#instead of... the full connection that comes from a visualisation properly done

[nullwork]

hate to be the bearer of bad news but you have to want to write to be an author and you have to enjoy writing to be a good writer. ai can't comprehend the artistic style that goes into writing. and it is an art. anyone can take a canvas and some paint and create something, but it won't look comprehensive if you don't know what stroke to use.

[rikacain]

you are the only thing (in any room you’re ever in)

Man, when whoever wrote sensory depression, I don’t think this is what they expected. Fairly sure it’s a kink thing. Instead, they get a Stranger Things fusion.

Many thanks to @the_lady_smaell and drelfina for lookin’ this through.

Title from “Starlings” by Elbow. what a name. what a song.

summary: Kakashi is far too distracted to do his job properly. 

read it on: ao3

Kakashi was adrift.

He knew where he was, what he was in: a tube made of cold metal, with a hatch that could only be opened from outside. Yet his body would not recognise his upright figure held buoyant within, the perfluorocarbon fluid filling his lungs where air should have been; the boundaries of the tube from the darkness surrounding him. 

For all of his calmness, his rationality, his memories of being forced feet first into the tank and plunging into a liquid heavier than air but breathable all the same, Kakashi’s body was convinced it was adrift in a boundless, empty darkness where no one could be found.

But there was someone and some things that could be found. Why else would they put him and the rest of the lot into the tubes, if not to reach out and to visualise? It was not an exercise foreign to Kakashi, having done so, so many times over: a locked office as good as unlocked, a document confidential and otherwise inaccessible spread open for his perusal. 

The location of a man fleeing for his life, despite his otherwise meticulously planned escape route. As he was dragged back to this very facility, to ensure his mouth remained shut.

Kakashi could do it again, here and now. It was what they wanted him to do, after all. He could reach out - he could think of, could want, could yearn - and surely, surely, he’d be there. A flash of hair, brown in the brilliant sunlight, a wide smile -

The slightest of pressure across his throat. A reminder.

“Hound.” The voice echoed, reverberating into the darkness and unto itself. “Your mission."

Slowly, reluctantly, Kakashi nodded. The pressure lifted, but the collar remained - a heavy presence that he had once been free of.

He reached out into the darkness, not for that person, but for something else. The tower, they wanted the tower: white against the brilliant azure sky. The tower, with its offices both public and private; the tower, where Iruka also -

The band tightened yet again, more harshly. Kakashi coughed, the foreign heaviness of liquid squeezed out of his lungs - and seeping back into it with a sharp intake of breath. 

Message received. He pulled himself away from thoughts of Iruka’s desk, that desk cluttered with documents and knickknacks. A mug declaring him the best father, a clay figure made by clumsy hands that attempted valiantly to look like a dolphin. A desk indistinguishable from the sea of a hundred other desks, a multitude of other workers who might have been more important than Iruka.

(But not to Kakashi.)

Instead, he thought of hallways and corridors, walls shimmering into watery existence before him like reflections upon the surface of a lake. Thought his way up towards the fifth floor of the tower, and meandered his way past empty rooms and blurry windows. 

Up into the mayor’s office, past locked doors and alert guards, and into a meeting Shimura Danzo would have never been privy to, if not for Kakashi.

Within the room, Sarutobi Hiruzen sat. His image wavered like ripples cast by a stone across a pond; his voice crackled like static as he spoke. His voice would be repeated outside, emanating from a speaker, for the benefit of the men who pushed him into this very tube.

“Thank you for bringing this issue to my attention,” Sarutobi was saying to the other person within the room. The figure remained blurry, despite Kakashi’s best attempts - interspersed with static and distortion, stripes of shifting colours splashing and stretching thin across the figure. Sarutobi, the paranoid bastard, had probably built the walls of the tower with something that could keep psionic intent out.

Even so, he couldn’t keep Kakashi out entirely. Something Danzo was surely grudgingly pleased about. It had likely rankled, that the various agents that were loyal to him were unable to penetrate through Sarutobi’s defences - that he has to depend on Kakashi to pierce through.

Still, Kakashi was here now. Despite his escape, despite his powers - Kakashi was here doing Danzo’s bidding.

He dragged his attention back to the scene before him. 

“It seems as though more has been going on under my nose than I had known,” Sarutobi sighed. World-weary and old; Iruka had talked about him as though he were a father figure, a mentor and Kakashi could see why Iruka considered him so. He wondered if he had allowed Iruka to bring him here, to this very room like he wanted to from the first day - would things have been different? “I had thought… no matter. There is only looking forward.”

That much was true. Kakashi breathed out, the rush of liquid cool against his teeth. He had all the time to regret when they shot him full of tranquilizers and brought him in. 

Then the other figure said, “Hiruzen-sama.”

Their voice sliced past the static and feedback of the void, clear as a clarion’s call. Kakashi jerked and turned to look at them - turned to look at Iruka, seated on the chaise. 

Irony that Root wouldn’t let him reach out for Iruka, in the hopes of making Kakashi languish in worry over whether Iruka was in their grasps - a hostage for Kakashi to surrender all his concessions. Kakashi had known that Iruka was safe, yet there was always the thought that perhaps he had failed. Perhaps Iruka had been smarter than he should have been. Perhaps.

Yet here Iruka sat before him now, in the safest place he could be. Kakashi took in all the details he could: Iruka’s ponytail tied more messily than usual, the clothes he must have slept in, the hoarse cadence of his voice. 

There was a flurry of activity outside of the tube, but Kakashi could not find it in himself to care, not with Iruka formed in crystal clear clarity before him, as though he was in the tube with Kakashi himself. Not with his eyes: bright and piercing and still so very alive. 

“About Kakashi,” he was saying. There was the distant sound of a lightbulb whining and shattering as it shorted out - as Kakashi processed his own ineffable joy, his uplifting relief. Iruka got out, Iruka was safe; Iruka remembered him even though Kakashi locked him in a basement to spare him from Root’s agents. “Please, Hiruzen-sama - “

“Iruka,” the old man said, but Iruka barrelled on, much like how he did when Kakashi threatened to use his powers against him, how he pushed him away the first few days of their acquaintance. 

“He wants to leave,” Iruka said, earnest and sincere. His voice echoed within the tube, outside of the tube, words overlapping in close canon. “He needs to leave, he didn’t - doesn’t want to be there anymore -“

Yes, yes - that was all Kakashi could think - I want to leave this darkness and hold you in the sunlight, I want to walk you to that desk and walk you home, I want - 

There was a building cacophony in the background, of shouts to drain the tube, to stop, to disconnect - but Kakashi was damned if he’d let go so easily now that Iruka was in front of him by sheer happenstance. 

He raised his hands towards the gentle line of where Iruka’s jaw should be, desperate for a single touch. The bar slammed heavy against his throat - he choked - but his hand remained outstretched, raised. Forward, forward - until his palm came to rest gently against Iruka’s cheek.

Kakashi would never know if the warmth beneath his skin was of his own imagining - or if his yearning was so strong as to connect to Iruka through the void.

It would have been enough - it was enough - but Iruka’s own hand raised, touching the spot where Kakashi’s hand was, involuntary; it brushed against Kakashi’s own.

Against all odds, he raised his head. Turned away from Sarutobi to where Kakashi hovered, in that room he was not in. And he asked, breathlessly vulnerable and hopeful, “Kakashi?”

The heart seized with hope is like a rope pulled taut. Kakashi could only press his hand more firmly against Iruka’s face, cupping it so. The shouts were louder, the bar about to asphyxiate him - but there was only the two of them in that void. Only that mattered.

Iruka’s eyes widened, then set in determination - the same determination he faced Mizuki down with before he even knew Kakashi was there to protect him. 

“We’re coming,” he said fiercely. “We’re coming, we’ll find you - wait for me - “

Gladly, Kakashi said, because he would wait for Iruka even if the corruption from the other side spread slick across the portal and into their own realm, and after that. If he couldn’t go to him, he would wait - he would -

He kept his eyes on Iruka even as the hatch opened and bathed the other in a ray of fluorescent light, drowning his image out from Kakashi’s sight. As he was dragged, wet and gasping, out of the tube, and thrown in front of Danzo, vomiting clear fluid as his body desperately took in air.

Danzo looked impassively down at him. Kakashi bared his teeth in a mirthless grin in reply. Iruka knew - that meant Sarutobi knew, and Sarutobi would act. 

There was little time left for Root to act. The twist of Danzo’s lips told Kakashi that he knew so.

“I think that you might just be expendable after all, Hound,” he said softly. “Prep him for crossing.”

The thought of being sent over to the corrupted universe would have been a threat, once - but Iruka was coming. Kakashi would wait. 

They would make it out fine. 

[tipsycad147]

Grounding in under a minute: Energetic quick fixes

Posted by Michelle Gruben on Aug 24, 2015

If you've done even basic energetic or ritual work, you're probably familiar with the practice of grounding.  Grounding allows excess psychic energy to be released and re-establishes contact with the physical body.  It's especially important after energy transfers, trance work, and group rituals.

While beginners often disdain grounding practices as un-magickal, experienced workers know that it's an essential part of healthy, sustainable psychic work.  Neglecting to ground properly most often results in a mildly unpleasant "spaced-out" feeling.  But it can also lead to loss of appetite, entity attachments, fatigue, and other more serious side effects.

Grounding works best and feels best when it's done in a controlled, deliberate manner.  Most practised Witches can ground themselves with simple visualisation and Will.  But there are times when you may need to ground in a hurry--like when confronted with an overwhelming amount of energy, or when your normal visualisations just aren't working to get you back inside your skin.  There also may be times, at group rituals, for instance, when you need to help a less experienced person to ground.

Here's a "cheat sheet" of grounding shortcuts, roughly arranged from most gentle to most jarring:

1. Touch yourself.

(No, not like that.) Light touch reminds you of the edges of your physical body.  It is a very easy and effective way to start the grounding process.  Rub your arms and torso with your palms, pat your hair, and pull gently on your fingers, lightly clap your hands together.  When working energy with a partner, you can take turns doing this for each other.

2. Look in a mirror.

Like touch, looking in a mirror reminds you who and where you are.  Try brushing your hair and touching or washing your face and hands.  The morning ritual of grooming is an especially good way to come "back to Earth" after a night of active dreaming.

3. Hug a tree.

With roots buried in the soil, trees have a role in many, many grounding meditations.  If you can find an actual tree, then you have a willing helper in your grounding efforts.  (At least, I hope it's willing, because it can't go anywhere!)  Trees have a natural energetic flow through their roots, branches and leaves.  Place your chest or back (or the palms of your hands) against the trunk of the tree and breathe deeply.  The tree's energetic channels will catch up your excess energy and send it earthward and skyward, without any effort at all on your part.

4. Eat something.

Have a few sips of juice or nibble on some bread.  The act of digestion helps restore the body to its natural physical functions.  Go slow and don't choke:  Trance states tend to suppress the swallowing reflex.  (If you've ever seen someone drooling while in trance--well now, you know why.)

In my experience, psychic work usually diminishes the appetite--but the opposite can happen as well.  If intense hunger strikes as you're grounding, pace yourself.  It won't help to replace an energy rush with a carb rush.  Later, a full meal will help you ground completely.  

5. Alcohol.

Of course, alcohol isn't suitable for everyone (or allowed in all traditions), but it's very effective way to ground quickly.  Alcohol slows down the body's rate of vibration and gently closes the psychic centres.  It's no coincidence that rituals all over the world--from Catholic Mass to business negotiations--end with a sip or two of the strong stuff.

6. Wrap up in a blanket.

Grounding too quickly can result in sudden, unpleasant chills (or even mild shock).  There's also an icky "skinless" feeling that comes from being too psychically open when you don't want to be.  Covering your entire body helps in both cases.  A warm blanket or shawl will ward off shivers, and give you a sense of enclosure until your auric shield is back to normal.

7. Salt.

Place a pinch of salt on your tongue.  Salt represents the element of Earth and is very useful for grounding quickly--hence its place on many Wiccan altars.  Strongly sour and bitter foods have a similar effect.

8. Iron. (Yuck!)

I learned this one from a Feri Witch who kept an iron nail on his altar to ground with after trance journeys. (I later adopted an iron railroad spike for my own toolkit.)  Iron is especially effective for Fey-natured practitioners, but it works on everyone.

Iron resonates with the blood and is one of the most strongly protective and Earth-y substances on the planet.  Grabbing an iron bar, or putting on a necklace of iron will slam the door on any open energetic connections and ground you in a hurry.  It's unpleasant and should be reserved for when other methods aren't working.  If the touch of raw iron is too much, you might want to work instead with an iron-containing gemstone Hematite, Red Jasper, or Carnelian.

9. Cold water. (Double yuck!)

Yep, freezing water will bring you back real fast!  A priestess friend tells the tale of a "trance diva" in her grove, who once earned a bucket of ice water over the head for her recurring post-ritual fits.  I don't actually recommend grounding anyone with the full dunk--at least, not if you ever want to work with them again.  A few friendly sprinkles on the hands and face ought to be enough.

https://www.groveandgrotto.com/blogs/articles/37361985-grounding-in-under-a-minute-energetic-quick-fixes

[mogwitch]

hi there! i was hoping you would help me with energy work. i'm a baby witchling and i think the spells i've been casting haven't been working because of troubles i'm having with energy. do you have any tips on visualisation, channeling/drawing energy or know where i can look to find this advice? a lot of witch 101 posts seem to take it for granted that you can do this stuff and i'm totally struggling! thanks so much :)

Ok first I’m going to have to apologise to you and anyone else scrolling rn because I just spent like a full hour typing bcos I just do not shut up when I start sometimes.

Second, I’m also going to have to be really annoying and say that even though it’s hard and doesn’t seem to be working, continuing to do it ANYWAY will help strengthen your ability to do it. I know that sounds about as helpful as those posts assuming you can just do it, but I struggled a lot with it in the beginning and in the end stubbornly continuing to just do it anyway slowly built the mental muscles that do these things.

Right, now this ended up pretty long and mostly All About Me sorry but I have no idea what you’ve tried so I’m just trying to give examples and break it down a bit so it’s a little less 101 basics

There’s a few things you could look at for why it’s not working and visualising is difficult for you;

EnvironmentCompanyToolsClothesTimeSeasonMoodThe actual spell/magic typeYourself

So, what kind of environment are you casting your spells in? I have ADHD and autism so as weird as it seems sometimes I often actually visualise better with my eyes open and my body moving rather than sitting still in a quiet room with my eyes closed. But then again sometimes I do need that quiet calm lights off and one candle kind of atmosphere. Totally depends on how my sensory feelings are feeling and how over stimulated they’ve been throughout the day.

I also don’t usually work well with other witches because then it feels like a performance if our styles don’t match. My best friend is also a witch but she needs the big elaborate formal ritual type spells with prewritten chants and all the trimmings sometimes including having other witches casting the spell with her, otherwise she can’t get her mind in that place and her spell doesn’t have the energy it needs. I prefer to keep things simple because otherwise my mind is more focused on the ritual than the actual magic and it stops me being able to visualise and properly cast the spell which means it fails. I don’t speak out loud much, and if I do it’s very quietly. I need to make my spells so that I’m not my own distraction from my goal.

Some people find it easier with tools to help direct and concentrate their energy. I have a lot of tools I like to work with and which one works best depends on what I’m doing. They don’t need to be the tools someone else tells you are right for something. Maybe try using a wand? It doesn’t have to be a specially made wand just something that feels right to you. I have several hundred £ worth of crystals (because I have no self control) but at least ¼ of the rocks I use in my practice are regular plain old rocks. I have a deck of close cards from the anime card captor Sakura and they’re nothing fancy they’re even a little damaged but although I have around 50 other decks (plenty that look more impressive for aiding spells) they remain one of my favourites because they work so well for me. Some people find it easier to do things while holding a crystal. Some people ask spirits or deities for help. . Maybe flowers would work better for you? Or origami? What TYPE of magic are you trying to do? You could be weak at glamours but gifted at spirit work. You could excel at kitchen and garden witchcraft but be absolutely unable to get a single spark out of curses. There could be elements you work better with and some you need to work on your relationship with. Does your energy work better late at night or in the sunlight? Is your mood affected by the weather? My magic is much stronger in autumn and spring, summer is an okay time, but winter is pretty 👎 so I tend to spend the winter months focusing more on other areas of my life because trying to connect with magic is more frustrating than lucrative.

Symbolism is there more to help you focus your energy than to do the actual magic for you, so personal associations are much more important than anything anyone says is ‘official’. If the spell you’re trying to do is bring money and you’re better able to connect a banana to that than whatever the spell is calling for, then use a banana because your own associations will help you to visualise better than theirs. I pretty much always at least tweak any spell of someone else’s that I want to do to fit me better.

Also even though I don’t do big elaborate rituals for my actual spells, I’m much better connected to the energy when I do my pre spell ritual, which is really just cleaning my room (and the rest of the house if I feel like it), taking a cleansing bath to wash myself including my hair, then my hair has to be tied back, pinned up, and covered. Partly it’s a religious thing because I do this for any devotional or prayer time, but doing it for spells too helps because it makes me feel cleaner and able to focus better. I also need a cup of coffee before I start because instead of making me hyper caffeine narrows my brain chatter and makes it easier to focus on one thing.

Grounding and centring is as important in helping your magic as cleansing I think but it doesn’t need to be done through pure visualisation like the tree roots method etc. Grounding for me is usually an hour of light working out, then I cleanse myself and my space physically and spiritually, then I centre by simply preparing my hair (doesn’t matter what clothes I’m wearing I just have to be clean and comfortable) and taking a moment to drink my coffee and breathe and focus on gathering energy to me mostly by feeling rather than visualising.

Maybe instead of trying to cast actual spells (which could be stopping you because it’s causing stress, anxiety, worry that it will fail again, doubts in your abilities, etc) just start afresh and do the simplest exercises with no intent to actually get anything from them apart from building your skill. Like, I’m learning to draw right now and I’m terrible at it and I keep hoping to come across some trick that makes me go “aha!” And suddenly get what I’ve been missing this whole time, but it never happens lol. Instead I tried practicing by drawing the pictures I wanted to draw, but I would get frustrated and mad because they were failures and it put me off. So instead of doing that I spent a week just doing practice exercises a few times a day. Straight lines, parallel lines, wiggly lines, cubes, triangles, circles, dots that I’d try to connect with one quick stroke, angles, etc. Then after that week I had a much better feel for it and I started trying to draw things again and found it much easier (I’m still terrible lol but I know I’ll get better if I keep at it)

You could try out a few different methods of preparing yourself for a spell, but then instead of actually casting one just spend a little time, anything you want 5 minutes or 2 hours doesn’t matter it’s up to you, just practicing visualising.

Once you’re grounded (in any way that makes you feel your physical presence and the physical world around you) cleansed (it gets rid of all the excess energy from you that gathers on you and your space like dust and gets in the way of your spell) and centred (helps you gather fresh energy ready to put to use) Maybe try growing a tree, but not with the intention of it actually doing anything for you. Just picture mud, nothing but mud. Imagine how it looks. Imagine yourself reaching out and touching it. Is it dry? Wet? Does it have stones or bugs in it? Is it clean peat? Are you wearing shoes or can you feel the soil under your shoes? What does it smell like? Is the sun hot on your head? Asking these things and as many others you can think of will help to build it in your mind and the more real it is to your mind the easier it will be for you to visualise your goal there. Visualise digging a hole with your hands. Don’t just imagine that you DID dig a hole with your hands, actually take the time to see your hand reaching out, feel the sun on your skin, feel the dirt between your fingers and under your nails, feel yourself scraping at it until there’s a pile of it by the hole you dug. Actually reach out with your physical world hands if it helps you at all. If you have to do something in the physical world to help yourself picture it in your mind then that’s totally fine and still valid. Go outside and feel some mud between your fingers if you have to. Heck, sniff the grass if it helps. Do whatever makes it easier for you (I mean watch out for neighbours giving you funny looks if you’re gonna do that though lol).

After you’ve finished your hole imagine looking around yourself. On one side there’s a watering can and on the other side there’s a seed. It could look like anything; an acorn, an egg, a jewel, a black cube with flashing lights, whatever, just be sure to spend some time inspecting it first for texture, colour, shape, weight, temperature. I mean lick it if you want and taste it, no one is looking in your mind. Then plant it in the hole and water it. Hear the water pouring into the earth. See the soil change colour and texture. Then you can sit back in the soil and watch your tree grow. Maybe it happens straight away, or maybe the sun and the moon pass over you a few times while you wait, but you’ll see it starting to sprout through the soil. When it grows, is it fast? Can you hear the wood creaking and groaning and it’s branches extend and split off into smaller branches? Is it even made of wood? What colour is it? What about its leaves? What colour? Shape? Texture? Size? How many? Any flowers? Maybe it looks like a regular tree you’d find in your yard, or maybe its pink and glitters and made of glass with golding flowers that glow like sunbursts. Or does it grow so slowly that you have to stand up and help it, physically pulling the branches to stretch it out and untwisting the little buds to open the flowers?

By this point you’ll have spent enough time visualising with all your senses (because seeing is absolutely not the only important one in visualisation) that you’ve gotten your mind into a good state for magic, but without the pressure of actually doing any spells that you could stress yourself with, because the goal wasn’t to grow the tree so that it could do something for you, you achieved your goal already by growing the tree. That’s it. The end. You achieved something!

You don’t have to grow a tree obviously, you can do anything you want, but doing a few exercises like this where the goal is the visualisation itself, rather than visualising to achieve something else, will help make sharpen your ability to do it. Maybe try one small exercise a day for a week and then try a spell? If you like growing a tree you could just do that again. Start your meditation several feet away from the first tree and start an orchard or a tiny forest. If you can maybe it’ll help to actually draw the tree so you have something to look at to help you visualise it.

You could build a house. You could start in a maze and find your way to the middle. You could explore an enchanted forest. Do a pathworking with a tarot or oracle card or even a painting or poster or a video game or ANYTHING. Do whatever makes your imagination go !!!!! (but if you’re struggling with visualising I’d just advise you start off with something simple so you don’t overwhelm yourself).

The astral is somewhere you can only get to in your mind, because it’s not on our physical plane, and you should familiarise yourself with this before immediately trying to work magic in it.

If I use a sigil I have my own methods of making them because a lot of the time other people’s don’t work nearly as well for me as my own do, and I have my methods of using them depending on what they’re for. Drawing it on paper and burning it has never really worked for me except for specific things, but drawing it on myself works better. Sometimes I don’t make a physical 'magical copy’ of a sigil at all. I keep my sigils in a book that I have magically protected from BEING magical (because there’s so many different sigils for different things in there and I don’t want them mixing or accidentally casting) and there are some that I name. Once they’re named and memorised I can use them when I need them by calling them and creating them in the astral, but this took a lot of practice and failures before I was able to confidently do it because visualising is hard lol especially when I’m out and there’s things going on around me and I can’t do any cleansing or put my hair up if I don’t have a tie or any of the other fussy little things I’d like to do before doing any magic, then I have to be aware of my physical body and astral body at the same time. Which makes it sound more complicated than it actually is, but until you get the hang of something it DOES seem complicated. I’ve been doing magic since as far back as I can remember and decided I was a witch when I was 6 when I didn’t even know other people were witches and my parents thought it was a cute funny game I played because I lived with my head in the clouds and “away with the faeries” (if only they knew, lmao) but there’s still plenty for me to learn and ways for me to grow because witchcraft is an ever evolving PRACTICE. You’ll never be finished with training so it’s good to embrace that the training part is the craft, and not something that’s training you to be ready for being an expert at it. We’re all still learning all the time so don’t feel like you need to reach some kind of final level before you can consider things a success. Sometimes they don’t work the way you want them to, instead of thinking “my spell failed” you have to say “that’s fine, you didn’t do what I wanted yet but you will, you will work” and then you can even cast it again to give it a boost. If you refuse to let the energy for a spell fizzle into nothing, then the spell hasn’t failed yet. If it tires you out, find a way to borrow energy or tie the spell to something (charms, enchantments, spell bottles, poppers, witch ladders, etc) so that while you rest between sessions working on it the spell it held together and not allowed to dissipate.

Another note before I FINALLY shut the hell up (sorry guys, I know I go on) make sure the spells you are trying to do aren’t above your skill level and are realistically achievable. Don’t jump in with a spell to make yourself 10lb lighter overnight or to change your natural hair colour (both of which are unrealistic) or to win the lottery jackpot which would take more energy to magically pull off than one person or even a hundred people possess even if you did buy a bunch of tickets, there is way too much collective energy pushing and pulling at that already for a spell to be more than a flyweight nudge against a mountain. Instead you could do a spell for financial prosperity and maybe in the end all you get is for your money to NOT drop when it might have (in which case you might not know about it working) or slightly increase the odds in your favour of winning a smaller bet, or maybe you’ll find a few coins down the couch ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ you have to start real small and work your way up. Also I find that taking yourself/a spell/witchcraft too seriously can hinder someone too. Have fun with it and try not to expect too much from yourself. There’s always a chance that a spell you cast just took a while to manifest and by negatively thinking “it didn’t work” you’re increasing the chances of basically cancelling it

If that didn’t answer what you needed (though that probably gave you more answers than you even WANTED - again, sorry - and it’s unorganised af cos I’ve had a busy day so I’m feeling scatterbrained and hyper) or you have any more questions please feel free to ask!

[entergamingxp]

Call of Duty: Warzone declassified

When we look back at a console generation for its greatest hits, it’s invariably the first-party titles that dominate – but sometimes multi-platform technologies emerge that are truly exceptional, and the fact they need to accommodate four very different consoles plus myriad PC hardware configurations only adds to the scale of the achievement. Today, Season Four of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare arrives – and I’d suggest that the IW8 engine from Infinity Ward is one of the most impressive accomplishments of the generation.

Modern Warfare 2019 is the most complete COD package of the modern era. We’ve reported before on the key technologies that make it stand apart – an engine that renders in both visible, invisible and thermal spectrums (!) while also supporting volumetrics on every light source. IW8 shifts to a physically-based materials system, bringing COD into line with the most advanced engines in the business, and offering a beautiful level of realism from every authored asset in the game. Geometry is also massively improved, delivering an unprecedented level of detail to the Call of Duty franchise. All of this is achieved in a title targeting 60 frames per second.

IW8 also revamps the background streaming system, using a hybrid tile-based approach, opening the door to bigger, more detailed worlds. It’s the reason why the campaign is more detailed, but it’s also how Infinity Ward delivered the vast Ground War mode of the launch code – but battle royale takes this to another level, as I discovered when visiting Infinity Ward’s tech hub in Poland at the end of February. I spent the day with Principal Rendering Engineer Michal Drobot, who is also the studio head of the Polish arm of the developer.

To begin with, it’s true to say that Treyarch presented the first COD battle royale, using its own engine to deliver 2018’s Blackout – but aside from some initial tech sharing based on the Black Ops dev’s super terrain technology, Warzone was built independently. And what’s fascinating about it is that a whole slew of new techniques were deployed to make battle royale possible – but all of these systems integrate with the other game modes too. The optimisations that make Warzone possible feed back into every other mode, improving performance.

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Call of Duty Modern Warfare’s engine upgrades for battle royale revealed and explained with exclusive behind-the-scenes information and debug code access.

Infinity War’s objectives for Warzone were ambitious. The aim was to create a battle royale map that had the same level of fidelity and detail as the core multiplayer maps – and that’s precisely what’s been delivered. The multiplayer maps are the battle royale map. When the locations are authored, they are done so within the overall canvas of the Warzone map. This makes Warzone the largest map in the history of the Call of Duty franchise. Its basic structure is derived from satellite data – it’s shrunk down to a certain extent but its geography mirrors the landmarks of a real city, with the downtown section alone comprising of six districts. A Ground War map takes around four to five months to successfully execute and there are seven of them contained within the single Warzone map, along with other major multiplayer maps – and that’s before we factor in the connective areas of the map between these major blocks.

There’s also continuity too. If you’ve been playing Modern Warfare across its seasons, you’ll note that there’s been a consistent narrative emerging that spans across game modes – so the upshot of this is is that not only are the multiplayer maps contained within Warzone, if the content changes as we move between seasons, that should be reflected across all modes. I also like the way that the Infinity Ward taps into their own heritage – Modern Warfare 2019 is a reboot, but there are nods to the old continuity. The TV studio in Warzone is a remake of the map found in Call of Duty 4, the original Modern Warfare. The gulag essentially the same structure we saw in Modern Warfare 2 and its recent remaster.

Making all of this possible is the process of technology evolution within the IW8 engine. The hybrid tile streaming system that Modern Warfare 2019 shipped with has radically evolved. The fundamental idea is still the same: tiles or chunks are loaded into RAM based on an algorithm that determines the priority of data most likely to be needed as you look around the terrain and move through it. In the video above, you’ll see the debug tools Infinity Ward uses to visualise the streaming system. Environmental ‘chunks’ can be sub-divided into four smaller chunks, and they’re three levels deep. Streaming begins with what Infinity Ward calls transients, the foundations if you like, and on top of that is loose loading for meshes and textures.

The streaming system relies on three LOD levels. Click on the thumbnail here for a closer look.

Accommodating Ground War and Warzone’s needs for extreme visibility across big maps, the refined IW8 engine has a fascinating level of detail systems. LOD0 is, as you might expect, the full detail model authored by Infinity Ward’s artists. Further out, you get LOD1 – meshes and textures are distilled down and simplified into a single block. I got the chance to see the various LODs at close-range in a way that they were never meant to be seen, and it’s interesting how well LOD1 holds up. I also saw a LOD1 chunk in situ within the game, and again, I was hard-pressed to tell the difference at the range it was rendered at (which was closer to the player than I expected). The final level of detail is LOD2, which takes four LOD1 chunks and simplifies them again, collapsing them into a single chunk.

Also key to level of detail are the use of imposters. Elements like trees can be pretty difficult and costly to render and at range, you’re potentially paying a heavy cost for rendering something that’s really small and may only occupy a few pixels on-screen. Imposters are used fairly commonly now (Fortnite is a good example) and the idea is straightforward enough. When an object is far enough from the viewer, there’s no need to render a 3D model at all. You can use a 2D billboard – a flat texture, a single triangle – instead. Typically, each object has 36 billboard variations, designed to represent the 3D model viewed from various angles. Trees are the obvious example for the use of imposters but other elements get the billboard treatment too – vehicles, for example.

Streaming, memory management and accurately predicting what data is going to be needed and when is essential in making the larger scale Call of Duty work. It satisfies the design objectives in allowing artists to equal core multiplayer map quality and to run the game at 60 frames per second. The entire approach also allows Call of Duty to do things in battle royale that is competitors are struggling to match. For example, Warfare has internal access to pretty much every building there is and not only that, these interiors were properly modelled too, in a world where some titles use procedural generation to fill empty spaces with what looks like random clutter.

A debug view of Warzone in motion. On the bottom left, you can see the tile-based streaming system and a legend describing what’s happening in system memory on a per-chunk basis..

The latest Call of Duty engine does use procedural generation, however, mostly for incidental detail on the terrain: foliage, rocks and other random items. In fact, pretty much anything that doesn’t impact collision detection is procedurally generated and the nature of what you get depends on the surrounding biome. This is procedural generation and not random generation, so the same seed variable is used for all players on all systems. In practise what this means is that the nature of the environment is identical to all players on all systems, something we verified by capturing crossplay Warzone on PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, while spectating the same player. Procedural generation adds to processing time of course, but the bigger win comes from a reduction in the storage footprint: Infinity Ward reckons it saves around five to six gigabytes of data.

More instrumental to actual performance is the new shadow map caching system, which required a fundamental revamp, as shadow rendering is essentially incompatible with the chunk-based streaming system. Imagine the sun quite low in the sky, with light hitting a tall skyscraper. In theory, its shadow could cast across the entire map, way beyond the single chunk the building resides in. At the basic level, the new caching system brings in the most efficient shadow map based on the view frustum, with a level of detail system used.

Wavelet compression technology, used in video compression, is used to reduce the footprint of shadowmaps versus standard birmaps. In terms of what is actually streamed in and when, the new set-up is an efficient caching system with building blocks similar to those found in actual an actual physical CPU. Infinity Ward talks about building is own prefetcher and predictor – the same language used by Intel and AMD processor architects.

The shadow cascade streaming system is vastly more efficient and prevents larger scale game modes from becoming CPU-limited.

It’s all very clever but what fundamental difference does it make? Going back to the launch of Modern Warfare 2019, the closest thing we had to battle royale was Ground War, and there the tech team discovered that for pretty much the first time in COD history, they were CPU-limited. The new shadow caching system wasn’t devised solely for use by Warzone, it wasn’t a battle royale-specific piece of tech, it’s an optimisation in the truest sense of the word – taking something that already exists and making it better, meaning that it’s rolled out to all areas of Modern Warfare 2019. CPU-bound limitations in Ground War are therefore eliminated. A revamped shadow caching system is also in place for other shadows – those which are not cast by the sun. Especially for indoor locations illuminated with spot light, this system also caches in shadows. There are 64 slots of prefiltered shadow maps here with eight shadow updates per frame. Again, similar to the main system, it’s not something that runs on a per frame basis – and it doesn’t really need to.

Back in the day, Call of Duty shipped with two physical executables – one for the campaign, the other for multiplayer with both presumably optimised accordingly. A core change in philosophy has seen this approach binned in favour of a unified codebase that brings together all technology into a single package – but ongoing optimisation means that all parts of the game cumulatively benefit. The Pine level, for example, launched on PlayStation 4 Pro not quite hitting its performance target. It still maintained 60 frames per second, but it had to lean into the dynamic resolution scaler to reduce pixel count and ensure full frame-rate.

Multiplayer maps are authored within the battle royale map and always have been. It ensures continuity of content across the whole game – and despite the larger scale, Warzone is as detailed as core MP.

Foliage rendering has significantly improved since launch, so there’s an improvement in resolution. In fact although you won’t feel it in terms of frame-rate in this specific case, render times generally are improved by 10 to 20 per cent. Similarly, optimisation across the board with each new title update has also seen progressive improvements to overall performance. On a content level, Infinity Ward has targeted the multiplayer maps as a priority for improved performance because that’s the area of the game most players are accessing but the knock-on effect is that systems in campaign run faster too.

Speaking to Infinity Ward, I made a startling discovery. When you stand back and look at the four console platforms, there is a lot of commonality between them. All of them use the same core AMD Jaguar CPU technology and they all feature AMD’s GCN graphics architecture. While this may be more straightforward than the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 set-up of the last generation, the tech team estimate that around 30 per cent of their time is spent addressing multi-platform development issues. Interestingly, Infinity Ward ranks PS4 Pro as the most challenging of the four current-gen consoles that Call of Duty is available for.

Put simply, the expectation from the user base is for 4K video output, but Sony only gifts developers an extra 512MB of RAM to play with. Meanwhile, the boost on Xbox One X is four gigabytes in total – eight times as much. This opens the door to higher resolution, but also gives the streaming system much more room to stretch its legs. Theoretically, this should result in less pop-in and less aggressive LODs over longer distances – but head-to-head video doesn’t provide much in the way of a noticeable advantage.

Warzone performance sees Xbox One X deliver more pixels with a slightly lower level of performance – but the gap has tightened since battle royale launched.

With consoles targeting 60 frames per second, Call of Duty has to cram the rendering for each frame into around 16ms, and this broken up into two distinct phases. First of all, the basics of the scene are calculated and lit – a process that takes around seven milliseconds. The next seven milliseconds is spent on basically everything else: volumetrics and post-processing, for example. Around 1.5 to 2.5 milliseconds is spent on temporal upsampling – integrating visual data from prior frames into the current one. The more detail rich a scene is, the heavier the cost in rendering terms. Asynchronous compute is used on all systems, including PC. It’s more heavily optimised on consoles though, providing performance uplifts of around 20 to 30 per cent in the expensive scenes. Systems like volumetrics and particles can run asynchronously.

All of this technology comes together to make Warzone possible – and even factoring out IW8’s application in campaign and core multiplayer, its deployment for battle royale alone sees a radical improvement in technology, visual fidelity and performance over other genre entries. Compare and contrast with the fortunes of PUBG that launched late in 2017 and it’s fascinating to see how colossal the improvement is in every regard in less than 2.5 years. Back in May 2019, I first visited Infinity Ward to get a breakdown on the technological leap delivered by IW8, and it was clear that this engine was designed to straddle the generations and to allow Infinity Ward and other COD studios to transition more seamlessly to PS5 and Xbox Series X. What we didn’t know was what hardware the developers would have access to.

While Infinity Ward itself wasn’t sharing specifics, it’s easy to see how the existing systems could transition across to next generation hardware. Extra graphics power means denser visuals, obviously, but the concept of the streaming systems we’ve discussed here backed up by a storage speed multiplier of 40x or 100x (depending on the console) opens the door to the kind of visual quality that exceeds the campaign being made possible in multiplayer. The streaming system also fits hand-in-glove with the fact that PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X do not deliver what we would typically consider to be a generational leap in memory allocation. Modern Warfare 2019 also saw some tentative experimentation with ray tracing support, which may be invaluable research when dealing with the hardware RT functionality baked into the new consoles.

In the meantime, it’s all about Season Four of Modern Warfare and the debut of a specific mode may put into practise a theoretical scenario I put forward to the developer: what if all of the battle royale players grouped together and one player stepped back to get all of the others into view – would the system be able to cope? According to the studio, they’ve witnessed legitimate scenarios where 50 to 100 players could be seen on-screen. Looking from one big city area to another via sniper scope, apparently up to 120 players could be observed. Season Four’s new 50 vs 50 mode should really allow us to stress test the massively multiplayer aspect of this remarkable engine in a way that Ground War never could – and we’ll be fascinated to see how it holds up.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/06/call-of-duty-warzone-declassified/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=call-of-duty-warzone-declassified

[di-sss-learning-engineering]

Skip to content  ARTICLES How to Memorise a Monologue: The Ultimate Guide to Word-Perfect Memory 20 MINUTE READ  Need to learn how to memorise a monologue quickly and accurately? Great! You’re in the right place. Because in today’s guide we’ll be covering the fastest ways to memorise anything word-perfect in four short and practical parts: Preparation – 10 ways to set your memory up for success; Basic Repetition – 8 simple steps to mastering rote repetition; Targeted Repetition – 10 steps to evolve your toolkit with spaced repetition; and Mnemonics – 3 powerful memory-boosting tricks to greatly speed up your learning. The best news? All the principles below are quick, simple and timeless. They’ll work for you now, no matter who you are or how pressing your deadline. And they’ll work for you for the rest of your life, no matter what you may need to memorise. So, if you’re ready to start, let’s begin! Time’s a-ticking and that monologue ain’t learning itself. 1. PREPARATION  The brain is a machine that works best under certain conditions. The better you are at creating them, the quicker you’ll memorise anything. With that in mind, here are 3 principles and 10 methods to help you memorise any monologue faster: 1. MEMORISATION TAKES TIME. Start learning early – The changes that create stable memories need days, not hours, so avoid cramming whenever possible. Work little and often – Learning for 20 minutes, twice per day, for a week will yield much better results than one long 5-hour session. 2. MEMORISATION IS HARD WORK. Pick your best time – Whether you’re a night owl or early bird, schedule memorisation for when know you’ll have plenty of energy. Minimise distractions – Find a quiet spot, switch off your WiFi, turn off your phone and ask friends and family not to disturb you. Eat healthy snacks – Though it’s only 2% of your bodyweight, your brain uses 20% of your energy. To keep it working, keep it fed. Drink plenty of water – With a litre of blood flow per minute, even minor dehydration has major effects on the brain. Keep a glass or two ready. Relax – Stress makes memorisation much harder. If you feel anxious, breathe. In for 4 seconds. Out for 6. Repeat until calm. Rest every ~25 minutes – Quality is as vital as quantity. Avoid burn-out with a brisk oxygen and circulation boosting walk every 25-minutes. 3. SLEEP IS ESSENTIAL TO LEARNING. Nap between sessions – A 20-minute nap between learning sessions is proven to both restore energy and boost recall. Get your 7 – 8 hours – A good night’s sleep is vital to creating (and retrieving) stable long-term memories. Get your 7 – 8 hours each night. I know you want to get started. But don’t run this race without shoes. You’ll just make your journey longer and harder than necessary. 2. BASIC REPETITION  When it comes to memorising monologues, the basic cover-and-learn method is simple and popular. And while it’s not the sharpest learning tool in the shed, it’s better than nothing (and may be all you have time for). But if you’re going to use it, you may as well use it properly. So here’s a simple 8-step process to get you on track: Familiarise yourself with the whole – It’s easier to memorise things with emotion and context. To find them, read the whole monologue (and, if possible, understand the story and character behind it). Imagine you were directing a performance – look for rhythm, tone, intention and transitions. Also, look up any words you don’t know. Split the monologue into sections – Use paragraphs, verses, emotional shifts or other natural breaks. If there aren’t any, split it as neatly as possible into 7 – 10 line chunks. Now think of each section as a mini-monologue to memorise before moving on. Write out the section you’re working on by hand – You don’t have to do this, but it is always time well spent. There’s something magical about writing things down. It lets you slow down, engage with and personalise the content. And it’s been consistently proven to boost retention and recall. Start and end with the whole – It’s important to keep rehearsing the whole. So, for your first and last runs in a session, start from the beginning of the monologue and get as far through as you can from memory (if you’ve just started, this won’t be very far!). This will help you keep linking the pieces together. Cover and test – First, cover the section you’re working on with whatever’s to hand (you can even fold up the bottom of your sheet). Now, reveal a cue line and test yourself on the next line of text. Then, use the test line as the next cue and so on. When you make a mistake, go back two or three lines and continue. When you finish a section, run through from the start of the previous one. Then move to the next section. Don’t forget to take breaks – Remember the fundamentals. Take regular breaks, stay well fed and hydrated and go for the occasional walk to refresh your body and mind. Use your whole brain and have fun!Keep mixing things up as you learn. Visualise yourself in character or on stage. Use your hand or whole body to act out the scene as you go. Get into costume. Speak aloud and use funny accents. Go super fast or stupidly slow. Perform what you’ve learned for family and friends. Slip lines into everyday conversation and see if anyone notices. Bring play into each session – it won’t just improve memorisation, it’ll keep you enjoying the process. Be patient – Monologue memorisation is tough, for everyone! A quick way to make it harder is to be tough on yourself for ‘not learning fast enough’. Take your time, stick at it and don’t worry if you forget the odd line (even seasoned professionals make mistakes!). If you perfect the process above, you’ll already be memorising monologues faster than 95% of your peers. But we both know that you can do better. Because the problem with basic repetition is that it’s not very smart. And it also ignores some important memory quirks we can use to make monologue memorisation faster and easier than you ever imagined. So how can we make Basic Repetition smarter? And what magical methods can we use to make your memory truly magnetic? I’m glad that you asked. Let’s move on to part 3 and part 4 to find out. 3. TARGETED REPETITION Targeted Repetition is a modified version of Basic Repetition that will greatly reduce the time you need to memorise monologues. What does it look like? Simple. Instead of copying a monologue onto paper, we’re going to copy it onto flashcards. “Flashcards?” I hear you cry, “I hate flashcards. How are they possibly going to help?” I hear you, it’s hard to see how such a small change can make such a big difference. But trust me on this. Let’s run through the steps and come back to the Why at the end: Familiarise yourself with the whole – See step 1 of Basic Repetition. Break the monologue into sections – See step 2 of Basic Repetition. Copy the section you’re learning onto flashcards – Each flashcard gets a cue line on the front, and a target line on the back. For a 20-line monologue, you should end up with a deck of 19 flashcards (since the last line won’t be a cue-line for anything). Start and end with whole – See step 4 of Basic Repetition. Test yourself on the first flashcard – It doesn’t matter what order your flashcards are in. Just try to remember the target line based on the cue. If you get it right – Put the flashcard down to one side in a new pile. If you get it wrong – Move the flashcard to the back of the deck. Keep going for up to 25 minutes until… You run out of cards – use the time left to create and add flashcards from the next section. You run out of time – Take a break of 5 – 10 minutes to go for a walk or grab a snack. Repeat the process – When you’re ready for another session, repeat from step 5. Don’t forget to take breaks – See step 6 of Basic Repetition. Use your whole brain and have fun! See step 7 of Basic Repetition. Be patient – See step 8 of Basic Repetition. You’ll notice that Targeted Repetition is very like Basic Repetition. But it has three major advantages: By eliminating easy lines quickly, it forces you to spend more time on the parts you most struggle with; By delaying forgotten cards to the back of the deck, it forces you to go beyond short-term memory; and By eliminating the importance of order, it lets you memorise multiple monologues at once (just merge multiple decks together and bingo!). Though minor on their own, these advantages combine to greatly increase your memorisation potential per minute. And once you get the hang of it, you can take Targeted Repetition even further using Spaced Repetition (systems that improve memorisation by scheduling individual cards at longer and longer intervals as you learn them). The full details of Spaced Repetition are beyond the scope of this article. But when you’re done here, read this article on FASTERTO MASTER to learn more. For now, let’s move on to the 4th and most powerful part of this guide – the magnetic might of mnemonics. 4. MNEMONICS Thanks to evolution, your brain is a doorman with very strict entry policies. What are the criteria for VIP entry? To maximise odds of admission a memory must measure up in at least one of three ways. It must be: Visual – your doorman has a thing for pictures and places; Emotional – if surprise, fear, anger or lust are involved its chances go up immeasurably; or Connected to an existing memory – It’s always easier to get in if you know someone on the inside. But how can you convince your brain that line 32 from your latest monologue fulfils even one of these criteria? The answer is using mnemonics – little tricks that help you dress memories up for the part and sneak them to the front of the line. A quick warning: like driving, these methods take time, effort and practice to master. But, like driving, they will quickly become second nature and when they do, you’ll be able to get where you’re going a heckuva lot faster than walking. If you’re in a hurry right now, or aren’t prepared to make the effort up front: stick to parts 1, 2 and 3. They’re not perfect but they are much better than nothing. But if you’re ready to really take things to the next level – let’s begin. THREE MNEMONICS USEFUL FOR MEMORISING MONOLOGUES There are many types of mnemonic. But when it comes to memorising monologues, here are the three you’ll find useful: Acronym Mnemonics – Using the first letter from each word as a way to remember a line; Image Mnemonics – Encoding lines or sections as images and then linking those images together; and Memory Palaces – Using spatial memory to unlock almost limitless monologue memorising potential. Curious? Great. Let’s explore each of them quickly in turn. But first, a quick time-out to learn a small but invaluable trick called The Link Method. THE LINK METHOD The Link Method is a powerful way to hijack your visual memory and learn long lists of items incredibly fast. Take a look at the following list of items: dog, tree, house, key, stone, shoe, phone, pen, sun, bird, apple, tyre. To start using The Link Method, first form a mental image of a dog and a tree interacting that is: Vivid; and Impossible or ridiculous. To make your image stand out, play with: Substitution – Have one thing take the place of the other; Size – Picture “gigantic” things; Quantity – Picture “millions” of things; or Action – Have one thing act on the other. So, for example, for tree + dog you might see: A tree peeing on a dog; An enormous dog chasing a tree that’s been thrown for it; A tree with millions of dogs instead of leaves; A tree chasing a dog that has one of its sticks in its mouth. Go crazy – in fact, the crazier the better! What would your inner child imagine? Got it? Ok, now do the same thing for the next pair of items in the list (tree + house). And the next (house + key) and so on. The whole thing should take less than 2 minutes. Done? Great, now, starting with dog, try recall your entire chain of mental images. Too easy? Let’s go one step further, starting with tyre can you recall the entire list backwards? If you got stuck, go back and reinforce the mental image for the weak link in the chain. Otherwise, I bet you’re feeling pretty impressed with yourself right now – well done! Now, I get it: You may have found making mental images actually quite difficult; and It’s hard to see how memorising a simple list of objects will help you memorise monologues. But trust me: With practice you’ll find it easier and easier to memorise ever longer and more difficult lists; and We can make small changes to this method to make it a powerful way to memorise just about anything. (TIP: Use this awesome little random things generator to practise The Link Method with random collections of everyday objects. It’s a great way to warm up your imagination and strengthen your link making skills.) So with The Link Method in hand, let’s turn back to our three monologue memorisation mnemonics, starting with… ACRONYM MNEMONICS Acronym Mnemonics are a simple and effective way to remember the word-for-word contents of individual lines. You won’t need Acronym Mnemonics for every line of a monologue, but if there’s a couple you’re really struggling with, they could be a lifesaver. How do they work? To create an Acronym Mnemonic, simply take the first letter of each word in a line and write them one after the other. So, for example, line 3 of Hamlet’s famous “To Be or Not to Be” monologue would go: FROM: “The Slings And Arrows Of Outrageous Fortune” TO: “TSAAOOF” (N.B., Jot your own acronyms down next to the relevant line on your handwritten copy or flashcards) Now, how you would choose to memorise “TSAAOOF” is up to you. Sometimes (like “rofl” or “lol”) the acronym will spell something memorable that needs no more modification. In this particular example, I saw the following pattern: TS – sounds like an arrow being released from a bow; AA – is the sound someone makes as an arrow flies toward them; and OOF – is the sound that it makes when it hits them. So now, whenever I can half-remember the line I’ll think “TS-AA-OOF”, which I can quickly decode into the line’s word-for-word contents. Silly but effective. Capeesh? Let’s try something more challenging. How about the first line of Samuel Jackson’s “Ezekiel 25:17” monologue in Pulp Fiction? FROM: “The Path Of The Righteous Man Is Beset On All Sides By The Inequities Of The Selfish And The Tyranny Of Evil Men.” TO: “TPOTRMIBOASBTIOTSATTOEM” Gulp! Tricky, right? Again, how you would break that line up is up to you. For me, it goes something like: TPOT => Teapot; RMI => Army (ar-m-y); BOAS => Boa constrictor snakes; BTI => Beverage Testing Institute; OT => Otter; SAT => SAT examinations; TOE => Like those on your feet; M => Judi Dench from James Bond; Next, I can use The Link Method to quickly remember the list: A Godzilla-like teapot terrorises a city with whistling and boiling water while the armydesperately tries to contain it; A youthful boa constrictor tries to enlist in the army (unsuccessfully since he doesn’t have any arms to hold a weapon); A scientist at the Beverage Testing Institute is demonstrating how to dip tiny boa constrictors into drinks to test their alcohol level; And so on… Remember: in reality, we’re flashing mental images, not telling a story. Once memorised, it only takes moments to recall and decode the chain back into the cue letters and then into the original line. Now, first things first: don’t panic! If this looks like much more trouble than its worth that’s because to start with it probably is. But remember: Most lines won’t be nearly so difficult; and With practice, the whole operation will become second nature. There was a time when driving on the freeway, checking you mirrors and holding a conversation all at once would have left you exhausted. Nowadays, I bet you’d do all of them without breaking a sweat. In this case, breaking the line above down then splitting, encoding and memorising it took me less than 45 seconds. And decoding and speaking the line are simple enough to do live and in parallel. That’s far quicker, and in much less time than I’d need to memorise and re-memorise the line many times over the course of several days. What’s more, once I’ve used it enough times, the right words will be firmly embedded in my long-term memory. I won’t need the mnemonic any more. That’s one of the best parts about mnemonics, they’re helpful to get through the door. Once you’re in, it doesn’t take long before you forget that you even needed them in the first place. One last thing. You can jot down Acronym Mnemonics for every line of your monologue if it’s helpful, but don’t feel you have to. If a line is easy for you to remember, for whatever reason, then there’s no need to take a sledgehammer to a walnut. Instead, target your use and adjust your effort in line with the difficulties you face! IMAGE MNEMONICS When memorising a monologue, Image Mnemonics are a great way to remember connections within and between lines or sections. And now that we’ve mastered The Link Method, they should be quick and easy to cover. Image Mnemonics Within Lines To illustrate the approach within a line, let’s go back to “Ezekiel 25:17”: “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.” Now, let’s highlight some key ideas that might help us remember the line: “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.” Next, if you feel comfortable filling the blanks, see if you can learn the line using The Link Method to chain the ideas above. Feeling extra confident? Speed things up by reducing the number of ideas you include in the chain. Image Mnemonics Between Lines Already know the contents of the lines? We can use the same idea to memorise the sequence of a monologue as well. Let’s take verse 4 of William Blake’s poem The Tyger to illustrate: What the hammer? what the chain, (HAMMER) In what furnace was thy brain? (BRAIN) What the anvil? what dread grasp, (ANVIL) Dare its deadly terrors clasp! (TERROR) See where I’m going with this? (N.B., it doesn’t matter which word you pick as your keyword, so long as it stands out to youand helps you remember the whole line. That said, the longer the line, the easier it will make things if you pick a word near its start.) One great approach to monologue memorisation is to build Image Mnemonicsinto Basic or Targeted Repetition. To do so, simply write the keyword next to each line in brackets. Now, as you begin to test yourself apply The Link Method. Create or recall your chains and voila: a simple and graphic way to remember any monologue’s sequence. Image Mnemonics Between Sections And finally, we can use the same approach to link and connect larger ideas between sections. So, to remember the 6 verses of The Tyger we might take one idea from the first line of each verse and get: Tyger Tyger, burning bright, (TIGER) In what distant deeps or skies. (SKIES) And what shoulder, & what art, (ART) What the hammer? what the chain,(HAMMER) When the stars threw down their spears (SPEARS) Tyger Tyger, burning bright, (TIGER) Apply The Link Method again and you’ll be able to remember the order of any monologue, passage or poem in moments. And what’s more, you won’t just know it top-to-bottom, you should even be able to recite it backwards. MEMORY PALACES In the last few sections, you’ve come a long, long way from the lowlands of Basic Repetition. But there’s one more invaluable weapon in every memory master’s arsenal: The Memory Palace – a powerful way to store and organise information by tapping into your astounding spatial memory (your memory of places). We only have time to cover the basics today, but if you’d like to learn more, check out this summary of Dominic O’Brien’s How to Develop A Perfect Memory then head over to my friend Anthony Metivier’s site, Magnetic Memory Method, to get his excellent free PDFs and video series on the topic. When making Memory Palaces for your own projects, it is always better to draw on places that you know well and like. Your home and those of your friends and family, your office or your favourite cafés, museums and places of worship are all great places to start. For now, though, here’s a simple Memory Palace for us to work with. It’s based on the layout of a friend’s apartment. It’s a space I know well and can visualise easily and also simple enough for you to play along with.  To choose the order of the rooms (1 – 6) I’ve used two important Memory Palace principles. That is to: Create a linear route that doesn’t cross itself – It’s OK to walk through walls in Memory Palace world. Finish at an exit – If I needed to, I can now walk out of the apartment and expand the journey into the hallway. Let’s use our basic Memory Palace it to memorise the rest of Blake’s Tyger. First, let’s finish choosing keywords for each line of the poem: Tyger Tyger, burning bright, (TIGER) In the forests of the night; (FOREST) What immortal hand or eye, (HAND) Could frame thy fearful symmetry?(FRAME) In what distant deeps or skies. (SKIES) Burnt the fire of thine eyes? (EYES) On what wings dare he aspire? (WINGS) What the hand, dare seize the fire? (FIRE) And what shoulder, & what art, (ART) Could twist the sinews of thy heart?(SINEWS) And when thy heart began to beat,(HEART) What dread hand? & what dread feet?(FEET) What the hammer? what the chain,(HAMMER) In what furnace was thy brain? (BRAIN) What the anvil? what dread grasp,(ANVIL) Dare its deadly terrors clasp! (TERROR) When the stars threw down their spears(SPEARS) And water’d heaven with their tears:(TEARS) Did he smile his work to see? (SMILE) Did he who made the Lamb make thee?(LAMB) Tyger Tyger, burning bright, (TIGER) In the forests of the night; (FOREST) What immortal hand or eye, (HAND) Could frame thy fearful symmetry?(FRAME) (N.B., Aside from special cases like this repeating last verse, you should avoid duplicating keywords in your chain.) Next, let’s walk through the apartment and use The Link Method to connect the first keyword from each verse to a room: Living Area + Tiger – I might picture a huge tiger tearing apart the sofa in the middle of the room. Kitchen + Skies – For some reason, the kitchen ceiling has been torn off showing the sky above. Master Bedroom + Art – The walls of the master bedroom are covered in tiny replicas of one of my favourite paintings. Bathroom + Hammer – A large hammer with hands and legs is busy smashing its head against the walls, trying to break all the tiles. Second Bedroom + Spears – Someone’s replaced the bed in this room with one made entirely of spears – painful! Hallway + Tiger – All the wallpaper in the hallway has been replaced with tiger fur and the exit is through a large tiger’s mouth. Finally, let’s use The Link Method one last time to flesh out the chains associated with the keystone images from those first lines: Tiger > Forest > Hand > Frame; Skies > Eyes > Wings > Fire; And so on… Even If you’re totally new to mnemonics, it shouldn’t take longer than half an hour to run through the process. As you get more practised, that time will fall to under a couple of minutes. The result? You should now be able to picture yourself following the journey through my friend’s apartment. As you do, each room will trigger the first line’s primary keyword, and each keyword the next and so on. Without even trying, you should be able to recall the entire structure of the poem. And with a little more effort, the contents of each line.  Why use a Memory Palace when I could have just linked all the keywords in a list of 24 items? Three reasons: A Memory Palace is real – Spaces occupy a very special part of your brain. They’re so tangible that even many years later, they feel real. That means the chance of me losing this memory are low, whenever I need to find The Tyger I know exactly where it will be waiting. I don’t need to follow the path – Want me to start at verse 3? Or perhaps give you verses 2, 5 and 6? When you’re familiar with it, visiting any room in your memory palace becomes easy. There’s no need to start from one end of a list. The creates valuable flexibility when memorising a really long monologue or script is huge. A Memory Palace can always expand – Want to add more verses? No problem, let’s go out of the door, down the hallway and into the street. Need more detail in-between verses? Easy. Break each room into stations (e.g. Living Area >> TV + Sofa) re-link your keywords and boom. Unfortunately, that’s all we have time for today. But rest assured, when it comes to Mnemonics and Memory Palaces you’ve just scratched the surface. WRAPPING UP AND TAKING ACTION There you have it! The ultimate guide to how to memorise monologues. Will you march through the marshes of Basic Repetition? Will you forge through the foothills of Targeted Repetition? Or will you scale the peaks of Mount Mnemonic? Whatever combination you choose, hopefully, you’ve learned something today that will help. For now, why not put what you’ve read into action and: Set your habits, schedule and study area up for monologue memorising success; Identify opportunities to improve or upgrade your Basic Repetition strategies; Order some flashcards and schedule time to try out Targeted Repetition; List and sketch 5 places you know that might make good Memory Palaces; And finally, if you enjoyed what you read here today, check out these summaries of Lorrayne and Lucas’s The Memory Book or Dominic O’Brien’s How to Develop a Perfect Memory. Still curious? These reading lists of 30 books on memory improvement or these 70 books on how to learn anything faster are full of wisdom on getting smarter, faster. Whatever you decide, I hope to see you again soon. And until then, good luck, go well and be awesome!  Sign up and Get 6 FREE Memory Templates Get 6 FREE templates anyone can use to master the same tools used by Dominic O'Brien to become a world record holder and 8-time World Memory Champion. Send Me My Free Templates FASTER TO MASTER will never share your email. You can also easily unsubscribe at any time. Still curious? Read this next... The Art of Magnetic Memory and the Power of Spaced Repetition Systems Arthur is a productivity coach and writer who helps top young execs and entrepreneurs be more productive, find more balance and live more meaningfully. Want to know more? Take this 2-minute quiz to discover your Productivity Quotient (PQ) and learn how to get BIG things done. Take the Quiz → Leave a Reply   Subscribe   ABOUT NOW ALL ARTICLES CONTACT Terms of Service     Privacy Policy    Sitemap    © 2019 Want 6 FREE memory templates? Yes Please! No Thanks! Skip to content  ARTICLES How to Memorise a Monologue: The Ultimate Guide to Word-Perfect Memory 20 MINUTE READ  Need to learn how to memorise a monologue quickly and accurately? Great! You’re in the right place. Because in today’s guide we’ll be covering the fastest ways to memorise anything word-perfect in four short and practical parts: Preparation – 10 ways to set your memory up for success; Basic Repetition – 8 simple steps to mastering rote repetition; Targeted Repetition – 10 steps to evolve your toolkit with spaced repetition; and Mnemonics – 3 powerful memory-boosting tricks to greatly speed up your learning. The best news? All the principles below are quick, simple and timeless. They’ll work for you now, no matter who you are or how pressing your deadline. And they’ll work for you for the rest of your life, no matter what you may need to memorise. So, if you’re ready to start, let’s begin! Time’s a-ticking and that monologue ain’t learning itself. 1. PREPARATION  The brain is a machine that works best under certain conditions. The better you are at creating them, the quicker you’ll memorise anything. With that in mind, here are 3 principles and 10 methods to help you memorise any monologue faster: 1. MEMORISATION TAKES TIME. Start learning early – The changes that create stable memories need days, not hours, so avoid cramming whenever possible. Work little and often – Learning for 20 minutes, twice per day, for a week will yield much better results than one long 5-hour session. 2. MEMORISATION IS HARD WORK. Pick your best time – Whether you’re a night owl or early bird, schedule memorisation for when know you’ll have plenty of energy. Minimise distractions – Find a quiet spot, switch off your WiFi, turn off your phone and ask friends and family not to disturb you. Eat healthy snacks – Though it’s only 2% of your bodyweight, your brain uses 20% of your energy. To keep it working, keep it fed. Drink plenty of water – With a litre of blood flow per minute, even minor dehydration has major effects on the brain. Keep a glass or two ready. Relax – Stress makes memorisation much harder. If you feel anxious, breathe. In for 4 seconds. Out for 6. Repeat until calm. Rest every ~25 minutes – Quality is as vital as quantity. Avoid burn-out with a brisk oxygen and circulation boosting walk every 25-minutes. 3. SLEEP IS ESSENTIAL TO LEARNING. Nap between sessions – A 20-minute nap between learning sessions is proven to both restore energy and boost recall. Get your 7 – 8 hours – A good night’s sleep is vital to creating (and retrieving) stable long-term memories. Get your 7 – 8 hours each night. I know you want to get started. But don’t run this race without shoes. You’ll just make your journey longer and harder than necessary. 2. BASIC REPETITION  When it comes to memorising monologues, the basic cover-and-learn method is simple and popular. And while it’s not the sharpest learning tool in the shed, it’s better than nothing (and may be all you have time for). But if you’re going to use it, you may as well use it properly. So here’s a simple 8-step process to get you on track: Familiarise yourself with the whole – It’s easier to memorise things with emotion and context. To find them, read the whole monologue (and, if possible, understand the story and character behind it). Imagine you were directing a performance – look for rhythm, tone, intention and transitions. Also, look up any words you don’t know. Split the monologue into sections – Use paragraphs, verses, emotional shifts or other natural breaks. If there aren’t any, split it as neatly as possible into 7 – 10 line chunks. Now think of each section as a mini-monologue to memorise before moving on. Write out the section you’re working on by hand – You don’t have to do this, but it is always time well spent. There’s something magical about writing things down. It lets you slow down, engage with and personalise the content. And it’s been consistently proven to boost retention and recall. Start and end with the whole – It’s important to keep rehearsing the whole. So, for your first and last runs in a session, start from the beginning of the monologue and get as far through as you can from memory (if you’ve just started, this won’t be very far!). This will help you keep linking the pieces together. Cover and test – First, cover the section you’re working on with whatever’s to hand (you can even fold up the bottom of your sheet). Now, reveal a cue line and test yourself on the next line of text. Then, use the test line as the next cue and so on. When you make a mistake, go back two or three lines and continue. When you finish a section, run through from the start of the previous one. Then move to the next section. Don’t forget to take breaks – Remember the fundamentals. Take regular breaks, stay well fed and hydrated and go for the occasional walk to refresh your body and mind. Use your whole brain and have fun!Keep mixing things up as you learn. Visualise yourself in character or on stage. Use your hand or whole body to act out the scene as you go. Get into costume. Speak aloud and use funny accents. Go super fast or stupidly slow. Perform what you’ve learned for family and friends. Slip lines into everyday conversation and see if anyone notices. Bring play into each session – it won’t just improve memorisation, it’ll keep you enjoying the process. Be patient – Monologue memorisation is tough, for everyone! A quick way to make it harder is to be tough on yourself for ‘not learning fast enough’. Take your time, stick at it and don’t worry if you forget the odd line (even seasoned professionals make mistakes!). If you perfect the process above, you’ll already be memorising monologues faster than 95% of your peers. But we both know that you can do better. Because the problem with basic repetition is that it’s not very smart. And it also ignores some important memory quirks we can use to make monologue memorisation faster and easier than you ever imagined. So how can we make Basic Repetition smarter? And what magical methods can we use to make your memory truly magnetic? I’m glad that you asked. Let’s move on to part 3 and part 4 to find out. 3. TARGETED REPETITION Targeted Repetition is a modified version of Basic Repetition that will greatly reduce the time you need to memorise monologues. What does it look like? Simple. Instead of copying a monologue onto paper, we’re going to copy it onto flashcards. “Flashcards?” I hear you cry, “I hate flashcards. How are they possibly going to help?” I hear you, it’s hard to see how such a small change can make such a big difference. But trust me on this. Let’s run through the steps and come back to the Why at the end: Familiarise yourself with the whole – See step 1 of Basic Repetition. Break the monologue into sections – See step 2 of Basic Repetition. Copy the section you’re learning onto flashcards – Each flashcard gets a cue line on the front, and a target line on the back. For a 20-line monologue, you should end up with a deck of 19 flashcards (since the last line won’t be a cue-line for anything). Start and end with whole – See step 4 of Basic Repetition. Test yourself on the first flashcard – It doesn’t matter what order your flashcards are in. Just try to remember the target line based on the cue. If you get it right – Put the flashcard down to one side in a new pile. If you get it wrong – Move the flashcard to the back of the deck. Keep going for up to 25 minutes until… You run out of cards – use the time left to create and add flashcards from the next section. You run out of time – Take a break of 5 – 10 minutes to go for a walk or grab a snack. Repeat the process – When you’re ready for another session, repeat from step 5. Don’t forget to take breaks – See step 6 of Basic Repetition. Use your whole brain and have fun! See step 7 of Basic Repetition. Be patient – See step 8 of Basic Repetition. You’ll notice that Targeted Repetition is very like Basic Repetition. But it has three major advantages: By eliminating easy lines quickly, it forces you to spend more time on the parts you most struggle with; By delaying forgotten cards to the back of the deck, it forces you to go beyond short-term memory; and By eliminating the importance of order, it lets you memorise multiple monologues at once (just merge multiple decks together and bingo!). Though minor on their own, these advantages combine to greatly increase your memorisation potential per minute. And once you get the hang of it, you can take Targeted Repetition even further using Spaced Repetition (systems that improve memorisation by scheduling individual cards at longer and longer intervals as you learn them). The full details of Spaced Repetition are beyond the scope of this article. But when you’re done here, read this article on FASTERTO MASTER to learn more. For now, let’s move on to the 4th and most powerful part of this guide – the magnetic might of mnemonics. 4. MNEMONICS Thanks to evolution, your brain is a doorman with very strict entry policies. What are the criteria for VIP entry? To maximise odds of admission a memory must measure up in at least one of three ways. It must be: Visual – your doorman has a thing for pictures and places; Emotional – if surprise, fear, anger or lust are involved its chances go up immeasurably; or Connected to an existing memory – It’s always easier to get in if you know someone on the inside. But how can you convince your brain that line 32 from your latest monologue fulfils even one of these criteria? The answer is using mnemonics – little tricks that help you dress memories up for the part and sneak them to the front of the line. A quick warning: like driving, these methods take time, effort and practice to master. But, like driving, they will quickly become second nature and when they do, you’ll be able to get where you’re going a heckuva lot faster than walking. If you’re in a hurry right now, or aren’t prepared to make the effort up front: stick to parts 1, 2 and 3. They’re not perfect but they are much better than nothing. But if you’re ready to really take things to the next level – let’s begin. THREE MNEMONICS USEFUL FOR MEMORISING MONOLOGUES There are many types of mnemonic. But when it comes to memorising monologues, here are the three you’ll find useful: Acronym Mnemonics – Using the first letter from each word as a way to remember a line; Image Mnemonics – Encoding lines or sections as images and then linking those images together; and Memory Palaces – Using spatial memory to unlock almost limitless monologue memorising potential. Curious? Great. Let’s explore each of them quickly in turn. But first, a quick time-out to learn a small but invaluable trick called The Link Method. THE LINK METHOD The Link Method is a powerful way to hijack your visual memory and learn long lists of items incredibly fast. Take a look at the following list of items: dog, tree, house, key, stone, shoe, phone, pen, sun, bird, apple, tyre. To start using The Link Method, first form a mental image of a dog and a tree interacting that is: Vivid; and Impossible or ridiculous. To make your image stand out, play with: Substitution – Have one thing take the place of the other; Size – Picture “gigantic” things; Quantity – Picture “millions” of things; or Action – Have one thing act on the other. So, for example, for tree + dog you might see: A tree peeing on a dog; An enormous dog chasing a tree that’s been thrown for it; A tree with millions of dogs instead of leaves; A tree chasing a dog that has one of its sticks in its mouth. Go crazy – in fact, the crazier the better! What would your inner child imagine? Got it? Ok, now do the same thing for the next pair of items in the list (tree + house). And the next (house + key) and so on. The whole thing should take less than 2 minutes. Done? Great, now, starting with dog, try recall your entire chain of mental images. Too easy? Let’s go one step further, starting with tyre can you recall the entire list backwards? If you got stuck, go back and reinforce the mental image for the weak link in the chain. Otherwise, I bet you’re feeling pretty impressed with yourself right now – well done! Now, I get it: You may have found making mental images actually quite difficult; and It’s hard to see how memorising a simple list of objects will help you memorise monologues. But trust me: With practice you’ll find it easier and easier to memorise ever longer and more difficult lists; and We can make small changes to this method to make it a powerful way to memorise just about anything. (TIP: Use this awesome little random things generator to practise The Link Method with random collections of everyday objects. It’s a great way to warm up your imagination and strengthen your link making skills.) So with The Link Method in hand, let’s turn back to our three monologue memorisation mnemonics, starting with… ACRONYM MNEMONICS Acronym Mnemonics are a simple and effective way to remember the word-for-word contents of individual lines. You won’t need Acronym Mnemonics for every line of a monologue, but if there’s a couple you’re really struggling with, they could be a lifesaver. How do they work? To create an Acronym Mnemonic, simply take the first letter of each word in a line and write them one after the other. So, for example, line 3 of Hamlet’s famous “To Be or Not to Be” monologue would go: FROM: “The Slings And Arrows Of Outrageous Fortune” TO: “TSAAOOF” (N.B., Jot your own acronyms down next to the relevant line on your handwritten copy or flashcards) Now, how you would choose to memorise “TSAAOOF” is up to you. Sometimes (like “rofl” or “lol”) the acronym will spell something memorable that needs no more modification. In this particular example, I saw the following pattern: TS – sounds like an arrow being released from a bow; AA – is the sound someone makes as an arrow flies toward them; and OOF – is the sound that it makes when it hits them. So now, whenever I can half-remember the line I’ll think “TS-AA-OOF”, which I can quickly decode into the line’s word-for-word contents. Silly but effective. Capeesh? Let’s try something more challenging. How about the first line of Samuel Jackson’s “Ezekiel 25:17” monologue in Pulp Fiction? FROM: “The Path Of The Righteous Man Is Beset On All Sides By The Inequities Of The Selfish And The Tyranny Of Evil Men.” TO: “TPOTRMIBOASBTIOTSATTOEM” Gulp! Tricky, right? Again, how you would break that line up is up to you. For me, it goes something like: TPOT => Teapot; RMI => Army (ar-m-y); BOAS => Boa constrictor snakes; BTI => Beverage Testing Institute; OT => Otter; SAT => SAT examinations; TOE => Like those on your feet; M => Judi Dench from James Bond; Next, I can use The Link Method to quickly remember the list: A Godzilla-like teapot terrorises a city with whistling and boiling water while the armydesperately tries to contain it; A youthful boa constrictor tries to enlist in the army (unsuccessfully since he doesn’t have any arms to hold a weapon); A scientist at the Beverage Testing Institute is demonstrating how to dip tiny boa constrictors into drinks to test their alcohol level; And so on… Remember: in reality, we’re flashing mental images, not telling a story. Once memorised, it only takes moments to recall and decode the chain back into the cue letters and then into the original line. Now, first things first: don’t panic! If this looks like much more trouble than its worth that’s because to start with it probably is. But remember: Most lines won’t be nearly so difficult; and With practice, the whole operation will become second nature. There was a time when driving on the freeway, checking you mirrors and holding a conversation all at once would have left you exhausted. Nowadays, I bet you’d do all of them without breaking a sweat. In this case, breaking the line above down then splitting, encoding and memorising it took me less than 45 seconds. And decoding and speaking the line are simple enough to do live and in parallel. That’s far quicker, and in much less time than I’d need to memorise and re-memorise the line many times over the course of several days. What’s more, once I’ve used it enough times, the right words will be firmly embedded in my long-term memory. I won’t need the mnemonic any more. That’s one of the best parts about mnemonics, they’re helpful to get through the door. Once you’re in, it doesn’t take long before you forget that you even needed them in the first place. One last thing. You can jot down Acronym Mnemonics for every line of your monologue if it’s helpful, but don’t feel you have to. If a line is easy for you to remember, for whatever reason, then there’s no need to take a sledgehammer to a walnut. Instead, target your use and adjust your effort in line with the difficulties you face! IMAGE MNEMONICS When memorising a monologue, Image Mnemonics are a great way to remember connections within and between lines or sections. And now that we’ve mastered The Link Method, they should be quick and easy to cover. Image Mnemonics Within Lines To illustrate the approach within a line, let’s go back to “Ezekiel 25:17”: “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.” Now, let’s highlight some key ideas that might help us remember the line: “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.” Next, if you feel comfortable filling the blanks, see if you can learn the line using The Link Method to chain the ideas above. Feeling extra confident? Speed things up by reducing the number of ideas you include in the chain. Image Mnemonics Between Lines Already know the contents of the lines? We can use the same idea to memorise the sequence of a monologue as well. Let’s take verse 4 of William Blake’s poem The Tyger to illustrate: What the hammer? what the chain, (HAMMER) In what furnace was thy brain? (BRAIN) What the anvil? what dread grasp, (ANVIL) Dare its deadly terrors clasp! (TERROR) See where I’m going with this? (N.B., it doesn’t matter which word you pick as your keyword, so long as it stands out to youand helps you remember the whole line. That said, the longer the line, the easier it will make things if you pick a word near its start.) One great approach to monologue memorisation is to build Image Mnemonicsinto Basic or Targeted Repetition. To do so, simply write the keyword next to each line in brackets. Now, as you begin to test yourself apply The Link Method. Create or recall your chains and voila: a simple and graphic way to remember any monologue’s sequence. Image Mnemonics Between Sections And finally, we can use the same approach to link and connect larger ideas between sections. So, to remember the 6 verses of The Tyger we might take one idea from the first line of each verse and get: Tyger Tyger, burning bright, (TIGER) In what distant deeps or skies. (SKIES) And what shoulder, & what art, (ART) What the hammer? what the chain,(HAMMER) When the stars threw down their spears (SPEARS) Tyger Tyger, burning bright, (TIGER) Apply The Link Method again and you’ll be able to remember the order of any monologue, passage or poem in moments. And what’s more, you won’t just know it top-to-bottom, you should even be able to recite it backwards. MEMORY PALACES In the last few sections, you’ve come a long, long way from the lowlands of Basic Repetition. But there’s one more invaluable weapon in every memory master’s arsenal: The Memory Palace – a powerful way to store and organise information by tapping into your astounding spatial memory (your memory of places). We only have time to cover the basics today, but if you’d like to learn more, check out this summary of Dominic O’Brien’s How to Develop A Perfect Memory then head over to my friend Anthony Metivier’s site, Magnetic Memory Method, to get his excellent free PDFs and video series on the topic. When making Memory Palaces for your own projects, it is always better to draw on places that you know well and like. Your home and those of your friends and family, your office or your favourite cafés, museums and places of worship are all great places to start. For now, though, here’s a simple Memory Palace for us to work with. It’s based on the layout of a friend’s apartment. It’s a space I know well and can visualise easily and also simple enough for you to play along with.  To choose the order of the rooms (1 – 6) I’ve used two important Memory Palace principles. That is to: Create a linear route that doesn’t cross itself – It’s OK to walk through walls in Memory Palace world. Finish at an exit – If I needed to, I can now walk out of the apartment and expand the journey into the hallway. Let’s use our basic Memory Palace it to memorise the rest of Blake’s Tyger. First, let’s finish choosing keywords for each line of the poem: Tyger Tyger, burning bright, (TIGER) In the forests of the night; (FOREST) What immortal hand or eye, (HAND) Could frame thy fearful symmetry?(FRAME) In what distant deeps or skies. (SKIES) Burnt the fire of thine eyes? (EYES) On what wings dare he aspire? (WINGS) What the hand, dare seize the fire? (FIRE) And what shoulder, & what art, (ART) Could twist the sinews of thy heart?(SINEWS) And when thy heart began to beat,(HEART) What dread hand? & what dread feet?(FEET) What the hammer? what the chain,(HAMMER) In what furnace was thy brain? (BRAIN) What the anvil? what dread grasp,(ANVIL) Dare its deadly terrors clasp! (TERROR) When the stars threw down their spears(SPEARS) And water’d heaven with their tears:(TEARS) Did he smile his work to see? (SMILE) Did he who made the Lamb make thee?(LAMB) Tyger Tyger, burning bright, (TIGER) In the forests of the night; (FOREST) What immortal hand or eye, (HAND) Could frame thy fearful symmetry?(FRAME) (N.B., Aside from special cases like this repeating last verse, you should avoid duplicating keywords in your chain.) Next, let’s walk through the apartment and use The Link Method to connect the first keyword from each verse to a room: Living Area + Tiger – I might picture a huge tiger tearing apart the sofa in the middle of the room. Kitchen + Skies – For some reason, the kitchen ceiling has been torn off showing the sky above. Master Bedroom + Art – The walls of the master bedroom are covered in tiny replicas of one of my favourite paintings. Bathroom + Hammer – A large hammer with hands and legs is busy smashing its head against the walls, trying to break all the tiles. Second Bedroom + Spears – Someone’s replaced the bed in this room with one made entirely of spears – painful! Hallway + Tiger – All the wallpaper in the hallway has been replaced with tiger fur and the exit is through a large tiger’s mouth. Finally, let’s use The Link Method one last time to flesh out the chains associated with the keystone images from those first lines: Tiger > Forest > Hand > Frame; Skies > Eyes > Wings > Fire; And so on… Even If you’re totally new to mnemonics, it shouldn’t take longer than half an hour to run through the process. As you get more practised, that time will fall to under a couple of minutes. The result? You should now be able to picture yourself following the journey through my friend’s apartment. As you do, each room will trigger the first line’s primary keyword, and each keyword the next and so on. Without even trying, you should be able to recall the entire structure of the poem. And with a little more effort, the contents of each line.  Why use a Memory Palace when I could have just linked all the keywords in a list of 24 items? Three reasons: A Memory Palace is real – Spaces occupy a very special part of your brain. They’re so tangible that even many years later, they feel real. That means the chance of me losing this memory are low, whenever I need to find The Tyger I know exactly where it will be waiting. I don’t need to follow the path – Want me to start at verse 3? Or perhaps give you verses 2, 5 and 6? When you’re familiar with it, visiting any room in your memory palace becomes easy. There’s no need to start from one end of a list. The creates valuable flexibility when memorising a really long monologue or script is huge. A Memory Palace can always expand – Want to add more verses? No problem, let’s go out of the door, down the hallway and into the street. Need more detail in-between verses? Easy. Break each room into stations (e.g. Living Area >> TV + Sofa) re-link your keywords and boom. Unfortunately, that’s all we have time for today. But rest assured, when it comes to Mnemonics and Memory Palaces you’ve just scratched the surface. WRAPPING UP AND TAKING ACTION There you have it! The ultimate guide to how to memorise monologues. Will you march through the marshes of Basic Repetition? Will you forge through the foothills of Targeted Repetition? Or will you scale the peaks of Mount Mnemonic? Whatever combination you choose, hopefully, you’ve learned something today that will help. For now, why not put what you’ve read into action and: Set your habits, schedule and study area up for monologue memorising success; Identify opportunities to improve or upgrade your Basic Repetition strategies; Order some flashcards and schedule time to try out Targeted Repetition; List and sketch 5 places you know that might make good Memory Palaces; And finally, if you enjoyed what you read here today, check out these summaries of Lorrayne and Lucas’s The Memory Book or Dominic O’Brien’s How to Develop a Perfect Memory. Still curious? These reading lists of 30 books on memory improvement or these 70 books on how to learn anything faster are full of wisdom on getting smarter, faster. Whatever you decide, I hope to see you again soon. And until then, good planning, go well and be awesome!  Sign up and Get 6 FREE Memory Templates Get 6 FREE templates anyone can use to master the same tools used by Dominic O'Brien to become a world record holder and 8-time World Memory Champion. FASTER TO MASTER will never share your email. You can also easily unsubscribe at any time. Still curious? Read this next... The Art of Magnetic Memory and the Power of Spaced Repetition Systems Arthur is a productivity coach and writer who helps top young execs and entrepreneurs be more productive, find more balance and live more meaningfully. Want to know more? Take this 2-minute quiz to discover your Productivity Quotient (PQ) and learn how to get BIG things done. Take the Quiz →

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New Post has been published on https://www.entrepreneursblog.co.uk/blog/15-daily-habits/

15 daily habits of successful entrepreneurs

Ever wondered what daily success habits separate high achievers from the rest of the dreamers?

Some people perform better. They achieve more and always succeed in what they do. But what more do they have that helps them get such results?

Have you ever wondered what separates high achievers from the rest of the dreamers?  Some people perform better than others, they achieve more and always succeed in what they do.  But what do they do that helps them get such results?

The truth is, they aren’t any different.  In the beginning, we are all equal, but what differentiates them from the rest of us is the behaviour they adopt on the way to achieving their dreams?  It’s their habits.

High achievers have different habits than the average person.  Their days consist of activities that continually push them towards their dream thus creating success.

Here are some of the success habits and best practices of highly successful people that make them stand out, get things done and helps them move forward in achieving their goals.

Truth is, they aren’t any different from us – at the beginning, we’re all equal. But what differentiates them from the rest is the behaviour they adopt on the way to achieving their dreams.

1) They Get Up Early

The average person needs a lot of time to wake up. That’s because they usually go to bed late by staying in front of the television, and is now hitting the snooze button on the alarm, trying to put off starting the day.

But if the first thing that you think about in the morning is how to avoid an early start of the day, then how do you expect the rest of your day to be any better?

A better approach is to go to bed earlier and have a good sleep.  To wake up motivated to take action because you have things to do.  To face the day and make the most of it, realise what a gift it is and be excited about the new opportunities that the day will bring.

2) They Read

Instead of checking email and using your phone all the time, watching TV,  constantly updating random statuses through social media, you could sit down and do some reading, or writing.

That’s an activity for your free time that will make you think, grow, learn and improve in general. And it’s what high achievers do daily.

3) They Have A Morning Routine

Another thing you could do after getting up early is to have a success ritual.

The benefits are amazing – you are more energised, boost your productivity, jumpstart the day, have time for yourself, plan out the stuff you need to get done later, and have a peaceful morning.

So think about it if you don’t have a routine already.  When you’re serious about becoming successful and achieving more in life, sleeping in is not an option. But it’s also important how you spend that first hour after leaving the bed. And filling it with productive, positive and creative activities like meditation, a quick workout and some writing or reading, is the best option.

4) They Have A Vision

A life without direction is pointless.

Those who actually achieve something and get somewhere in life, are visualising themselves already achieving that goal longer before they actually get there. Because in their minds, they’re constantly visualising the upcoming success in detail.

That’s a powerful technique that can get you closer to whatever it is that you want in life. No matter how big or difficult.

5) They Rest Properly

Successful people sleep well, take breaks, power nap, meditate to clear their mind every day, and have other rituals that help them relax, rest their body and mind, and not feel drained at the end of the day.

This helps them work harder, be more focused, get better results, and eliminate stress and depression.

6) They Take Responsibility for their Actions

Blaming other people, or even circumstances or life, in general, is an awful habit many people share. But that’s not how a determined person sees things.

Instead, they take responsibility for their own actions, even if they make a mistake, they will learn from it, accept it, and move on trying to do it right next time.

7) They Talk About Ideas with Other Purpose-Driven People

If you’re surrounded by negative people who let you down all the time, complain about their lives all the time, or are just talking about other people and events in their life, then you won’t change for the better.

But you can still turn that around and choose to communicate with positive individuals, spend time with creative people, full of life and positivity, ambitious human beings with goals and dreams.

And soon you’ll see yourself thriving.

After all, the environment is crucial for success and we’re the average of the five people we spend the most time with.

8) They Have an Evening Routine

For maximum results, you should start the day with a morning routine, and end it with a bedtime ritual.

It may include stuff like exercise, examining the day and assessing your performance, making a plan for tomorrow, brushing your teeth and flossing, meditating (again), and doing some reading so that you can go to sleep faster.

And it definitely doesn’t include any food, electronic devices, alcohol, or falling asleep on the couch in front of the TV.

9) They Prioritise

Even if you have 50 things to do today, there are just a few that are really important. Your job is to define them and focus on them first.

These are the things that help you move towards your goals, that help you improve, earn more, be in a better shape, etc.

10) They Say ‘NO’ to Some Things

High achievers know they have to say ‘no’ to things that seems pretty tempting now, but which can only harm them in the long term.

So they often miss parties or other social events, get up early even though they really want to stay in bed, work out when their mind tells them to stay in front of the computer for a little more, and don’t eat the junk food they crave.

Sacrifices like that are what shapes your character and make you the person you need to become in order to lead the lifestyle you imagine.

11) They Grow Spiritually

As I mentioned, some of their best (and daily) practices include reading, meditating, interacting with creative and passionate people, etc.

And all that helps them grow. Soon, it becomes a habit for them to look for chances to learn new stuff, try new things, gain experience and evolve.

12) They Eliminate Distractions

Distractions are everywhere. And always will be. But if we realise how important our current activity is, and choose to focus only on it, other people coming in the room, notifications, worries, fears and random thoughts won’t matter that much.

So concentrate on what you’re doing now. And if it’s connected to your dreams, you’ll find a way to eliminate everything that distracts you and will actually get some work done.

13) They Take Immediate Decisions

People usually spend too much time trying to make a decision. Even if it’s an easy one, they struggle with choosing an option as they try to choose the best one.

But you should let go of perfectionism. And, instead, just take one of the two things and make the best of it.

14) They Get Rid of Time-Wasting Activities

Most of the things we do daily aren’t productive. In fact, they are only slowing down our self-improvement process. And the best we can do is stop doing them and do more of what works and has helped so far.

Reading newspapers may not have any positive effect on you, but if you spend that time planning out your whole day in details, you’ll be much more productive and will see the bigger picture of where you’re heading in life.

15) They Approach Other Successful People

Often we’re too scared to even try to talk to someone that’s superior to us. But people like that are usually friendlier and more open-minded than we expect.

After all, they too started somewhere and wanted to change and ask more successful individuals for advice. So they might as well take the time now to give you some tips, help you in some way or encourage you and give you feedback.

Great habits, right? And none of them is hard. You can start applying them right now. But start small – one change at a time.

Can you add other practices that lead to greater results in life?

[entrepreneursbloguk]

New Post has been published on Entrepreneurs Blog

New Post has been published on http://www.entrepreneursblog.net/15-success-habits-high-achievers-2/

The 15 Success Habits All High Achievers Have

Ever wondered what success habits separate high achievers from the rest of the dreamers?

Some people perform better. They achieve more and always succeed in what they do. But what more do they have that helps them get such results?

Have you ever wondered what separates high achievers from the rest of the dreamers?  Some people perform better than others, they achieve more and always succeed in what they do.  But what do they do that helps them get such results?

The truth is, they aren’t any different.  At the beginning, we are all equal, but what differentiates them from the rest of us is the behaviour they adopt on the way to achieving their dreams?  It’s their habits.

High achievers have different habits than the average person.  Their days consist of activities that continually push them towards their dream thus creating success.

Here are some of the success habits and best practices of highly successful people that make them stand out, get things done and helps them move forward to achieving their goals.

Truth is, they aren’t any different from us – at the beginning, we’re all equal. But what differentiates them from the rest is the behaviour they adopt on the way to achieving their dreams.

1) They Get Up Early

The average person needs a lot of time to wake up. That’s because they usually go to bed late by staying in front of the television, and is now hitting the snooze button on the alarm, trying to put off starting the day.

But if the first thing that you think about in the morning is how to avoid an early start of the day, then how do you expect the rest of your day to be any better?

A better approach is to go to bed earlier and have a good sleep.  To wake up motivated to take action because you have things to do.  To face the day and make the most of it, realise what a gift it is and be excited about the new opportunities that the day will bring.

2) They Read

Instead of checking email and using your phone all the time, watching TV,  constantly updating random statuses through social media, you could sit down and do some reading, or writing.

That’s an activity for your free time that will make you think, grow, learn and improve in general. And it’s what high achievers do daily.

3) They Have A Morning Routine

Another thing you could do after getting up early is to have a success ritual.

The benefits are amazing – you are more energised, boost your productivity, jumpstart the day, have time for yourself, plan out the stuff you need to get done later, and have a peaceful morning.

So think about it if you don’t have a routine already.  When you’re serious about becoming successful and achieving more in life, sleeping in is not an option. But it’s also important how you spend that first hour after leaving the bed. And filling it with productive, positive and creative activities like meditation, a quick workout and some writing or reading, is the best option.

4) They Have A Vision

A life without direction is pointless.

Those who actually achieve something and get somewhere in life, are visualising themselves already achieving that goal longer before they actually get there. Because in their minds, they’re constantly visualising the upcoming success in detail.

That’s a powerful technique that can get you closer to whatever it is that you want in life. No matter how big or difficult.

5) They Rest Properly

Successful people sleep well, take breaks, power nap, meditate to clear their mind every day, and have other rituals that help them relax, rest their body and mind, and not feel drained at the end of the day.

This helps them work harder, be more focused, get better results, and eliminate stress and depression.

6) They Take Responsibility for their Actions

Blaming other people, or even circumstances or life, in general, is an awful habit many people share. But that’s not how a determined person sees things.

Instead, they take responsibility for their own actions, even if they make a mistake, they will learn from it, accept it, and move on trying to do it right next time.

7) They Talk About Ideas with Other Purpose-Driven People

If you’re surrounded by negative people who let you down all the time, complain about their lives all the time, or are just talking about other people and events in their life, then you won’t change for the better.

But you can still turn that around and choose to communicate with positive individuals, spend time with creative people, full of life and positivity, ambitious human beings with goals and dreams.

And soon you’ll see yourself thriving.

After all, the environment is crucial for success and we’re the average of the five people we spend the most time with.

8) They Have an Evening Routine

For maximum results, you should start the day with a morning routine, and end it with a bedtime ritual.

It may include stuff like exercise, examining the day and assessing your performance, making a plan for tomorrow, brushing your teeth and flossing, meditating (again), and doing some reading so that you can go to sleep faster.

And it definitely doesn’t include any food, electronic devices, alcohol, or falling asleep on the couch in front of the TV.

9) They Prioritise

Even if you have 50 things to do today, there are just a few that are really important. Your job is to define them and focus on them first.

These are the things that help you move towards your goals, that help you improve, earn more, be in a better shape, etc.

10) They Say ‘NO’ to Some Things

High achievers know they have to say ‘no’ to things that seems pretty tempting now, but which can only harm them in the long term.

So they often miss parties or other social events, get up early even though they really want to stay in bed, work out when their mind tells them to stay in front of the computer for a little more, and don’t eat the junk food they crave.

Sacrifices like that are what shapes your character and make you the person you need to become in order to lead the lifestyle you imagine.

11) They Grow Spiritually

As I mentioned, some of their best (and daily) practices include reading, meditating, interacting with creative and passionate people, etc.

And all that helps them grow. Soon, it becomes a habit for them to look for chances to learn new stuff, try new things, gain experience and evolve.

12) They Eliminate Distractions

Distractions are everywhere. And always will be. But if we realise how important our current activity is, and choose to focus only on it, other people coming in the room, notifications, worries, fears and random thoughts won’t matter that much.

So concentrate on what you’re doing now. And if it’s connected to your dreams, you’ll find a way to eliminate everything that distracts you and will actually get some work done.

13) They Take Immediate Decisions

People usually spend too much time trying to make a decision. Even if it’s an easy one, they struggle with choosing an option as they try to choose the best one.

But you should let go of perfectionism. And, instead, just take one of the two things and make the best of it.

14) They Get Rid of Time-Wasting Activities

Most of the things we do daily aren’t productive. In fact, they are only slowing down our self-improvement process. And the best we can do is stop doing them and do more of what works and has helped so far.

Reading newspapers may not have any positive effect on you, but if you spend that time planning out your whole day in details, you’ll be much more productive and will see the bigger picture of where you’re heading in life.

15) They Approach Other Successful People

Often we’re too scared to even try to talk to someone that’s superior to us. But people like that are usually friendlier and more open-minded than we expect.

After all, they too started somewhere and wanted to change and ask more successful individuals for advice. So they might as well take the time now to give you some tips, help you in some way or encourage you and give you feedback.

Great habits, right? And none of them is hard. You can start applying them right now. But start small – one change at a time.

Can you add other practices that lead to greater results in life?