Our names are one of the most important things to us. They are even more important than our birthdays. When someone remembers our name it feeds our ego. We feel important. Most people, however, struggle remembering names. It's particularly embarrassing when someone remembers our name and we can't recall their name. It's more than embarrassing as it negatively affects our financial success in life. If you want to be financially successful you need to be able to network effectively and that means remembering names. One of the main culprits behind forgetting someone's name has to do with the frequency of contact. The less frequent the contact the more likely you will forget someone's name.
    What can you do?  Successful people share one thing in common with unsuccessful people in that they struggle remembering names too. But the difference in the two groups is that successful people make an effort to compensate for this failing by utilizing certain tricks to help them remember names. One trick I found very effective is to group people you meet into specific categories. For example, if you play tennis, you may meet many individuals from various tennis leagues. You may not see these people regularly and because of this you forget their names.

Name Recognition Memory Steps
Step #1: Write down the name of a new introduction immediately after the introduction. I keep a small pad and pen with me at all times just for this purpose.
Step #2: Associate their face with someone you know or some outstanding facial feature and write this association down in your pad.
Step #3: The third step is somewhat more complicated. It involves grouping your contacts and adding this new contact under your "Tennis" grouping. You can get carried away with this, but my recommendation is to keep it simple. I maintain an Excel worksheet and I list my groups in bold print. Under each group I have my contacts separated by commas with association keywords to remember the contact, in parenthesis.
Step #4: Keep this list with you at all times and refer to it just prior to a function for one of your "Groups". I miniaturized the print on my Excel grouping schedule and keep it in my wallet. Just before an event for a particular group I review it.

This memory trick works great. People are amazed at my memory and I often receive compliments. I usually respond to these compliments by emphasizing that that person is important to me and I remember the names of people who are important to me. Their chest swells and their egos are satiated. More importantly, they never forget my name ever again.