As we read articles, a select few of the concepts we come across have such an effect that they either remain in our minds for a lengthy period of time, or are implemented in usage and become part of our regular habits. Here, a selection of concepts from specific posts by prolific writers/entrepreneurs is presented, and the concepts are then either discussed or extended by my own analysis. These may become part of your regular thought process as well, due to their value or relevance.
People In An Environment Are All Connected
Glen from PluginID (home of the personal development blog list) once talked about how everyone in a certain social situation or environment is connected by a neon green cord, in that everyone in the environment has an effect on everyone else. Glen used a green wavy line to represent this connection, which keeps that concept in your mind. After you get the idea in your thoughts, it is hard to forget it when in social situations, because they you realize that even a person walking by a group has an effect on the feelings/actions of the group.
Keep All Items Of Value
Corey from Corey-Freeman.com brought up a quick update on the RSS feed that said to not throw any writing away. I would extend this to pictures or projects or concepts that have value. Also, if you put time into something, it is beneficial to then put in a little more time to get it placed or stored in the right location, so it is ready to go if you want to continue on it. If you are in a situation where you are about to leave something unfinished and unlabeled for yourself to “possibly” work on later, you might as well throw it away, since it will be stuck in your mind until if/when you do, and may frustrate you enough at that time where you will throw it away anyway.
Try Out All Options On New Applications You Use
Mike at Learn This recently wrote a post about how to be productive with any application, and he made a point that is huge in understanding something. He pointed out that one should test out all the options. That is a real big item. Let’s say you download a program like Fruity Loops for sound creation, Daemon Tools for virtual CD mounting, XChat for IRC usage, or Filezilla as your FTP client. Regardless of the program chosen, you will save an immense amount of time if you try out options all across the menus right when you get the program. The more you do at the beginning, as with anything, the less time you will waste later not knowing how to do something or giving up on it altogether. When you check menu options and sidebar options one by one, you almost always get new ideas for what you are able to do. Although this point has a real big effect on computer productivity, I had not seen it written about until Mike’s post.
Following Your Passion Can Be Invaluable
Celes from CelestineChua.com recently wrote about getting a Passion Paycheck, where the paycheck represented income acquired related to her interest. This is a powerful entity. Although the amount may have been lower than past income from a job of less interest, there is a key point of separation. Someone making a large amount of income from something they are not interested can only tell others about the income, as hyping up their enjoyment of making it would not be truthful. Thus, their message is limited to the income amount. On the other hand, someone making income from something they are interested in has a whole separate realm of concepts to gladly point out, because the income is there, but the passion and energy is also there. The ability to speak freely and relevantly about one’s desires might not be able to have a price put on it.
Teaching Something Is An Efficient Way To Learn It
Jonathan, who writes self development articles over at Illuminated Mind, wrote a post a month ago which was about not being too focused on personal growth. In the article, he points out that most people are trying to learn what they are teaching to others. Although it seems to be the reverse of the way it should work, learning comes from pressure. We put more pressure on our minds to understand a process or concept when we are explaining it to someone else, because we want to provide them with an adequate informational stance on the topic, and want to have enough knowledge on it to be able to respond to feedback. Teaching is a win-win type activity, as you win when you teach clearly and effectively, and also win even if you don’t teach well, because you quickly pick up on what you didn’t understand, and come out with knowledge and experience.
Maintain The Habits You Set For Yourself
Alex over at AlexShalman.com wrote an article about studying with focus, confidence and purpose. One appealing aspect about this post was that it related personal development to working towards continued academic success. In the article, Alex discussed multiple methods used to maintained a high level of studying capability. One concept brought up was that of 50-10 studying, using 50 minutes for study and 10 minutes to rest for every hour. A big point of the 50-10 issue is that, contrary to what we would presume, you will want to continue studying after the 50 minute mark since momentum will be in place, but in being true to yourself, you have to take the 10 minute rest. Keeping a deal with yourself is more important than any deal you make someone else. If the deal is to study for 50 minutes at a time, the biggest disservice you could do for yourself is to continue forward there, as your deal-breaking would reduce motivation instantly. In the short-term sense, you may have ended up studying for a longer 70-minute period, but in the long-term sense, you couldn’t maintain the studying habit you had set for yourself. Long-term actions continually trump short-term impulsiveness.
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I’m glad you found such value in one of my quick tips! It’s ironic because I’m in the process of dejunking my room and keep having to make the harsh decision of what to keep and what to purge. Luckily, technology provides us with a means to keep everything in an organized manner.
Corey: I sure did see the value in it. I think that electronic storage is more easily suited for keeping relevant writings, thoughts, and productions. At the same time, keeping a folder of papers with written material seems like it would be more enjoyable to maintain and work with.
Also, an unorganized hard drive will limit motivation a fair amount, as the mind will be processing all the nested folders when looking for a single item.
Hey Armen, thanks a lot for the feature
I really enjoyed your features on the other authors too, and how you concisely summed up the key point of their articles. And they really brought up great points too – especially Jonathon’s point on learning through writing. I do that myself actually – if there are certain things which I’m tackling in my life now (say, punctuality – I have already written a post on how to be punctual scheduled for posting in a few weeks), I will write it out and sort out my thoughts. The end output – I find that I would have overcome the issue at hand after having written the post! It’s quite amazing.
Celes: Certainly, and Jonathan’s point relates to one other thing I had not mentioned yet about how much of social dynamics or learning works in reverse. On your note about punctuality, I had an added thought about teaching effects. When your punctuality post goes up, while you will have learned a fair amount during the process, your readers then have an easier opportunity to improve their punctuality due to your explanation, and would benefit from writing a personal paragraph about punctuality to themselves after reading it. It is like a second level of teaching that would follow your first level of teaching.
Hey Armen, this is a really cool way to present a number of articles and authors! Thanks so much for highlighting these and including mine. I like to include linked resources each month as well but this is a whole new way to do it! Thanks.
Mike: Thanks for that and the support on Twitter. I wanted to showcase the people behind the sites, and concurrently to point out various points that I had read which had stayed in my mind, like the green wavy like from Glen’s post that comes to my mind at various times now. The embedded pictures do give us a better sense of who is creating material and a large positive impact for the public.