The ideas you’ll discover in these bullets can be applied to many areas of your life; work, leadership, relationships, parenting, and more.
Upgrade your thinking by learning a multitude of disciplines from a varied collection of resources.
Thought-provoking...
The inquiry:
People who love to learn don’t depend only on classrooms or professors. They seek answers for every question, their minds are always clouded with ‘how’ and ‘why’. They have an innate desire to please their inner curiosity and dig deeper until their thirst for answer quenches.
“There are no foolish questions, and no man becomes a fool until he has stopped asking questions.”
— Charles Proteus Steinmetz
An inquisitive person is intellectually curious, eager for knowledge and likes to inquire, research and ask questions.
Epistemophilic - A love for knowledge, excessive striving for or preoccupation with knowledge
Ways of learning efficiently.
Traditional education based learning teaches us how to acquire basic knowledge, but if this teaching doesn’t serve us or doesn’t achieve the desired results, are we willing to admit, reflect and learn from our mistakes?
Even smart, well-educated people can struggle to learn from experience. We all know someone who’s been at the office for 20 years and claims to have 20 years of experience, but they really have one year repeated 20 times.
In the same way, a muscle strengthens at the point of failure, we learn best after dramatic errors.
We need to create a dynamic loop of learning, evaluating, self reflection, augmenting what doesn’t work and trying again.
Just like physical exercise. The brain is an active muscle that needs constant exertion. The best way to apply this force is through continuous learning.To be highly effective that learning has to be of varied nature and topics. Strive to learn new concepts, ideas and even languages to enhance the incredible power of your brain, The ultimate learning machine.
Wisdom/ What I'm Reading...
Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It
"If I love myself what would I do?"
— Kamal Ravikant
KAMAL RAVIKANT; has meditated with monks in the; Himalayas, served as a US Army; Infantry soldier, walked 550 miles; across Spain, and cofounded several; companies and a venture capital; firm in Silicon Valley.
Everyone has a truth that they need to live and share. For Kamal, that truth was committing to the daily practice of repeating the phrase “I love myself.” When you love yourself, life loves you back.
My key takeaways from the book:
In simplicity lies truth. In simplicity lies power.
This is a practice. You don’t go to the gym once and consider yourself done. Loving yourself is a practice.
Especially in dark and hard times, know your truth and do the “mirror” exercise - repeat “I love myself” whilst looking in the mirror.
Darkness is simply the absence of light. You cant hide from it or make it go away. What you can do and should do, is turn the light on. The light in this context is synonyms to love.
Meditation is an extremely powerful practice, but not all of us are built to sit in silence and concentrate on our breath for 2 hours.
Kamal has a simple hack: Choose a song you enjoy and can relax to and sit and breathe for the 5-7 mins of the song repeating the words “I love myself.” Inhale > Think “I love myself” > Exhale > Let out whatever thoughts you have.
The Beautiful irony: fall in love with yourself and naturally express yourself and the world will beat a path to your door to fall in love with you.
Most of us coast through life on autopilot, especially when the going is good. Then in sickness, we all pray for health. Rather put all the blocks in place for a healthy, happy life everyday.
The most fundamental way to achieve success in the above ritual is to make a written vow to “love yourself”
Everyone can answer an IF question
Ask yourself this before:
Overeating
When you don’t want to train
When you would rather spend time on social media than learn something!
It’s extremely powerful
If I really loved myself - what would I do in this situation?
This day, I vow to myself to love myself, to treat myself as someone I love truly and deeply - in my thoughts, my actions, the choices I make, the experiences I have, each moment I am conscious, I make the decision I LOVE MYSELF.
“When we love ourselves, we naturally shine, we are naturally beautiful. And that draws others to us. Before we know it, they’re loving us and it’s up to us to choose who to share our love with.”
— Kamal Ravikant
Book Review - click here
This is a very compact, simple and impactful self awareness book.
Grab yourself a read - click here
Pondering...
The 100% Rule
“It’s easier to hold your principles 100 percent of the time than it is to hold them 98 percent of the time.”
— Clayton Christensen
Think about this statement in the context of a diet: If you are only committed to the diet 98% of the time, every time there is an opportunity to choose, you will question the rule and ask yourself is this one of those times when the exception or the 2% applies.
This leads to stress, additional decision making requirements and ultimately loss of willpower. Not knowing the outcome of your behaviour can create problems in your confidence and identity
Alternatively if you are 100% committed to the diet. There is no decision to make.
When we are only 98% committed to a principle or an idea we become unsure of the outcome and hence our behaviour and character.
By committing 100 percent to something, like say, a diet, even for a short period of time, you can predict your behaviour in future situations. You can know that regardless of what is being offered, the decision has already been made.
Michael Jordan has a great quotation that brings this idea together: “Once I made a decision, I never thought about it again.” That’s the key to building confidence. You make a decision and move forward with that decision, 100 percent.
Each time you follow through, your confidence increases, thus further increasing your motivation and resolve to continue. Your identity becomes clearer.
The 100 percent rule by Clayton Christensen is a very useful strategy for avoiding decision fatigue and for building confidence.
For a much deeper read on Clayton Christensen’s unconventional principles, read his book of inspiration and wisdom for achieving a fulfilling life - click here
For a shorter read of the article that inspired the book - click here
Widget Of The Week...
Brain games are defined as any activity that stimulates your thinking. That includes word puzzles like crosswords and Scrabble, but also traditional games like chess, Sudoku, and bridge. It also includes creative outlets like painting, playing an instrument, or learning a language.
Brain puzzles are games that also challenge our thinking but may require logic or vertical analysis to solve. Brain puzzles can even be physical objects!
We’ve all encountered brain puzzles, most of us quite early on in life. Perhaps your first brain teaser was given to you by your elementary school teacher. Maybe you found one on the back of a cereal box. You might have even been given a book of mind teasers from a friend or family member as a birthday gift.
The real beauty of these brain games? They’re timeless. No matter how young or old you are, you can enjoy the cognitive challenge brain teaser presents.
Brain exercise:
Counting Squares
Count up the number of squares in the figure on the left.
Hint: Be sure to count the squares within the squares
Answer: In next week's edition
We play these thinking puzzles for fun, challenging ourselves to find the right answer. But what we don’t realise is that mind teasers are so much more than simple games.
In fact, they have the potential to rewire your brain — if practiced often enough.
The more convincing evidence is that brain games may help sharpen certain thinking skills that tend to wane with age, such as processing speed, planning skills, reaction time, decision making, and short-term memory.
Puzzles and Illusions To Challenge Your Bored Brain - click here
More by Popular Science - click here
Dr. Julie Brody-Magid is the clinical director of the Memory Disorders Assessment Clinic at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital. She says brain games "May help with improving select brain skills and can play an important role in maintaining overall brain health."
Another way brain games may help with memory is building up cognitive reserve. Cognitive reserve is like a rainy-day savings account in your brain that you can store away and use when you need quick thinking. "Also, your reserve may even help provide resilience against age-related memory loss and dementia," says Dr. Brody-Magid.
You also need to participate in multiple types of engagement. "Don't just focus on one new thing, either," says Dr. Brody-Magid. "It's just like exercising your muscles. If you only do biceps curls, your arms will get stronger, but your legs won't."
A combination of challenging activity for the brain, exertive physical exercise, a nutritious diet and enough.