Action is important in self-improvement October 9, 2012
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Ego Management, Solving Problems.Tags: achieving goals, action and self-improvement, controlling ego, ego management, negative thinking, self-improvement, thought process
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In our efforts to manage ourselves towards self-improvement, the ego can get in the way of making progress.
The ego (our chattering inner voice) is obsessed with the thinking process and can make us think that we can correct emotional problems, negative thinking, and other limiting inner processes, through thought control alone.
However, if we envisage thinking as words, it is helpful to think of the adage, “Actions speak louder than words.”
Stated another way, taking action, without a lot of preparatory thought, can lead to better results in self-improvement than can strenuously trying to think through everything.
Some time ago, I came across a quotation that sums this up:
“You can’t think yourself into a new way of acting; you have to act yourself into a new way of thinking.”
Something to think about.
Harnessing the power of day-tight compartments October 8, 2012
Posted by Dennis Mellersh in Solving Problems.Tags: achieving goals, day-tight-compartments, ego management, personal development, self discipline, self-improvement, Seth Godin
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The ability to live in day-tight compartments, rather looking backwards to yesterday, and/or forwarding to tomorrow, can give us increased peace of mind.
Generally, we can all deal with, cope with, or manage the challenges of one day in our lives. This approach allows us to live our lives without burdening ourselves with regrets from the past, or forebodings about the future.
Acquiring the ability to live one day at a time is not easy, however, as it requires significant self-discipline, or in more psychological terms, a lot of effort in ego management.
One of the “problems” people sometimes see with the one-day concept is in mentally saying to themselves, “Yes, but what can I really accomplish in one day” towards solving my overall life challenges.
Seth Godin, who writes on marketing, recently did a short, but insightful post on his blog titled, “The simple power of one day.”
In his brief article, Godin provides a marketing example and observes, “There are at least 200 working days in a year. If you commit to doing a simple marketing item just once each day, at the end of a year, you’ve built a mountain.”
If you look at the example of having a personal blog, and using Godin’s 200-working-days example, if you did one post a day, just on weekdays, at the end of one year you will have published 200-plus articles on your blog.
The same approach can be applied to dealing with short, medium and long-term problems and goals.
Personal Development Ideas 