How to Have Curve-Jumping Personal Growth
At some point, I realized that I was responsible for everything in my life. After I decided that wasn’t a burden, but an opportunity, I began to explore what possibilities for life lay ahead of me.
My most effective practices have involved seeking out experts in anything directly or tangentially related to areas of life/work/whathaveyou that I’m looking to improve.
If I’m looking to communicate more effectively with others, I might explore areas such as writing and language, but I’ll also explore copywriting, advertising, body language, etc. Easy, right?
But what about NLP? Psychology? Hypnosis? Social dynamics? Persuasion? Maybe those are a bit of a jump…but what if you took it further?
What if you went to things like biology and neuroscience and MBTI and pickup artists and art and hierarchical group dynamics of chimpanzees?
Studying something like neuroscience in order to learn how to communicate well? It doesn’t make much sense, does it? The connection isn’t direct, is it?
At least, you wouldn’t think so if you had never learned that the brain has varying levels of “plasticity” and “hardness” in relation to neural connections and, as people age and/or reinforce their beliefs, their brains - physically - become firm. It gives a whole new meaning to “set in your ways.”
In other words, if I’m trying to communicate effectively in order to influence someone, and I don’t realize that their brain is physically and chemically designed to hold onto beliefs, then I might really struggle when I’m trying to figure out why “making my copywriting better” isn’t working.
But…if I learn that your brain has physical properties and capacities that are flexible, maybe this thing I learned from this other place would help to activate that plasticity, and maybe you might become more receptive to the vague notion I’m getting at.
…
But, this post isn’t about your brain.
Or maybe it is.
All I know is that I’ve consistently found the greatest opportunities for growth in studying all the way out through the fringe.
And if you’re looking to really grasp a new concept or bring new ways of being into your life, you might consider what it would be like to go to the bookstore, find a book that makes you feel really, incredibly, nerve-wrackingly, makesyourheartpound uncomfortable, pick one up off the shelf, flip through it for 15 minutes in the aisle so that everyone else can see exactly what you’re reading, look everyone in the eyes as you walk to the checkout counter, go to the checkout, look directly into the eyes of the cashier while checking out, bring it home and read it cover to cover.
