There are thousands of self improvement blogs (SIB) in the world. And we may have been following them religiously. I wonder though how many will actually remember what has been read about 10 minutes later. It’s a disease actually to spend time filtering information (reading) and at the end of the day, no action was done. Are you SIB immuned?

We all know the value of articles posted in these blogs, and how they are often practical and valuable tips. However, when you are immuned to SIB, nothing written actually prove valuable to you. Listed below are 4 signs to look for to avoid being one.

1) Clueless Information Addict
I admit, I am addicted to information. It is very satisfying learning new things, collecting this and that over the internet. Clueless information addict will do exactly that, but they don’t know what to do with the information. We read 20 over SIB but in the end, we remain the same, without applying what we read? I know I’m one.

Recommendation:

• Regularly cut down your RSS feed. Only subscribe to those you really benefit from.
• Learn the art of text scanning.
• Set up a plan immediately to make use of the information you have.

2) Day dreamer
“That person is living his dream, this person is the very definition of success. If only I can be like him”. These are some of the most common things a day dreamer will think about. They will read successful story from successful people and dream about becoming one. There’s nothing wrong with that except day dreamer usually forget to work on their dream.

Recommendation:

• Change that day dream to goals and give deadline.
• Work out practical means to achieve that goal. Baby step is the best way.
• Keep track and review any mistakes along the way.

3) Brain Tired
There are always new things to learn in self improvement. However there are a group of people who just refuse to take note on things highlighted. It can be very annoying sometimes when thousands of bloggers had written on ways to improve productivity and then this person just refuse to work on the suggestion and still asking for other EASIER methods without even trying them.

Recommendation:

• There are no other ways. The only way we can be more knowledgable at things is to learn them.
• There’s a reason why most bloggers have search function embedded in their blogs.
• Start somewhere, and work from there.

4) God Syndrome
Some people do believe that there’s nothing more you can teach him, that if there’s anything.. you should come to him for answer. Yes, there are experts out there. But that doesn’t mean anyone else’s point of view is rubbish. It is a wonder why they even read blog in the first place.

Recommendation:

• There’s nothing wrong with being humble. Your authority will not deteriorate, in fact more people will respect you.
• The same with other thing, you can only get better if you faced a better person.

Conclusion – The reason we visit self improvement blogs is to read them and try to get something from them. Most importantly is to learn practical tips to better our life. So what’s practical about this entry? To put it simply, when we can avoid all the 4 signs, we will be more goal oriented, be better networker, and hopefully be one step ahead to a better life.

– I wonder –
Anything else you might want to add?

In an interview, if you were asked “What’s your experience?”. How would you answer? “I have 10 years of variety of experience”? or “I have 10 years of repeated experience”?

10 years of repeated experience is most probably the answer for majority of us. We worked for 10 years but all the while we are doing the same thing. This can be equally aplied not only to working but also to hobbies or interest.

It’s true that repeating the same work may give us that “skilled” factor. We will become specialist in what we do. We will then be so good in what we do, that it is no longer a challenge to the mind.

Our mind is like a child, always asking question and always wants a challenge. I even heard that one of the suspected reason Alzheimer cases in old people is when we are not challenging our mind consistently.

What I’m trying to say here is just to introduce something new to our life. It can be weekly or monthly but please try something new. For example,

1) Try cooking
There’s a saying that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomache. And guess what? the same goes to woman 🙂 Who hates good food?

2) Look for new things to do when travelling
Most people just travel to see the beautiful scenery. Why not you make it compulsary for you to do one unique thing when you travel. For example, you travel to Place A, maybe you do rock climbing there, then you travel to Place B, you learn how to fish squid (Mencandat)

3) Learn to play an instrument (3 songs)
I actually did this. I learn to play exactly 3 songs on guitar. When you are in presence of strangers, and you were asked to play the guitar, you can immediately play that 3 songs and people will see you now as the man who play guitar 🙂 But you will have to stop when the 3 songs are over

4) Check what’s the new buzz
Everyday there are new things being introduced. In the internet, there are thousands new things everyday. Check what everyone is highlighting. For example, twitter. I read all over the net about how twitter is the next blog, so I tried it out. I may not be as active in it but at least now I know what it’s all about. For those who’s on twitter, please follow me here.

Let’s get to know each other. I will only be able to tweet after work, so please excuse me sometimes when I’m not there 🙂

5) Make strange new friend.
Everyone can make friends. Why don’t you challenge youself to make friends with people who have nothing in common with you. Try to befriend lawyers, or engineers, or beggars, Just imagine the experience they can share with you.

6) Try other jobs
Why not one day you just go for an interview at the local mall for a promoter job. When you are accepted to work, just take a day off from your current job and go to work at the place. You’ll be working there for one whole day. And since you are not going to be paid (since you just work for one day), it is important that you take all the experience you can get from that one day job. Mingle around. Believe me, you will have a more profound respect for the people working as a promoter later on.

7) Do social experiment
I watched “Patch Adam” once played by Robin William. In that movie, Adam is doing an experiment to check how to connect to people on a deeper level. He hang himself upside down from a tree and surprised a pedestrian saying “Hello”. He consider the experiment a success if the pedestrian look back and smile. Of course it’s a success.

My point exactly, try to come up with experiment of your own. Learn more about life. It is actually fun. 🙂 An example of experiment you can do is maybe to ask for help from strangers. See how many will help a stranger.

/end list
I can go on and on about the list of things. But I try to keep the post as short and simple as possible. So there they are. Care to try?

– I wonder –
Do you have any other methods to make your day different?

———- Personal Note ———–
I know some people dislike him, but I really love watching movie played by Robin William. There are almost all thought provoking and creatively done. My favorite would be the Bicentennial Man, where a unique robot try to find a way to be more human 🙂

I have an assignment for you. It is really up to you whether you want to try it or not. But I really hope that you do. You can even do it in your free time. And you don’t need to write a feedback for me in the comment section. Even though I really appreciate those who do 🙂

The assignment is for you to use your imagination. Imagine you are now standing a few metres away from where you are now. And you are looking at yourself reading this article. It can actually be anything you are doing, not specifically reading the article.

For example, maybe you are jogging. Imagine you are looking at a person jogging and that person is you. Look at every step he (you) took, the facial expression, the bad hair, everything..

What will be the first thing in your mind?

This is one of the skill in life that very few of us possess. And believe me that this skill alone can solve almost any problem you have. In some cases, it may even save marriages

However, please forgive me but I will only explain in details about the skill tomorrow. I now open the floor for everyone to figure out, how imagining seeing yourself from a third point of view will possibly help save marriages.

There is no right or wrong answer. Your interpretation of the assignment may open up more ideas from others. So comment away…

I’m looking forward to hear your ideas

• To be the perfect husband
• Achieving 100% in all test
• Finishing up all works assigned

I’m sure we had all heard some version of those words.. The fact is we had been bombarded with ideas that the perfect way is the only best way. Being a semi-perfectionist (I know there’s no such thing), I am totally agree with this.

But

Life is all about compromise. We get one thing and we will lose other thing. The best way is to find a balance between the two. When you are a perfectionist, you will more than often will get what you want – Perfection. You will get 100% in all your exams, or you can finish all works assigned without fail. This may lead to promotion, better life etc.

But what can you possibly lose? What will you have to sacrifice?

I’m afraid one obvious answer is that you will suffer more stress in your whole life. That’s sort of the price you will have to pay to consistently be the best in what you do.

Wouldn’t it be better to achieve 90% without any stress at all? Or finish 90% of the works assigned with some extra time to play with your children? or a husband who can’t cook but never fail to eat at home every night.

Perfection is really all about achieving 100%. And there’s only one number to get which is 100. However if you aim to achieve over 90% (not perfect), you have a wider number to aim for. 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97,98, 99, 100. Don’t you agree it will be 10 times less stressful than aiming for 100%?

Disclaimer – Aiming for 10% is also not perfect, but what’s the point of aiming if you are aiming for lower goals. I personally think that 90% is the best way to go.

– I wonder –
Is there any perfectionist in the house?

——- Personal Note ——–
I’m not sure about you. But most of the time, when I am not aiming for 100%, I usually will do better than when I aim for perfection. My studies for example, the more stress I am, the more difficult it usually be for me to study. Do you have the same experience?