It has been about three months since I started this blog, and I have had the opportunity in this time to read around 30 books on various psychological and “self-help” titles, and written close to 700 pages of notes summarizing my thoughts.
Having some to a sort of break point in my studies, I thought I would share a few thoughts that have come out of these hours and hours of work – really pleasure – and what I have learned from a more macro scale.
One thing that I have noticed is that while many of the books are on totally opposite ends of the spectrum, they tend to end up referencing similar concepts, but give them different terms. This makes sense when you consider that to some extent, human nature, is somewhat limited in its nature, and they are all discussing the same thing – just from different angles.
The other thing that I think it shows is that with about 20 books under you (I was also reading up on topics regarding marriage, hence the other 10), you can have a pretty decent overview on the various topics that you need to think about from a life perspective. Of course, as I continue reading, I might change my mind, but for now, that makes sense.
I have also found that much of what I learned along the way, was something that I sensed intuitively in my past to be true, but in reading about it, it brought the ideas to the forefront, and allowed me to connect certain dots, build new interconnected ideas, and allow me to propel me to the next level of growth. It is my belief, that most of us know intuitively what needs to be done, but we don’t act out of fear.
Finally, I found that without application, all the reading that I would do would get me nowhere, and that the most valuable part of the process was the work I did between books, using the books as fuel for questions, challenges to my assumptions, and ultimately, applying some of what I learned to my daily activities.
Speaking of which, one of the books on boundaries that I read, explained why some people always seem to complain that they are doing things but getting nowhere (I’m sure you know the type). She said that these people have bad boundaries between their actions and their feelings, so that they think about doing something and they think they have done it when in fact, they didn’t do anything at all! An interesting point, eh?