As one of my goals this year, I agreed with my mentor that I will not read or listen to anything new this month but share what I learned so far from all the books I previously read.
She reminded me about the difference between a stagnant receiving lake and a giving waterfall, and that I need to be more of the latter this year.
Few days into this “fasting” I noticed I’m taking some time to dive deeper into my daily spiritual lessons. For example I’m re-reading a book called the daily stoic for the 2nd year which is about the Greek stoic way of living. I love their ideas so much and they make so much sense to me. I noticed, however, that I skipped the very important introduction about the history of this philosophy last year. This time I was more intentional (since I’m not to read anything else) and took the time.
I was also too busy the last couple of days of 2017 that I missed reading the lesson of 31st Dec. I read it today. Guess what was it about? Putting away books and “turning words into works”! Imagine my big aha moment!
Thankful for this sign I’m on the right path. Maybe this month would have an extension. I can’t wait to find out.
You know, for over a decade now I have this sort of label I use on the books/papers/chapters I read. I write RR; re-read. I go to those labels constantly and I reflect back on when/why did I do so and I keep learning, sometimes discovering!, new things about myself. They r not often major breakthroughs regarding my thinking, my prejudices, my interests, etc. But definitely shed a light or two on (stuff). It aids in progressing.
Thanks for the post, and kudos to your Mom 🙂
I read (my mentor) = (my mom)!!! Sorry
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I loved the idea Bardees! Your mentor reminded me of the power of personal reflection. In my master’s degree, we were asked to write a personal reflection of around one page after each course, and that counted for 10% of the final mark. We were asked to discuss how we can use the knowledge that we got in our future career. Also, PhD students should write a separate chapter in their dissertations as ‘personal reflection’. They need to discuss what went right and what went wrong in their research, and what parts need to be improved if they are going to repeat their research. If this practice is widely used and accounted for within academia, then definitely, it will bring a great value to a personal level.