner: It's a totally fair game of tic tac toe... but at the end, you reveal that you had PREDICTED the exact placement of all the x's and o's!

The setup: make a prediction with a tic tac toe board that looks like this:

O X O
O X X
X O X

Set the prediction off to the side, and start playing tic tac toe (make sure YOU START and take the center square with x)

The rules: as you start playing, let them mark "o" anywhere they want, but on your turn, follow these rules:

  • If they pick a corner, select the next box CLOCKWISE.

  • If they pick a side box, select the next box COUNTERCLOCKWISE

THE REVEAL: As long as you follow these rules, the final result will match your prediction! All you have to do is subtly orient your prediction to match. To help, I recommend drawing it on the center of something square so it doesn’t look like it has a top, bottom or sides.

NOTE: The only way this can fail is if they try to let you win. I always tell them that I want them to win, but I know they won’t. This usually makes them want to win even more.

Good luck!