Information comes into our brains one word at a time, one sound at a time, one touch at a time, one image at a time, one frame at a time—one drip at a time.
And our brains are filled with sponges that capture those drips. What’s cool about the sponges of our mind is that they grow or shrink based on demand.
For example, the sponge that holds self-improvement information in my mind is simply gigantic because I’m constantly dripping information into it. My obsession loads the sponge to maximum capacity and so it grows to account for that demand.
But, the sponge that holds calculus information, however, is teeny-tiny because I never drip anything into it. The sponge is dry and continues to shrivel up each day because I don’t drop anything into it—and I’m okay with that.
Here’s why this is important: (1) The sponges you drip information into will grow; (2) the sponges you don’t drip anything into will shrink; (3) you can only wring information out of a sponge that has had enough dripped into it.
Are the drops of information that you’re soaking in every day getting added to sponges that you actually want to grow or sponges that you’d actually prefer shriveled up? How much information do you have packed in your brain from Keeping Up With The Jones’? What drip adjustments do you think you could make?
Finally, are you trying to wring out a dry sponge or is your sponge soaked with information?
Keep in mind that once your sponge hits capacity, it will start to leak information in that domain naturally—as it grows and in real-time. People can sense when you’re forcing/wringing/squeezing information from a dry sponge. And they can also tell when it’s legitimately soaked, dense, and overflowing.
Soak the right sponges. Soak more than you wring. Let the drip come naturally.