Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0483: How to memorize the drill sergeant creed for the US Army

Episode Date: January 13, 2016

Brandon wants to memorize the drill sergeant creed for the US Army. In the episode I present a full plan for memorizing the creed, along with sample mnemonics for making the memorization quick and easy. What do you want to learn? Leave your question at http://MasterOfMemory.com/. Music credit: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet, 2nd movement, performed by the US Army […]

Master of Memory 483. Welcome to Master of Memory. I'm Timothy, and I'm here to answer your accelerated learning questions every day and to inspire and empower you to learn anything you want to learn faster than ever. Brandon asked a question in an email about memorizing the Drill Sergeant Creed for the U.S. Army. Now, this is a bit simpler than the NCO creed that we worked on in episode 480, because it's just seven sentences long. So first of all, you want to start with a recording of the creed, which you can just do yourself, find somewhere, or pull out of this episode,

because I'm going to read it in a little bit. But you're going to have a recording that you'll kind of recite with as you try to learn this. Then, as we mentioned in episode 480, you're going to have a memory palace to store, in this case, the seven verbs that are near the beginning of each sentence. And the sixth location is going to be a little more complicated than the others because the phrase is different, or I should say the sentence is different. There's a phrase that precedes the verb. But in general, each sentence starts with a verb. I am a drill sergeant. I will assist with so-and-so. I will instill pride, blah, blah, blah. I will insist so-and-so. I will lead by example, etc. In the sixth one, but first, last, and always, I am an American soldier, etc. And then I am a drill sergeant. So those seven verbs are am,

assist, instill, insist, lead, am, and am. That's pretty easy to store in a memory palace. And if you just make sure that you get the order of those correct using your memory palace, then you might argue that just listening to a recording of this and saying it a few times will actually have you memorizing this very quickly. Because the fact is that when we listen to passages and say along with them what they're saying, maybe while reading or just while listening and repeating, what happens is we do memorize the phrases pretty well. The human mind is really good at memorizing phrases and quoting things, especially when things are said together with a recording. But what's difficult is getting everything in order, which is the function of the memory palace. That's why I generally follow this technique when memorizing passages.

I reduce it to as few keywords as possible and then learn everything else by phrase. am, assist, instill, insist, lead, am, and am in order, then you're pretty quickly going to be able to memorize this entire creed just by listening to and reciting along with the recording that I will present to you right here or just one that you find on your own. So here's the entire creed. I am a drill sergeant. I will assist each individual in their efforts to become a highly motivated, well-disciplined, physically and mentally fit soldier

capable of defeating any enemy on today's modern battlefield. I will instill pride in all I train, pride in self, in the army, and in country. I will insist that each soldier meets and maintains the army's standards of military bearing and courtesy consistent with the highest traditions of the U.S. Army. I will lead by example, never requiring a soldier to attempt any task I would not do myself. But first, last, and always, I am an American soldier sworn to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. I am a drill sergeant. Okay, so I'm not a drill sergeant, and my delivery doesn't sound like a drill sergeant's, but I think that you can make some use of that, or go and find a real drill sergeant reciting it,

and, you know, say it along with that recording. But one way or another, following the techniques in this episode, I think that you'll find that you can memorize this very quickly with just a few little mnemonics in a simple memory palace. For everyone listening who doesn't know what a memory palace is, or the techniques that we're using for memorizing passages, go and check out masterofmemory.com slash start for a complete starter guide to these techniques. Meanwhile, what do you want to learn? The world's knowledge can be yours.

Leave your learning requests at masterofmemory.com slash question, and I'll talk to you again soon. Thank you.