There is wisdom in knowing what to not know, what to not do...

(Click on the title of this post to read the entire post.  You may want to read this piece in "chunks" over several days, to gain full value from each piece.)

We often get so caught up in doing more of the "means" to our goals that we begin to treat the means as the goal.

There are obvious ones that we've all heard about.  Money, excess work.  Money gives us the ability to buy what we want and to have more freedom.  If we go for "too much" money, we are sacrificing what is of more value - and what that leads to is unhappiness and imbalance, spending time such that we have pushed aside the time we would otherwise spend to get what is now more valuable.

(Read Confusing The "Means To" With The True Goal - A Mistake That Can Cost You Much Of Your Life.  Those who  are interested in "knowing everything" in an area will often violate the principles laid out below and they'll get caught up in at least a partial, but too far along, version of seeking perfection - read Perfection - The Sure-Fire Path To Hell.  I didn't pursue perfection but I did mindlessly pursue "achievement" - and that was a big mistake:  Read My Personal Life Of Overachievement - Driven By An Illusion - a fairly common story... and My Transition To Where I Am Now - And What Can Be Learned From It - and the stages one goes through as they climb the ladder of awareness. )


"JUST READ A LOT OF BOOKS"...

Lately, it seems that I am more cognizant of those who are growth oriented being urged to "read lots of books" or to "learn a lot".  Yes, that is good advice, to some extent, and you will live a better life than you would otherwise.

But it never makes sense to do things in a scattered, undirected, unsystematic way, for what we are looking for from everything we do is a good result, the best value for the time spent.  Never just do "action".  Only do "directed action", which is that which is directed toward getting the most valuable result from the action.

Your learning, which is an action of sorts, should be based both on"sufficient" learning AND directed learning.  Read Directed Effective Learning To Create The Life You Love.

So,.. we want to, then, read that which is most impactful to our lives AND we want to create the most impact we can from the chosen books/pieces -  never stopping short of wringing the value out of it until we get to the point of "sufficiency".

If we read a non-fiction book and then put it away as having been read just because we got to the end of the book, we are leaving at least most of the treasure unharvested.  If, instead, we have The Value  (Results) Mindset, and the corresponding perspective, then we will choose to harvest the most value we can get out of the book.  To do that we use the techniques that have us doing Effective Learning - and we implement everything of value.   Then, and only then, will we have truly "finished the book"!!!!!

[Note that this same type of thinking would massively create more and faster value from meditation. Instead of taking 30 years in a cave, one can exceed that attained level of monk in a relatively short time!  See some discussion related to gaining the most value from meditation:  Meditation's Highest Use.]


DON'T TRY TO LEARN TOO MUCH

The eager learner, from this, might be inclined to say "oh, boy, I will try to learn everything and be superwise!".

But that would not be wise.

It is wise to discern what one need not know (where one should stop).  Sometimes we "go too far" in learning something, ending up with a pile of "learning" but not a pile of value.  We have to look and ask "will I benefit enough from learning more such that it is worth my while?  Or can I get more value elsewhere?"

Here we are simply applying the Master Principle For Living Life: always doing the next thing that has the highest value for our time and effort.

Simple!

But we've got to remember to keep applying it, every day, every hour, in a relaxed, paced, calm "I'm fully in charge" manner.  (And don't worry, as leisure and enjoyable activities will pop in and out as the best thing to do at the time, to refresh oneself, rest the mind, relax, etc.  Note that with this value mindset, you will choose those enjoyable activities much more skillfully.)  This is, of course, the old saw that you are already aware of:  The Marginal Returns Principle:  Operate Based On The Most Extra Value Gained For The Time Spent.

So...

If you find yourself being "curious" or finding subjects "of interest", do not just go satisfy them in the moment.  Instead, do the "think first" strategy (Duh!), asking "Is this going to give me the highest marginal (extra) value for my time?"  (One method that tends to create the "think twice, do once" is the master habit and practice of recording every new idea in one's task inbox and only drawing what to do from that inbox after looking at what else to do. See, and follow (!), Simplified, But Effective Task Management - You Can't Afford Not To Have A Good System!  In life, it pays to use The Carpenter's Rule: "Measure twice, cut once."!  If you do this, you won't look back later in life and wonder how you have not truly lived your life!)

A wildly enthusiastic achiever type person is always in danger of just being driven by that achievement drive, as he runs down the road as fast as he can.  But the wise achiever asks "what do I want to achieve, in a balanced, paced way that does not interfere with other value?  What do I truly need to know or do that will lead to the most value?"  (A version of "well, which road should I most profitably run down?")  Also, the achiever should always look for "the 60% of activities to eliminate from one's life - just go ahead and write down "what are the 60% of things that I can eliminate that really aren't worth doing?"  Then go about paring them from your life!

At some point in every endeavor, the marginal extra benefit declines significantly (link to The Law Of Diminishing Marginal Returns from The Marginal Returns Principle page).  Noting that, you will also eliminate a number of activities that are no longer high yielding.


WHAT TO DO WITH THIS 

The "master" of value thinking will often step back to look from "on high", from a higher perspective, at his/her life, in order to discern better what is of value and what tradeoffs (things given up of lesser value) to make. (To become a Master Of Life, you must first become a Master Of Perspective.)

If you are going to read and learn, then you would do a brainstorming session where you ask questions like:

"What are the biggest problems in my life that I should fix?"  (And he'll be sure not to skip over the invisible "background" problems, such as frequently experiencing anxiety or stress.  If he, or a separate aligned resource, "sees" that there is a problem, he then inquires into all the causes and then changes the causes.  In terms of anxiety, it is always false beliefs, so he would, perhaps with help, identify and correct all the false beliefs.  Nothing less makes sense in life, though people often slack on this, leaving themselves, unsmartly, with recurring problems and damaging/negative emotions!)

"What are the biggest opportunities out there?" (for me to gain personal value from, not from the perspective of the world, but from the perspective of what is best for me)

"What will have the most value to me personally?"

"What other resources can I access that will help me be more powerful in my actions?" 

The answers will come, especially if you do brainstorming freely, meaning you write down even the wild or stupid or nonsensical ideas.  You simply list them, then you go back and put them in order and then you think out and plan the top items, simply going thereafter down the list from the highest payoff item to the next highest payoff item.  (Admittedly that is a big "Duh! Of Course!  That's obvious!", but people will often say that and then not follow up to do that which is obvious!")

If you've got no list and no plan, then you are living a much lower level of life than you are capable of creating.  It is vital that you live the view of the person who Lives The 80/20 Life, religiously, for it is the best road to creating the greatest life! 

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If you find this to be useful, then please consider that it might benefit other "progressive thinking" people.  If you wish to share this, click on the envelope right below this post and then say something like "Since you are progress oriented, you might benefit from this."