One great source of understanding comes from experience. Gail Brenner, who writes at A Flourishing Life, presents very coherent concepts in her articles. There is much accuracy in her discussion of topics like memories, habits, and anxiety. Some of these articles are also accompanied with audio messages that extend the main topic, or explain a part of the article in detail. I certainly recommend these audio messages for obtaining greater understanding or inner peace.
Gail has 16 years of psychotherapy experience as a Ph. D. psychologist, as is easily evident through her writings. Also, this experiential knowledge comes into play in her Questions and Answers articles, where she has elaborately answered some questions others have provided for her. One relevant example involves help with depression, where many points regarding depression are brought up, such as labeling, awareness, attention, and negative thinking. Analysis of the many interconnected components of an issue is a key to clearing it up or being able to work through it, and that is one item that Gail brings to her material. The following is an interview I have done with Gail, and then some commentary and a summary of the points brought up:
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photo credit: nlnnet
This is a guest post from Eduard Ezeanu, a communication coach who writes personal development advice at Ideas With A Kick. You can follow him on Twitter at @eduardezeanu.
What’s the most popular advice for achieving great things? It’s: “Work hard”. Since the age of seven, most of us have constantly been told by family, teachers, friends and public figures to study hard, work hard, and our efforts will be rewarded by getting ahead.
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When I mention the names Napoleon, Lincoln, Einstein, Aristotle, and Darwin, you instantly recognize who I am talking about, and what field they were in. We often hear about the wonderful thinking that people like Socrates or Aristotle brought to humanity. What we don’t tend to hear about is how they interacted with people who were wasting their time as they were rising in academic stature. You can be certain that the most intelligent or financially successful people of all time wasted minimal amounts of time dealing with people who didn’t supplement their studies or business plans. If you want to be remarkable like they were, you will want to act the way they did.
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photo credit: paPisc
Take someone who works very hard on the details of a task, and have him talk with someone who doesn’t seem to care about details at all, and the conversation will be mind-opening. The difference in the amount of effort and thought that one person puts in to tasks, when compared with a person who puts in very little, can easily separate the two. My message here is that it is up to you about how much you put in to each activity you do.
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A small subset of people set remarkable goals. Chris Guillebeau, who writes at The Art of Non-Conformity, is one such individual. He has challenged authority since 1978, and also happens to have been born in 1978. He has set a goal to travel to all the countries of the world by April 7, 2013. He has been to 122 of the total of 192 countries, as of this writing. This traveling, and travel-hacking that he does to keep his goal attainable, gives his writing a worldly sense, as his current ‘home’ is more like Earth than it is his home state of Oregon.
Chris has put out some greatly useful creations, like his free Ebook 279 Days to Overnight Success. It lets the reader know that, while it requires patience and time to reach a worthwhile goal, is it certainly doable, and the Ebook is filled with his thoughts and pointers about how to make it happen, based on his experience. He has also put out other products about travel tips or working for yourself. I am always in support of folks who put their knowledge and ideas out there for others to absorb and build off as desired. Here is my interview with Chris, followed by some closing commentary, and a summary:
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photo credit: shoothead
There are times when you are doing very well, and feel like nothing can stop you in your quest. You feel like you are doing the thing that fits you perfectly. This could be during computer programming, shaking hands with customers, or when you’ve exercised for 50 minutes straight. Regardless of the activity that gives you this feeling, take a moment to look at whether that activity is your “thing”.
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photo credit: stevendepolo
Glaciers are huge chunks of moving ice. They are far too large for any of us people to move using our bare hands. On the other hand, we can easily pick up an ice-cube and drop it into our beverage. A glacier is made up of frozen water, just like an ice-cube, but it is out of our grasp to move it. This is why you need to stick to working with the ice-cube-sized features of your problem.
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