Cultivate your mind like a garden
We’ve moved to our new house for over two years now, and I still don’t know one of my next-door neighbors. He mostly stays at his girlfriend’s place and is rarely at his own house. The thing is, despite his absence, the guy also has a pretty impressive ambition for gardening. He would spend an entire week redoing his front yard. He’s got a thing for sunflowers, and his finished work reminds me of Plants vs. Zombies. Anyway, though I’m not a huge fan of the look, I have to admit that the scale of the finished product is impressive.
Yet, after a week of hard work, he would be gone for another month or so. During those periods, his yard was wholly abandoned, and would be taken over by weeds and dandelions. The sunflowers that once looked like soldiers during North Korean military parades now look like prisoners of North Korean labor camps. The whole thing went from Plants vs. Zombies to I Am Legend real quick.
(If you haven’t noticed, I can make obscure analogies all day.)
Going from Plants vs Zombies to I AM Legend
This transformation reminds me of my own mind - a creator’s mind.
On the one hand, to have creative outputs - writing pieces and building products I am proud of, I need to consistently maintain and cultivate my mind. I must read the right books and listen to the right type of podcasts. Whether they are biographies, business books, interviews with people I admire, or maybe most importantly, the book for my faith. That’s how I get my ideas and keep myself inspired. That’s how I am connected to my mission. That’s where I can draw the energy to create my own work.
Case in point, writing Rejection Proof was based on 18 years of reading and learning positive content, a habit I’ve developed since I started learning English.
On the other hand, the world is fighting me every second by throwing endless and entertaining garbage at me, things like TV shows, sports podcasts, and social media posts. To sell ads, the world’s economic engine requires me to become a constant consumer of content, not a creator of it. It demands my attention. It invades my mind space. If I don’t intentionally build and maintain my garden of the mind, the world is like shooting weeds and dandelions at it with a firehose.
Occupying our minds is a subtle but essential war between the business world and our creator self. It determines whether we reach our creative potential or settle for mediocrity. It results in us being either productive creators or mindless consumers. The battles are happening every day. They never end.
That’s why being an Insatiable Learner is a must for a productive creator. Reading and listening to the right content will inject the mind with the positives and repel the negatives. This is the only way to win this war in the long run.
That’s also why becoming a more consistent and Insatiable Learner is one of my evergreen goals. I will journal the time I spend every day reading and listening to positive and inspiring books and podcasts. If you want to do it too, join the Sisiphy camps.
Now share with me: what books, podcasts, and other content inspire and propel you forward?