You know, I think reflecting back on a moment after a day or a week is super helpful in keeping

these experiences and things that happen in your life as memories that you can remember and pull

up and feel and experience or re-experience as best as you can in your mind.

Hey there, I'm Matt Diavella and welcome to my short form podcast, Three Rules. Each episode,

I ask a guest to share three rules that help them find success and happiness. Today I'm joined by

Nelson Delis, a six-time USA Memory Champion and one of the most accomplished memory athletes in the

world. He's held several memory records, including memorizing the most names in 15 minutes,

235 in total, and memorizing a shuffled deck of cards in just 36 seconds, which is impressive

because I can't remember what I ate for breakfast this morning. These are Nelson's three

rules for success and happiness. So Nelson, you've got one of the best memories in the world.

I'm really curious to learn what your rules for achieving this kind of success and happiness

in life have been for you.

So let's jump right into these three rules.

What's rule number one for you?

My first rule is don't put yourself in a box.

And what I mean by that is, you know, oftentimes we get stuck in these roles or jobs or these

mindsets where we say that's who we are. And that can be limited. You know, it can also be helpful in terms of advancing

and pushing yourself. But I think if you get too caught up in that and trapped in that, it's hard to

kind of grow. And I discovered that because I've been through so many phases of my life,

you know, being interested in this, trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.

And I think being open to this non-definition of who I am has led me to so many different things.

And outside of memory as well, you know, memory is my main thing in teaching memory and competing in memory competitions,

...