Well this is Ron White the two thousand USA
memory champion and I want to talk to you about how to memorize a poem, a quote or verses
you know, a lot of scripture is just you know certain poetry are a lot of times are proverbs
or acacles or something like that or you want to memorize a poem a twenty, thirty, forty,
fifty line poem you can do that. So a quote a presidential quote by President
Teddy Roosevelt, I’m going to show you how to memorise part of a quote by teddy Roosevelt
using this system. So you know if you're a public speaker you
know memorizing poems and quotes is a great skill to add into speech or just if you're
a fan of poetry and you want or know poems by heart or maybe your faith is important
to you, so you want to memorize verses this system will enable you to do something word
for word. This is different than giving a speech without
notes because when you want to give a speech you’re just using bullet points, main ideas
and getting up in front of the room and talking. This is literally word for word so I’m going
toa show you word for word. In order to do this we need to be understand
the basics of memory this is, we always start all programs off covering this cos we never
know at what point you're gonna jump into the program so if you've seen this part I’ll
jump the real quick and if you're not this can be a good... good lesson for you. The basics of memory there five keys in our
memory system that we teach. The first one is focus, you focus your mind
by good nutrition and exercise you focus it uh... by food you eat whether it be spinach
and blueberries have antioxidants in it or omega three fish oil pills focus is crucial
to your memory. So just treat your treat your body good and
you will be treating your mind good and your ability to focus, lots of sleep, you know
what I always tell people if you would have a good memory it's good to get twenty to twenty
one hours of sleep a day and I mean that seriously, actually I don’t totally joking, but get
a good eight hours' sleep, that's gonna help your focus. Files, a place to store that data if you've
run through the programs before this is going to be your house files the journey method
and if you have not run through our memory program before then I’m going to explain
that to you. Pictures, turn numbers into picture, it says
numbers here but it's anything you're going to have to turn the... the words in the speech,
the words of the poems and the words in the verse into a picture. If you have uh... to be or not to be that
is the question, if that the line you want to memorize that is so abstract to be or not
to be that is the question, what does what does that look like, well it doesn't look
like nothing. It's an abstract so you have to turn into
a picture you might see two bee’s and a question mark to be and then maybe see another
bee or two bees and then two more bees and have the circle with a line drawn through
it might not so to be or not to be with a big question mark above it. You're turning that verse into a picture that's
crucial for memorizing a verse, action makes the pictures, action active have bees buzzing
all around not just sitting still and they go on back in reviews its really crucial okay. The journey method, if you have not heard
me describe the journey method what I’m going to recommend right now is you go to
one of our other programs on how to how-to how to give speeches without notes or how
to memorize playing cards and in there I’m going to describe this journey method but
you're going to need to get this journey method mastered and a really great place to master
that is one of those programs. Basically essentially what, what you're doing
with this journey method is your going to number of pieces of furniture in your home,
you’re going to number pieces of furniture in your house. So you take one room in your house you number
pieces of furniture, bed desks, television, lamp, chair and then after you have these
numbered you move in the next room from the next should be six, seven, eight, nine, ten
pieces of furniture that really catch your eye in that room, big pieces of furniture,
not be small pieces of furniture and number them six to ten. The next one number some pieces of furniture
in the next room eleven through fifteen, the next one sixteen through twenty, number twenty
pieces of furniture your house get to the point where you can see it forwards and backwards
you can say what number eight is without thinking about it, you can say what number nine is
without thinking about it. Number twenty pieces of furniture in your
in your home and get real familiar with these and these are, these are actually files when
you store data. Now let's take this quote by the twenty-sixth
President of the United States Teddy Roosevelt. The quote says this, it is not the critic
who counts nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer
of deeds could have done better but the credit belongs the man who's actually in the arena
whose face is marred by dust sweat and blood who strives valiantly who errs but comes short
again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends some self in
a worthy cause who at best knows a triumph of high achievement and who at worst if he
fails at least he fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those
cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. Teddy Roosevelt twenty-sixth President United
States, now how do you do it? How do you memorize this poem? You break it down by a line or by though,
you get to turn these into a picture. So you take the first segment it is not the
critic who counts , I visualise two movie critics Siskel and Ebert counting on their
finger so my first piece of furniture in my living room I will, my first file in my living
room is my television set so sitting on my television set I see Siskel and Ebert, the
movie critics and they're counting. The quote that I want to remember is that
is not the critic who counts. My next piece of furniture on that one I see
Arnold Schwarzenegger tripping and I’m pointing to him. The word there is nor the men who points out
how the strong man stumbled Arnold Schwarzenegger’s obviously a very strong man. The next one where the doer of deeds could
have done better. I put butter, I turn that into a picture and
I put butter, deed, I sue a deed to a house like a property so where the doer of deeds
could have done better, I visualise myself putting butter on a deed for this, to memorise
this phrase. And then I go back after I’ve done this
and I review, it’s not to critic who counts Siskel and Ebert sitting on my files nor the
man who points at how the strong man stumbles, point at Arnold Schwarzenegger tripping, or
the doer of deeds could have done better point putting butter on a deed but the credit belongs
to a man is actually in the arena on this one I’d put a man in an arena handing him
a credit card so you're giving credit to the man in the arena the line is the credit belongs
to a man is actually in the arena focus on that make it vivid and see it really vividly
on your file. And then the next one whose face is marred
by dust sweat and blood, on this one I see a face with dust and sweat and blood and I
see it real vividly and clearly. Now I go back and I review this on my first
file, on your first file whatever it is you saw Siskel and Ebert counting, it’s not
the critic who counts, the next one Arnold Schwarzenegger stumbling nor the man who points
at how the strong man stumbles, the next one butter on a deed the doer of deeds could have
done better, the next one credit cards in an arena, the credit belongs to a man who
is actually in the arena. The next one face with dust, sweat and blood
whose face is marred by dust sweat and blood. Review don’t try to memorize it word for
word, just the main points, read through it once or twice you'll get a feel for the words
in your mind will fill in the gaps. In other words with whenever your your creating
these pictures you're not turning every single word into a picture here I didn't turn marred
into a picture, I didn’t turn by into a picture, I just turned the key words, face,
dust, sweat, blood into a picture if you just use the keywords turn them into a picture
and create a little bitty story there then visualize that story on pieces of furniture
in your house your mind will fill in the gaps. Now here's the deal if your memorizing a poem
or your memorizing a verse out of the bible or your memorising the plane lines your mind
will not fill in the gaps if you're not familiar with the text. So what you have to do is you have to read
the text you have to read the poem, you have to read the verses, you have to read a quote
one or two or three times before you even start using your files and your pictures with
your mind will fill the gaps if you're not familiar with it
after you get familiar with it turn into picture it in your mind a fill in the gaps with, with
was just simple pictures. This is the effective away to memorize a scripture
a poem, a quote, chapters a book or whatever you want word for word. It takes a little practise but it’s the
same old focus, file, picture, action and review use pieces of furniture house memorized
poems. I challenge you right now to go with your
favourite poem, go get your favourite presidential quote and then memorize it this way. Remembered that you’re going to take pieces
of furniture at your house, you take the the the quote and you’re going to do it by file. See here's where the semicolon is everything
before the semicolon goes on one file. See here's where the comma everything before
as comma goes on my number two file. Here’s the period everything before this
period goes in the next file, here's the next comma so it's by a segment. It doesn’t have to be commas and semicolons
callers where you stop but that's kind of a you know where that's normal with a thought
stop so it's a good idea so that's good way to do that. I would encourage you to practice this, you’re
gonna need maybe twenty files for a twenty line poem. You know twenty-five files for twenty five
line poem but uh... this is a great method practice it practice at practice it memorize
your favourite poems or quotes.