This is one of these. Of
course, it is roguelike blog, but don’t we need to share
interesting ideas about our life and lifehacks?
Here is one thought I want
to share with you, my dear readers.
There are a lot of
books devoted to self-development in general or to some specified
field.
They are useful and
interesting. Reading them has to lead people to great results and
life progress.
But!
It doesn’t happen in
most cases for majority of readers.
Look. Let’s take
the most well know books like «Screw it, Just do It» by Richard
Branson, «Rich Dad Poor Dad» by Robert Kiyosaki, Allen Carr’s
Easyways series!
Millions of copies were
sold! These books should make a tremendous impact on human minds.
Like Allen Carr wrote in his book that smoking will demise as soon as
Easyways would be implemented.
Nah.
Shining idea met cast
iron butt of reality.
I think you may
know at least one person who still smokes like steam engine after
reading a book or quit smoking for a brief period of week or two.
Other books may
work just the same. You get a motivation for a brief period of time
and then life returns on its old tracks or even worse: Once I felt
cheated because didn’t find a silver bullet advice in a book. Shame
on me!
Why does it happen?
I have analyzed it and
came to these conclusions:
It is not about a
book (or any other useful material we decided to use for our
self-improvement, but I’ll write “book” to keep it simple).
It
is about who and how reads a book.
Even if author does
his or her best to make book easy to understand by someone who is
running behind, still, it is to be like a set of advises of 20lvl
AD&D hero to level 1 hero – «How to defeat dragon with your
bare hands».
Does it make such
materials useless for us, draining money from our pockets?
OMG!
NO!
Of course no!
Such book is a
perfect tool for even a level 1 hero! Maybe, such hero will not
defeat a dragon, right now, but will vanquish a huge rat as a first
step!
«Okay», - You may
say, «It is obvious, but, how do we fail to get these results?».
Because books give
us results of completely different level and purpose.
Let’s see them:
First and usual result is
a Surge of Motivation.
This is “That
feel” level of result.
People who gets it usually write
comments like: «Very inspiring / motivating book!», «Great book! I
feel so energized and motivated!».
Don’t get me
wrong. There is nothing bad to get good portion of motivation.
Shame is to stop on this
level.
It is pity, but, vast
majority of readers get nothing, except nice portion of motivation.
As I mentioned before,
motivation is great! It can fuel our efforts.
The only problem, such
semi-artificial motivation is like a cup of strong coffee.
Effect
is energizing and inspiring, but short-living.
Just like a cup of coffee
can make as “stronger” and give “power”, real strength,
vitality and power comes from constant work-out, hard. But balanced
training. Yes. Slow and steady progress.
When this “Motivation
Surge” is equal to “motivational” seminars or paid “walking
on coals” practices and so on.
Nice try, effects last until you
are get back to the plantation of day-to-day job.
That's why, it effect is
so tasty, addictive and shot-living, making people buy pyramids of
materials, even if they don't see actual result.
Ugly
truth: motivation isn’t a true nature of self-improving
books and materials!
Think about them as a
roadmaps.
Not a magic pill or coffee
cup, but a map to the goal you seek.
Of course, it is easy
to say: “see it as a roadmap”, but hard to do.
Tough nut from a level 20
hero, isn't it?
Yes and no.
True: to reap full
benefits from a books we need to have a mindset, the way we percept
the world, close to one author has.
Then we can follow ideas
with a flying colours and empower ourselves.
And one more “But!”
“You are what
you eat” works very well for the information we get.
Don't forget, we are
information we perceive. Our 'self' consists of information we allow us to “consume”.
It is a big topic to
discuss in this small post.
The more important
quantity and quality of information we “load” is very important.
Of course, it is easy to feed yourself with fictional literature and
TV dramas, but what type of “self” they will create?
Good news, it works in
opposite direction!
Reading self-development
materials, accompanied with persistent work will finally pays out.
Slowly, but steadily you
will get mindset you are looking for.
Such books aren't only a
cup of motivation and road map to results, but also seeds of your new
self.
Of course, they need good soil
and care, but at some point you will find see a new person in a
mirror.
So we can say, there three
levels of “usefulness”:
Motivation Cup of
coffee. Pleasant, but side effect. Don't allow yourself to be
trapped here.
Seeds and soil of
slow and constant improvement. Treat them well and at some point you
will follow:
Roadmap. The path
author prepared for you.
Give youself some, work
hard on yourself and then, reread books you found to difficult or
vague, you would be surprised. I assure you!
