It is worth your time to read.
Not just self-help books, but books in general - especially fiction. I am in a unique category of reader, since I review, and I have done more than 700 books in my time here. I do find the time to just read for fun, and I can say it helps me become a better writer, reviewer, and editor of words.
You spot things you like in books, such as turns of phrase or techniques of keeping the reader on edge and full of anticipation. You spot things you don't like as a reader, such as a writer 'giving it all away' too early and ruining the suspense. You find yourself saying "I wish this was done better" and that feeling you may have enjoyed the book for "if only..."
You need to note those feelings and the reasons why, and keep a journal if that helps. You think you can keep a million reasons why in your head, but those often fade and I find it helpful to have a list of things, likes and dislikes, here and there I can browse back over to reflect on and refresh my memories from.
Distraction is what you fight, and writing your feelings down keep you from forgetting them when the phone rings or life comes along and gives you something that will take days to clean up, or weeks, or years depending on the things life throws at you.
You also need to keep your books close, and you also need to keep changing things up - move that shelf, take three random books out and put them on a table, and keep shuffling your life around so you create moments of opportunity for reading and learning. As humans, we tend to set things in their place and forget about them, that box of books in the closet, that neat arrangement of books on a shelf, and the place everything is supposed to be.
Well, I'm telling you a little chaos and disorder helps the mind create. What good are books on shelves if they are just decorations? What good is an e-reader if it is never used? What good is a tablet if you just let it sit on a shelf all the time?
You need to do more of that doing more.
You need to read more of those things which you have.
You need to shuffle things up, rearrange the shelves, dust, clean, reorder, redecorate, move the furniture around, and make your tired old work-space fresh again. You need to freshen up that dust-filled mind of yours. You need to get out and experience things, even if it is only through the pages of a book. You need to take the things you love and make them real again, unique to you, and start breaking through the fog and haze so you can open yourself up to the world waiting for you.
Reading is a start, and it is a good one.
For me, sometimes I dismiss reading when I am in a lazy mood. It is like exercise in a way, once out of it for a while it becomes harder to get back into it.
But when you are back into it, it is hard to stop. Reading becomes something you crave. It is exercise for the mind, and once you hit your stride it becomes something which makes you...you. it sharpens the mind, it excites the passions and kindles the soul. If you can both read and exercise, you get the best of both worlds, and nothing can stop you.
The energy you can harness for projects and creativity becomes endless, and you find the minutes you spend in reading and working out make every minute you spend creating that much more productive.
One feeds off the other in this sense.
Keeping your body fit helps keep your mind fit.
Keeping your mind fit helps keep your body fit.
And then, your fire is lit. Your mind is sharp, and your energy boundless. You can write that much more during a session Your words come more easily. Your creativity flows much more naturally. Tasks which seemed like mountains become gentle inclines, easily conquered.
And once you are up them you are ready for the next.
It is so easy to 'check out' nowadays. To sift through the garbage on social media and just end up angry and depressed. To watch the talking heads of the news tell you why you should be angry all the time. To waste time getting upset about really trivial, stupid crap that is just a distraction. In the end, who cares?
Think of it this way, the entire world tells you what you should feel and how you should live your life. I saw this 'news story' on social media the other day which was just pure fantasy fulfillment, trading on the hate of a well-known public figure, and it was really just the next in line of click-bait, trolling for attention diatribes meant to earn a website operator clicks and cash. Feel either way about this person and it doesn't matter, the predictable pro and con posts were out in force, the article was being linked through every time, and I could just hear the cha-ching of the royalties for every click being cashed in on by the group that posted the article.
Don't be used like this.
You could fall into that trap, click on the article, post something in support or against, get into a fight with someone, and then likely feel totally depressed when 'things don't go your way.' You are then being setup for the next, even more fantasy-revenge and hate-trading article for next week, and the cha-ching of the website operator's money machine will keep ringing in with every click, and with every angry post it only gets better from there.
I see news stories these days with hot-button words. Little weasel words they drop in there to piss you off straight out of disinformation and propaganda 101. Militarized information. Colonialism. Segregationist ideas. Regressive social policy. Even if I agree with the information being presented in the news being treated like an idiot pisses me off. Stop it with the loaded words lit like firebombs. Stop it with the Jerry Springer garbage. I want to make up my own mind with sources of impartial information. The entire newspaper feels like an opinion page designed to drive web-traffic to click-bait sites. Hateful words draw hateful clicks and spread a bitter harvest of hateful discourse.
Worthless information leads to worthless thoughts and opinions. But they do not care. They care only about money, clicks, and eyes. Anger is the easiest route, and the more incendiary buzz-words I see in an article the less I trust it.
Professional wrestling is sports entertainment, but not a true competitive sport. Similarly, news entertainment is not factual news. Yet the news these days seems more and more like professional wrestling, predetermined with its outcomes and carefully engineered in the feelings it delivers. Both sides are guilty. And your feelings are being used. Real news? Boring stuff, impartial and just the facts. And I feel they lie to you saying what we see today is news when it is not, as it is entertainment designed and marketed for one viewpoint or the other.
And if they were ever challenged on this fact? Predictably, they would say, "we are real news," and go on with their news entertainment operations like their income and profit margins depended on it.
Both sides. Equally guilty.
News is not opinion. That's how I tell. Tell me 5,000 government workers got laid off, and don't immediately dive 100% into the tear-jerking stories of unemployment and despair. Is the latter news? Yes, but if all you tell me is the tear-jerking parts I am going to question your impartiality. There may be some that think the government was too big in the first place and this reduction is a part of a good thing. That viewpoint in my eyes may be something I disagree with (and I may find it reprehensible), but I will respect you more if you can present it to me fairly and let me make up my own mind. If you do not present that side fairly and with equal weight you are not reporting news. It is amazing that in this day and age I have to describe to people what objectivity is, and how to remove their feelings from presenting facts and information, but that is where we are.
If you can't remove your feelings from the facts I cannot trust you.
And don't be used by news entertainment like this.
There's nothing in it for you.
And they don't care about solutions, only outrage - because that is where the money is.
I went off track there, but the above is what I find robs me of reading time. I could be reading the things in which I choose and which bring me enjoyment, or I can fall into the trap of click-bait website operators and their social-media feeding pig-troughs. If I lose myself in social-media crap I will get upset, angry, and at that point I will say 'screw reading' for today. I will lose out on that chance to enrich myself, and to work out my mind as much as I like to work my body.
You are what goes into your mind and body.
And realize that your time is precious.
Your time is precious.
And they rob it from you for micro-payments with every click and every drop of hate people spread.
Limiting consumption of garbage, junk food or junk media, helps you live a healthier lifestyle. It is a tough thing to do, because we all like to 'be informed' and we all think we 'have control.' I find it is too easy to get sucked in, and maybe this is just me, but I have to will myself and forbid myself from even opening the link.
Don't take the bait.
I am finding the more I am conscious of what I read and what I see, and the more selective I am, the better my life is. Less is more, especially if I get to choose what 'less' I see.
Not just self-help books, but books in general - especially fiction. I am in a unique category of reader, since I review, and I have done more than 700 books in my time here. I do find the time to just read for fun, and I can say it helps me become a better writer, reviewer, and editor of words.
You spot things you like in books, such as turns of phrase or techniques of keeping the reader on edge and full of anticipation. You spot things you don't like as a reader, such as a writer 'giving it all away' too early and ruining the suspense. You find yourself saying "I wish this was done better" and that feeling you may have enjoyed the book for "if only..."
You need to note those feelings and the reasons why, and keep a journal if that helps. You think you can keep a million reasons why in your head, but those often fade and I find it helpful to have a list of things, likes and dislikes, here and there I can browse back over to reflect on and refresh my memories from.
Distraction is what you fight, and writing your feelings down keep you from forgetting them when the phone rings or life comes along and gives you something that will take days to clean up, or weeks, or years depending on the things life throws at you.
You also need to keep your books close, and you also need to keep changing things up - move that shelf, take three random books out and put them on a table, and keep shuffling your life around so you create moments of opportunity for reading and learning. As humans, we tend to set things in their place and forget about them, that box of books in the closet, that neat arrangement of books on a shelf, and the place everything is supposed to be.
Well, I'm telling you a little chaos and disorder helps the mind create. What good are books on shelves if they are just decorations? What good is an e-reader if it is never used? What good is a tablet if you just let it sit on a shelf all the time?
You need to do more of that doing more.
You need to read more of those things which you have.
You need to shuffle things up, rearrange the shelves, dust, clean, reorder, redecorate, move the furniture around, and make your tired old work-space fresh again. You need to freshen up that dust-filled mind of yours. You need to get out and experience things, even if it is only through the pages of a book. You need to take the things you love and make them real again, unique to you, and start breaking through the fog and haze so you can open yourself up to the world waiting for you.
Reading is a start, and it is a good one.
For me, sometimes I dismiss reading when I am in a lazy mood. It is like exercise in a way, once out of it for a while it becomes harder to get back into it.
But when you are back into it, it is hard to stop. Reading becomes something you crave. It is exercise for the mind, and once you hit your stride it becomes something which makes you...you. it sharpens the mind, it excites the passions and kindles the soul. If you can both read and exercise, you get the best of both worlds, and nothing can stop you.
The energy you can harness for projects and creativity becomes endless, and you find the minutes you spend in reading and working out make every minute you spend creating that much more productive.
One feeds off the other in this sense.
Keeping your body fit helps keep your mind fit.
Keeping your mind fit helps keep your body fit.
And then, your fire is lit. Your mind is sharp, and your energy boundless. You can write that much more during a session Your words come more easily. Your creativity flows much more naturally. Tasks which seemed like mountains become gentle inclines, easily conquered.
And once you are up them you are ready for the next.
It is so easy to 'check out' nowadays. To sift through the garbage on social media and just end up angry and depressed. To watch the talking heads of the news tell you why you should be angry all the time. To waste time getting upset about really trivial, stupid crap that is just a distraction. In the end, who cares?
Think of it this way, the entire world tells you what you should feel and how you should live your life. I saw this 'news story' on social media the other day which was just pure fantasy fulfillment, trading on the hate of a well-known public figure, and it was really just the next in line of click-bait, trolling for attention diatribes meant to earn a website operator clicks and cash. Feel either way about this person and it doesn't matter, the predictable pro and con posts were out in force, the article was being linked through every time, and I could just hear the cha-ching of the royalties for every click being cashed in on by the group that posted the article.
Don't be used like this.
You could fall into that trap, click on the article, post something in support or against, get into a fight with someone, and then likely feel totally depressed when 'things don't go your way.' You are then being setup for the next, even more fantasy-revenge and hate-trading article for next week, and the cha-ching of the website operator's money machine will keep ringing in with every click, and with every angry post it only gets better from there.
I see news stories these days with hot-button words. Little weasel words they drop in there to piss you off straight out of disinformation and propaganda 101. Militarized information. Colonialism. Segregationist ideas. Regressive social policy. Even if I agree with the information being presented in the news being treated like an idiot pisses me off. Stop it with the loaded words lit like firebombs. Stop it with the Jerry Springer garbage. I want to make up my own mind with sources of impartial information. The entire newspaper feels like an opinion page designed to drive web-traffic to click-bait sites. Hateful words draw hateful clicks and spread a bitter harvest of hateful discourse.
Worthless information leads to worthless thoughts and opinions. But they do not care. They care only about money, clicks, and eyes. Anger is the easiest route, and the more incendiary buzz-words I see in an article the less I trust it.
Professional wrestling is sports entertainment, but not a true competitive sport. Similarly, news entertainment is not factual news. Yet the news these days seems more and more like professional wrestling, predetermined with its outcomes and carefully engineered in the feelings it delivers. Both sides are guilty. And your feelings are being used. Real news? Boring stuff, impartial and just the facts. And I feel they lie to you saying what we see today is news when it is not, as it is entertainment designed and marketed for one viewpoint or the other.
And if they were ever challenged on this fact? Predictably, they would say, "we are real news," and go on with their news entertainment operations like their income and profit margins depended on it.
Both sides. Equally guilty.
News is not opinion. That's how I tell. Tell me 5,000 government workers got laid off, and don't immediately dive 100% into the tear-jerking stories of unemployment and despair. Is the latter news? Yes, but if all you tell me is the tear-jerking parts I am going to question your impartiality. There may be some that think the government was too big in the first place and this reduction is a part of a good thing. That viewpoint in my eyes may be something I disagree with (and I may find it reprehensible), but I will respect you more if you can present it to me fairly and let me make up my own mind. If you do not present that side fairly and with equal weight you are not reporting news. It is amazing that in this day and age I have to describe to people what objectivity is, and how to remove their feelings from presenting facts and information, but that is where we are.
If you can't remove your feelings from the facts I cannot trust you.
And don't be used by news entertainment like this.
There's nothing in it for you.
And they don't care about solutions, only outrage - because that is where the money is.
I went off track there, but the above is what I find robs me of reading time. I could be reading the things in which I choose and which bring me enjoyment, or I can fall into the trap of click-bait website operators and their social-media feeding pig-troughs. If I lose myself in social-media crap I will get upset, angry, and at that point I will say 'screw reading' for today. I will lose out on that chance to enrich myself, and to work out my mind as much as I like to work my body.
You are what goes into your mind and body.
And realize that your time is precious.
Your time is precious.
And they rob it from you for micro-payments with every click and every drop of hate people spread.
Limiting consumption of garbage, junk food or junk media, helps you live a healthier lifestyle. It is a tough thing to do, because we all like to 'be informed' and we all think we 'have control.' I find it is too easy to get sucked in, and maybe this is just me, but I have to will myself and forbid myself from even opening the link.
Don't take the bait.
I am finding the more I am conscious of what I read and what I see, and the more selective I am, the better my life is. Less is more, especially if I get to choose what 'less' I see.