Comments on: 30 Days to a Better Man Day 10: Memorize “If”

By: Cassidy

Cassidy — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:36:37 +0000

Thank-you so much.! I have to have this memorized by Tuesday (today being Sunday.) I’m in festival this year but we just got our poems! I was drawn to this poem and immediately thought “I have to do this” But I’ve had a hard time memorizing it.! Thanks! This helped~

By: Jon Hachey

Jon Hachey — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:14:05 +0000

I have the ending of Rambo:First Blood Part II stuck in my head forever, probably because I watched 5000 times growing up. But whenever someone asks me what I want, I say in my best Sly Stallone voice, “I want, what they want, and every other guy who came over here and spilled his guts and gave everything he had, wants! For our country to love us as much as we love it! That’s what I want!”
Trautman: How will you live, John?
Rambo: Day by day
I guess Kipling might be a little more difficult.

By: Norm

Norm — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:31:31 +0000

Beautiful and timeless it is and couldn’t be more relevant to what President Barack Obama is experiencing at this time. This is philosophy at its finest.

By: Alex Chebykin

Alex Chebykin — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 20:49:03 +0000

Forgot to thank this website for showing me this amazing poem.

By: Alex Chebykin

Alex Chebykin — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 20:47:36 +0000

I memorized the entire poem and it feels great to recite these brave words to myself whenever I am in doubt or say them over again and again, along with the A man in the arena quote from Theodore Roosevelt, in the shower instead.

By: Lessons in Manliness from Winston Churchill | The Art of Manliness

Lessons in Manliness from Winston Churchill | The Art of Manliness — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:01:19 +0000

[...] You can bet that he had to memorize entire works of literature – a skill recently featured on the Art of Manliness. Even though he was not a particularly great student – in fact he failed the military academy [...]

By: 30 Days to a Better Man Day 29: Conquer a Fear | The Art of Manliness

30 Days to a Better Man Day 29: Conquer a Fear | The Art of Manliness — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 05:36:39 +0000

[...] this quote. We’ve already talked about the power of having memorized quotes at your ready disposable. One of the best passages to memorize and recite to yourself when [...]

By: Julian

Julian — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:38:24 +0000

@Andrew Barbour – Thanks for that, listening right now!

By: Tuesday Share: June 16, 2009, Edition « Di Mortui Sunt

Tuesday Share: June 16, 2009, Edition « Di Mortui Sunt — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:07:04 +0000

[...] Art of Manliness continues with their 30 days to a better man project. Last week they covered memorizing things, giving yourself a testicular exam, creating a bucket list, decluttering, writing a letter to your [...]

By: Andrew Barbour

Andrew Barbour — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:54:43 +0000

You can download audio files of “If” (for free!) at librivox.org:

http://librivox.org/if-by-rudyard-kipling/

The version read by “Chip” is good.

By: Fraz

Fraz — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:29:58 +0000

@Thomas – I actually do (did) the same thing when I was studying. To make it an extra challenge, I would go for either (a) one-sided, or (b) a 4×6 index card…and yes, it helped enormously. While not giving away my age, in high school I would also record notes to “tape” (see note) and play them back while I was walking around, during lunch, or riding the bus. I’m a very “audio” person and remember what I hear almost as well as remembering what I write…which I guess plays nicely to the rote memorization method which for me always means remembering “times tables.”

NOTE, for the young ‘uns: a tape was like having an iPod that could store only 90 minutes of music, or about a 1/2 megabyte of data that required “turning over,” like a double-sided CD inside an audio device that was sometimes called a “boom box” to enjoy the full 90 minutes of music. Occasionally, or often at the time, home entertainment systems would include a pair of “cassette decks” that would allow people to either (a) copy music from one tape to another, or (b) play BOTH tapes, back to back allowing one to enjoy a party of 3 hours without repeating music or needing to change the “LP,” which is really too complicated to describe here.

for the humor challenged.

By: If « Discoveries of the Unemployed

If « Discoveries of the Unemployed — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:12:58 +0000

[...] No Comments Just came across this today while perusing one of my favorite sites, the Art of Manliness. They’re currently running a good series called “30 Days to a Better Man” with [...]

By: Kly-Max

Kly-Max — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:29:56 +0000

Hey All!

Just subscribed yesterday! Yeah me!

My $0.02…

A great way to help memorize something, especially something bad-ass like this poem is to do so emotionally. If you really dig into the emotion of what ol’ Rud, for example was tapping into (pride, humility, etc.) than the words will stick better. Once I find the emotional core of a piece, and truly embrace it, the memorizing seems to be almost effortless.

I think it’s because I’m totally channelling the author, like in a different realm of reality, dude….yeah.

It would be cool to start a list of Manly Memorizers. I’m sure a Shakespeare sonnet would be in there, as well as the Bible, Koran, Bhagvad Gita (sp?).

From the looks of the comments, we already have a pretty good start!

By: 30 Days to a Better Man Day 11: Give Yourself a Testicular Exam | The Art of Manliness

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 01:23:02 +0000

[...] sure that many of you are still trying to complete yesterdays task and are hard at work memorizing If. So today’s task is simple, straightforward, and quick. [...]

By: Edgar

Edgar — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:51:20 +0000

Jason Y,

Memorizing foreign language vocabulary, while an important part of language learning, is not enough: you have to know grammar, too.

Memorization is an essential part of learning a foreign language, but for all those memorized words to be of any use, you have to be able to put them together–which you get from studying–and using–grammar. Making sentences in a foreign language is a “doing” skill, kind of like playing the piano: you can only get better at it by doing it.

Having said that, I’ve already gotten started on memorizing “If.” I like the suggestions for passages from the Bible, too.