As we discussed in a previous article, one of the key elements for successful memorization is often absent in the school context. I’m talking about emotion. Teachers who can create emotional moments in a typical school journey, and even later in college or university, are few and far between. But let’s not fool ourselves—even if every class were emotionally charged, we wouldn’t retain everything. It would create an overload and be unmanageable. Clearly, emotion alone doesn’t do all the work; it’s a combination of several factors. So given this situation, how can we simply optimize memorization?

We need to focus on the second main factor in memorization: desire. This is especially important for younger generations who need even more meaning in their learning. And once again, we can't rely on teachers to spark that desire in students. This isn’t a simplistic critique, but rather an observation of the current state of affairs, which has become the norm in the vast majority of cases—though not universally.

I want to explore the idea of optimizing memorization through the lens of desire, as it’s a subject I’ve worked on with many students over the years and one where I believe I can offer some useful insights.

We can break down desire into two parallel categories to help visualize the process: daily desire and fundamental desire. Both need to be nurtured.

Daily Desire

To not just spark but generate daily desire, you must, among other things, create meaning in the learning process. This involves changing the way students perceive the school system and trying to shift their approach so they can identify what interests them and actively generate their own daily motivation. It requires building a new mindset, a fresh vision of the stakes and objectives of school. This won’t happen overnight and may take a few months.

Fundamental Desire

Fundamental desire, as I conceptualize it, is the desire born from a goal you set for yourself. Few children consciously enjoy absorbing school knowledge. It’s the goal they seek to achieve that will fuel their daily desire, helping them to understand and accept the system, but more importantly, to decide to put in the work—and sometimes even find pleasure in it. The goal that gives meaning to schoolwork is the choice of a career. Not the choice of a general path—that’s far too vague. A career. And it must be chosen intelligently. You need to know why that career and not another. This is how you give yourself the means to succeed. Because failure is no longer an option. Only in this context can a student truly invest themselves.

To bring things back down to earth for a moment, consider this: without desire and without a meaningful goal, how on earth can you expect someone to make an effort to raise their overall grade from a 10 or 11 to something higher?