If You Think it Ink it

In 1983 I had an opportunity of a lifetime.  I was accepted into the Warrant Officer
flight training program for a helicopter pilot in the United States Army. I
couldn’t wait to get there.  Things were different from what I thought; like I had
no hair, I had no mustache.  I was basically nobody; not until I earned
those coveted wings.  But what a great experience – I wouldn’t have traded it for
the world; fabulous memories, great friends.

One of the lessons I learned was from my 1^st
flight instructor.  He used to say to me,
“Ned, just remember that a short pencil is better than a long memory any
time.  If you think it I want you to ink
it.”  I was trying to remember things that
he was teaching me and I was having a tough time.  I was trying to put it
to memory and what he was trying to tell me was that putting it to memory
was not going to cut it. I never forgot that lesson.

When we were transitioning into the UH1 Huey (Those
are the ones you always saw in the Vietnam movies), we had to learn the
emergency procedures by memory and I was having a tough time committing it to
my brain. I remembered back to my first instructor and I inked it. I wrote
all them all out and made a big mural and I put it up in my barracks.  Every time I would
walk in my room I would look up and see an emergency procedure, whichever one it
happened to be.  I would read it because it happened to be there.  It was almost like passive
learning or learning without even trying.  It wasn’t long until I had all those emergency
procedures down cold.  My instructors would ask me a question and I would fire it right at them.

Often times when we hear something and we jump up and say oh wow I have to have that.
Our brain is telling us it’s working on something deep into the subconscious and
it’s trying to solve a problem.  You need to think it and then ink it.  Your brain
is screaming for you to remember that.

A couple of things we know for certain; usually 24 hrs
after adult education takes place you’ll forget 75% of what you have learned
and only 1% of you will ever open the workbook again.  Wow those are pretty
dismal numbers.  Let’s swap those around.  Let’s take our Think It Ink It sheet and
let’s write down those things that were really important to us.  And then what I want
you to do is put it up near your workspace, bulletin board or in front of your computer.

Closing

This is an excerpt from Simple & Easy an audio CD Ned Parks published in 2007. If you
to purchase the full version of the CD contact Ned at ned@nedparks.com