Why Application Will Take You Farther Than Consumption

Today's world is full of unlimited information we can access and use to learn how to improve ourselves. We find so many different mindset books, motivational podcasts, speeches, and social media posts (The list goes on.) that teach us how to become better versions of ourselves.

Society consumes so much more mindset information now than we ever would've had access to fifty years ago. This has led to more people developing shorter attention spans and patience. While living in an age full of unlimited self-improvement information has its obvious benefits, this can cause some people to become more comfortable with the idea of regularly taking in the information rather than using it. As our world advances and becomes more bountiful with opportunities and information that teaches us how to evolve ourselves, it’s important that we get into the habit of learning how to use it.

Information Overload

Our brains aren’t designed to take in copious amounts of stimuli from multiple different sources and also function properly. We are designed to take in and process only small amounts of information at a time. It does not matter how much information you consume in one sitting, you are still likely to forget it the next day.

Research suggests that in a span of twenty-four hours, our brains remember only 50 percent of the information we consume. Understanding this will make you more likely to want to implement the information you learn into your life. This applies to any information you learn that has to do with self-improvement. If you don’t actually take time out of your day to apply the information, you’re just wasting time.

So many people buy self-development books or research how to improve themselves and yet never see any change in their life. This is the equivalent of buying a car and then never driving it. Why would you buy a car if you were never planning to use it in the first place?

When you spend hours studying how to improve yourself and never do it, you are providing your brain instant gratification. An example of instant gratification would be when you receive social media likes and feel happy from the feeling of dopamine it gave you. It was fast and required little to no effort on your part to receive the likes. Too much instant gratification can lead to unfulfillment and a lack of patience because your brain has gotten used to fast and rewarding amounts of dopamine.

What’s dopamine? Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that sends messages to the cells in your brain when it’s experiencing feelings of reward or pleasure. You experience it from food, shopping, or social media notifications.

What are healthy ways to experience dopamine? You can experience dopamine that is much more rewarding long-term by activities that involve meditating, eating healthy foods, doing yoga, going on walks, reading, or exposing your body to natural sunlight. There are numerous healthy activities where you can experience this.

Dealing With Procrastination

It takes consistency and time to create new habits with all the new self-improvement information you learn. It doesn’t happen overnight just from reading a chapter in a mindset book, but it doesn’t mean you should procrastinate.

What is procrastination? Procrastination is the action of postponing from getting started on a task because of the emotional state you may be in. How can I stop procrastinating? The first step is embracing that procrastination is an active choice you made. You may not have gotten anything done when you procrastinated, but you did choose to procrastinate. The point here is to not be too hard on yourself. If you can choose to procrastinate then you can do the opposite and take action as well. I encourage you to find a simple task for yourself that will be rewarding once you complete it. This could be gardening, making your bed, calling a friend, or even writing a book. The more tasks you do without spending five minutes contemplating whether or not you should, the more trust you will build with yourself, and eventually, you’ll stop procrastinating.

The best habit you can incorporate into your life is to figure out how you can use any self-improvement information you learn right away. Ask yourself these simple questions:

• How can I use this?

• Why is this important to me?

• What results will I see if I’m consistent?

• Which areas of my life could use this?

• Am I doing this for me, or to impress someone else?

• Who else has used this information before me so I can use them as an example?

Learning requires you to be active by using what you consume. You won’t know how to play soccer just from hearing a coach shout at you. You have to be the one to kick the soccer ball into a goal. Studying self-development is the same way.

Find the areas of your life you want to apply the information to right away. This could be work, your relationships, your mindset, and any beliefs or habits you may have that you didn’t notice were hindering your productivity. You could buy every self-help book that was ever created and still not use any of the information in them. None of that information will ever be useful if you are not using it.

Take It One Step at a Time

When you want to incorporate the self-improvement information you’ve studied, it can be very exciting at first. You’re going to have the urge to do everything at once and climb Mount Everest. This is the fastest way to burn yourself out of becoming a more productive person. It’s important that you take one small step at a time and understand why you’re doing it in order to be as consistent as you can.

It takes a while for our brains to implement new information into our daily routines so you must be patient with yourself. Your brain is more likely to want to pull you back into its old habits if you overwhelm yourself with all the new goals you want to tackle. No one became a different person overnight. That’s why there’s more value in practicing to incorporate the information over longer periods of time.

Did you find any areas of your life where you can apply some of the self-development information you’ve learned? Remember, the most important concept to improving your mindset and changing your life is to not only apply the information you learned but be consistent. When you remain consistent and patient with yourself you will become unstoppable.