Living in the Age of Information Overload.

* G’day Kids. Sorry I’ve been a bit absent lately.
Busy boy. Tired boy.
And you wouldn’t want me writing on three cylinders would you?
This post is not meant to be a practical, ‘how-to’ article; it’s merely food for thought.

So here; take a bite.

Had an appointment with a guy last week who told me that he had spent eight hours the day before trawling the web for information, motivation and inspiration; apparently something he does regularly.
Rates himself as something of a Personal Development connoisseur (that’s French for know-all). He gave me a run down of what’s out there (in cyberspace); what’s good, what’s not.
He proudly told me that he had recently read nearly one hundred articles (posts) in a single day.
I asked him.. “what did you learn?”
“Waddya mean?”
(Seemed like a straight forward question to me).
“What did you learn from all those articles?”

He looked at me blankly.
“Er… lots.”

“What?”
More blank.

“What did you learn specifically (from all that reading) and more importantly, what did you do (as of a result of all that ‘learning’)?”

He looked agitated.
(How dare I not praise him or pat him on the back for all his diligent reading).

“What was the purpose of all that reading?”
“To learn.”
“Yep… for what end purpose?”

“Waddya mean?”
(Aaaah!)
“Well, do you want knowledge for the sake of knowledge… or do you hope it will lead to something else?”

“Oh yeh.. there’s a whole bunch of stuff I wanna do.”
(Now we’re getting somewhere).
“What?”
“Plenty.”
(No, apparently we’re not).

When I suggested that he spend less time at his computer, less time reading and less time ‘learning’, he wasn’t happy.
Thought it was ironic that I would tell him that.

“Well, if all that time staring at your computer screen was translating into positive, life-long, practical, real change, then I’d suggest you keep it up… but it isn’t.”
“Is it…?”
(Blank face, silence for about thirty seconds).

“Guess not.”

When I suggested that consuming vast quantities of information doesn’t (necessarily) equate to learning, he was (apparently) confused.

Reading all day may simply mean that you’re…. reading all day.
And perhaps wasting an opportunity to do some real learning.
If your goal is to trawl Personal Development sites for hours on end, then you’re on track.
If it’s to create amazing… then you need a new approach.
I’ve met plenty of people who read lots but don’t learn anything.
They don’t learn because they refuse to act on what they read.
They consistently do nothing.
(For a range of reasons).

It’s when we take information and apply it (live it) that we begin to learn.

I bet Paris Hilton heard plenty of times about the potential consequences of driving without a license.
She had been informed… but she hadn’t learned.
Now… she’s learning.
Learning by doing.
(I so want to write an irreverent post about my thoughts on the Paris, Nicole, Britney, Lindsay, etc. thing. Wouldn’t they all love to spend a week with uncle Craig… not. I would have some fun though).

We know we are learning when we experience an internal (emotional, psychological) shift and we start to produce different results.

I learned (as a thirteen year-old) not to stand up to a sixteen year-old who could actually fight.
While everyone around me told me I would get a flogging, it took my first ever punch in the mouth to learn.
I was so grateful to that sixteen year-old for teaching me such a valuable life-lesson at an early age. Thankyou to the big, scary boy in the KISS T-Shirt at the skating rink…. you know who you are.

As a society we’ve never had more information, education, research, stats, facts, figures, books, courses, programs….stuff!
We have got some serious stuff at our finger tips… and then some.
We’ve never had more easy access to mountains of information.

I can jot down my thoughts here in Melbourne, Australia… and an hour from now someone on the other side of the world (you perhaps) could be taking my thoughts (suggestions, strategies, ideas), applying them, discussing them (disagreeing perhaps) and creating some kind of positive change in an area of their life.

Or not.
They could simply be reading ‘another’ article.

Number seventeen thousand, four hundred and twenty six.

Maybe it’s my impression only (love your thoughts) but it seems to me that the more information, education and options we have, the more dysfunctional we become as a society.

Case 1. Never been more informed about diet, lifestyle, exercise or general health; Reality: never been fatter (as a population).

Case 2. Never been more informed about relationships, communication, making a marriage work; Reality: never had a higher rate of divorce.

Case 3. Never had more information on how to manage our money; Reality: never had so much personal debt.

Case 4. Never had access to more Personal Development material; Reality: never had so many people who are directionless, confused, sad, lost and frustrated (this is my perception only).

While information is part of any solution… it’s not the (total) solution.

Personal growth (what we all want) ain’t about (more) information; it’s about (more) application.

When do we get to the point when we say “okay, I’ve heard enough, read enough, watched enough. I don’t need more info… I need to get off my ass?”

Any time soon?

I am sick of ‘experts’ getting on the TV and saying it’s (whatever it is) an education problem.
It’s not.
It’s a… we’re too fat, lazy, fearful, pathetic, indecisive, reactive, deluded and full of excuses… problem.