Asking questions doesn’t make you a fool; it’s you refusing to become a fool.
Seeking a coach isn’t a sign of incompetence; it’s you refusing to become incompetent.
Talking to a therapist isn’t an admission of poor mental health; it’s you refusing to let your mental health get to a poor state.
Asking for help isn’t you giving up, it’s you refusing to give up.
When was the last time you gave your mindset a software update?
Like your smartphone, regular updates are essential for optimal functionality of your mind.
Many people, however, haven’t updated their mindset in years.
They’re using the latest model iPhone with 2008 software installed. It’s ridiculous.
So, before you go bastardizing your mind for driving you nuts—as extremely old software might—invest in its upgrade!
You can download mind updates via books, podcasts, seminars, conversations, classrooms, etc. And in most cases, you can do so for free.
Here’s the thing: your mindset isn’t bad, it’s not broken, it’s not wrong—it’s just, in many cases, outdated.
Thoughts are as much outside of your control as they are inside of your control.
It works very much the same as breathing.
When you’re conscious of your mind or breath, you can actively control them.
But, when you’re no longer conscious of them, they carry on without you.
This is why you can’t just demand your mind to start producing better thoughts.
That would be like demanding your lungs to start delivering oxygen better.
You have to improve the thought-producing machine as you would the oxygen-delivering machine(s).
Which doesn’t happen after one exercise session (for either).
It happens after many.
Most people never talk about pace when it comes to learning.
Most of what I hear is about consuming as much as possible in the shortest amount of time possible (e.g. 2x speed while watching YouTube videos or listening to podcasts).
Pace matters just as much in learning as it does in running a marathon.
Move too quickly through the information and you’ll burnout and resent the process.
Move too slowly and you’ll bore yourself to death (and resent the process).
Find your sweet spot and you’ll become a learner for life.
To grow richer, seek new experiences, not new things.
For new experiences beget new information.
And new information begets new connections within the brain.
And a more diversely connected brain is a brain that’s more apt to solve a more diverse array of problems.
And a brain that can solve more problems—better problems—is a brain that will more easily solve richness problems.
The key is to simply continue investing in the brain rather than in items that have no ROI.
For while items may give you temporary feelings of power, status, and appeal—investments give you a forever returning feeling of better, more insightful, more valuable—problem-solving skills.
AKA: Life living skills.
Time, energy, attention—these are the fundamental building blocks of what a life is composed of.
With what you’ve been given, you can either choose to spend, save, or invest these blocks—just as it is with money.
When you spend time, energy, or attention—it’s gone. Like when you watch a show on TV. There’s no return of more time, energy, or attention—it’s just used.
When you save time, energy, or attention—you increase what little you had to a little more. Like when you hire a professional to do a professional service. The time it took you to get the money to pay the professional is far less than the time it would have taken you to do the job yourself—so you pay them. Resources saved.
When you invest time, energy, or attention—you stand to multiply what little you had into much more. Like when you learn new skills and/or gain new knowledge. Not only do you no longer need to hire someone for their skills or knowledge, but you no longer need to hire them for the rest of your life. The return is exponential.
A good exercise to spend some time on:
The best teacher in life is experience.
…Wrong.
The best teacher in life is, and can only ever be, you.
Experience is merely newly presented knowledge. Just like a simple Google search.
And having knowledge in front of you (or at your finger tips) has no impact on the mind.
Knowledge ungrasped is the same as knowledge unknown.
The best teacher is the curious mind—the undeniable force that actively grasps the surrounding knowledge and infuses it with the mind.
Without that force, the talents of the teacher are irrelevant; experiences are irrelevant; access to the internet is irrelevant.
Because having access to knowledge was never the issue in the connection age.
It’s the lack of curiosity that only ever holds us back.