The eight R's of observation

These are the eight R's of the observation process and they are an important step in the development of the survival mindset and the ability to recognize the patters that are all around you.  This seems like a difficult process but with a little practice it will become second nature.  If you miss some steps in the process or simply do not have enough time to complete it that is OK. The beauty is that simply recognizing that this is an event in that you are required to pay attention will put you ahead of most of the people around you.   

Realize, recognize, record, recall, review, recite, respond, reassess.

Realize what is going on and how it affects you, your mission, your objective and your situation or safety.

Recognize the pattern that is going on, how it is developing and what options that you have to manipulate the situation or just observe and learn.

Record information from general details to the specific details.

Recall those details and relate them other similar experiences to see where the overlaps are.

Review the total information for a complete accounting of the situation, review for retention.

Recite those details and vital information to implace them in you memory.



Respond appropriately to the current situation. (if required)

Reassess the entire event to refresh the memory and pick out the actual pattern, do not do this until you are completely removed from the event and you are no longer emotionally invested.

If nothing else the first and last steps will get you head and shoulders above most of the drones moving about in their daily routines.  There is a certain liberation that you feel when you pay attention and manage to remove yourself from a potentially dangerous situation because you picked up on the ques or recognized how a situation was developing before your eyes.  That is on a micro level but the patterns repeat themselves on a macro level as well.

Take a look at the events leading up to the American revolutionary war, by my observation we are somewhere in between the Townshend acts and the Boston Massacre right now.  Keep a  watchful eye out for the next event and follow the pattern.