dream | act | succeed

Finally! Couldn’t wait for this one to start! It is story time!!!!

As we have discussed last time, you need to implement all your different connections into one huge story. If you have seen the movie “Interception“, you probably already know what I am talking about. The goal is to create a world around the thing you want to remember, that feels so real and unreal at the same time, making the thing stick to your mind like a chewing gum on your shoe sole.

But how do we do that?

Well, there are of course a lot of different approaches, but generally speaking you just start with something and see where this is leading you to. Some people are quite creative, being able to create really fascinating stories, while others try to make it work with the least amount of creativity possible. What ever you seem to be, just figure out how creative you really need to be in order for you to remember stuff and then make sure, that you will reach that level of creativity. In the end, it is of course just an ongoing process that will adapt itself over time, until you will finally become a master of creating stories that will stick to your mind.

Of course, we could just go on with talking and talking and talking. But that doesn’t help us to remember something, right? What about a short test. You get 1 minute and need to create a story, in order to remember a word that you will not forget in the next 10 years. Can you do that?

The word is: “Circuit breaker” (German: Leistungsschutzschalter). You don’t need to remember it as a vocabulary, if you don’t want to. Just remember the word for itself.

3, 2, 1, Go!!!

Side note: Creating short stories in your mind doesn’t only help you to remember stuff much faster, but can also help you to become more creative and switch off for a couple of minutes. And hey! This makes so much fun! You will not believe it.

Ok, time is still running, but get’s pretty close to the zero mark. I guess I need to come up with something as well. So, let’s see. Circuit breaker. Ok, the location is clear. I am standing in a circuit tent. It is pitch dark, but there is one spot light, directed to the middle of the arena. Literally out of nothing, a robber appears out of the darkness. Being a German citizen, this would be a (Einbrecher = robber), (breaking = brechen). But my English is of course just so bad, that I think, this is a breaker, not a robber. Stupid me! An now, it is in the World Wide Web, documented for my ancestors to read. Ok, but what is this dude doing? It is in the middle of the night. Mhh, it looks like he is going to the control box over there. Carefully, I try to get closer. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. He saw me, with a single jump, the person moved up in the air, started to launch at me like a Spaceship on its first Apollo mission. I run. Fast, I try what I can. BBAAAAAMMMMM. He hit the middle mast of the tent. Seconds later, tent breaks down. As the police arrives, the hot blonde female officer asks: “Who was that man?” “I, I ddddoooooonnn’t knnoowwwww! The theeee, theee circuit breaker?

Time is up. Ehm ok! Everything all right with you? Didn’t you take your medicine or something? What the hell was that? I guess, that’s what I was talking about. You create a story that sticks to your mind. Of course our minds differ from one another. Thank god! So, you might do not need to implement as many things as I do, but just figure this out in the next couple of days and work on your own style.

What you need, is a script, right? A manual that tells you exactly which step you need to take.

1. Define the time: In the present, in the past, in the future, no time needed
2. Define a location: At your home, at work, in the city, on the country side, in a spaceship, at a real place, at an imaginary place, on another planet, no location needed
3. Define a character: Take yourself, a person you know, relatives, friends, family, actors, invent people, no people needed
4. Define the general road map: Short story, sentence, situation, no road map needed
5. Additional Input: Include all the connections we have already spoken about. Emotions, feelings, reactions, …

Some useful hints:

• Work with a start marker. Something, that let’s you enter the story. This can be an association, a key-word, or a key situation that happened in your life.
• Don’t overdue it. Get on point. Short, sharp, sexy!
• Include fun, colorful images, abstract things.
• Don’t limit your creativity with your social norms. Forget them. This is your mind. You can use people, make fun of them. Let them do strange things. There are no limits. Use that to your advantage. Some paradigms are implementing your ex girlfriend / boyfriend, the neighbor you hate, or the teacher that yelled at you all the time. Remember, the goal is to create really good connections. If you can implement a teacher into the story, you wanted to get over with more then a docent times in your dreams already. Why don’t you include this person into your next story? Believe me, it will be fun.
• Speaking about fun. Have fun! Enjoy the process.
• Practice makes perfect!

See you next time!