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Tag progress

And so it begins (again).

One of the core tenets in my life involves the belief that one can continuously improve, adapt and excel.  The concept of brain “plasticity” along with the belief that evolution is based not upon intellect or strength, but adaptability, provides motivation to keep moving forward.

One of the ways to achieve this is through writing.

I find writing invaluable because the very process of doing so provides me with the means to focus my energies in areas I feel are important.  I have found the absence of this channel stalls this thought process and I’m left with feelings of reduced intellectual and creative “progress.”  In basic terms, I’m “spinning.”

Furthermore, the very process of documenting ideas embeds them into my memory.  Not surprisingly, this becomes self-fulfilling; random thoughts serve as a foundation for ideas and concepts that embody increasing complexity and structure.  It’s these very concepts that open up doors in entirely new areas of development.

While this isn’t too terribly surprising to me, what is surprising is just how challenging it is to start writing again.

What just happened …

Mental Evolution II (“Turning Point”)

I recently came to the conclusion that what I have been dealing with for an extended period of time (years) is something called learned helplessness.  Learned helplessness is a condition where you find yourself believing that you have no control over the outcome of your actions.  It stems from a stream of negative events that demoralize and ultimately cause one to give up – albeit temporarily.  While I don’t know when this period began, I do know that this period is ending.

I have always labeled myself as a realist – which, in my mind, has been a balance between optimism and pessimism.  The challenge that I have been facing over the past several years – particularly in 2010 – is that when reality presents you with continuous challenges, one can become overwhelmed with trying to make sense of what has happened.  I’ve found that this original sense of realism has become replaced with that of pessimism and extreme caution, both of which has resulted in stagnation and an inability to advance into territories that will ultimately make my life more fulfilling and positive.

Interestingly, but not surprisingly, I have been amazed at my recent ability to quell feelings of positivity when they arise because I no longer trust these feelings will last.  By default, these positive feelings rarely have a chance to develop and a self-fulfilling prophecy is created.

This is a turning point because feelings of learned helplessness and the tendency to employ a pessimistic perspective can both be overcome.  Setbacks no longer need to be classified as disasters.  I have too much potential to allow this pattern to continue any longer.

Using Tag Clouds to Increase Awareness

In an effort to accelerate real progress across the board, I’ve listed twelve activities that can encapsulate where I spend most of my time and energy: (I realize that some activities naturally overlap)

  1. Drawing
  2. Reading
  3. Playing
  4. Thinking / Reflecting
  5. Creating
  6. Learning
  7. Writing
  8. Training
  9. Resting
  10. Communicating
  11. Cleaning / Organizing
  12. Recording / Documenting

By periodically recording what I am doing at a given moment, I can gain a better understanding of where I am spending most of my time and energy.  While this may seem somewhat laborious, I think there is benefit in recording activity in this manner.

For example, if you were to associate tags to each activity when it is recorded, you can ultimately employ the use of a “tag cloud” to easily see where you are spending your time.  You can see an example of a tag cloud for this site on the left sidebar.  Words that are used more frequently appear larger, thus giving the viewer an immediate understanding of the prevalent themes in each post / page.  (A full explanation and supporting examples of tag clouds can be found at IBM’s alphaWorks “Many Eyes” site here.)

You could also append the amount of time you are spending on each activity to gain even more awareness.  For example, let’s say that you read between 1 and 3 hours per day.  You could “tag” your activity entry as follows:

  • Reading-1 (i.e. I read for 1 hour)
  • Reading-2
  • Reading-3
  • Reading-2
  • Reading-2
  • Reading-2

In this example, the tag “Reading-2” would stand out from the others because it’s the average time that you spend reading at any given moment.  This is important because some activities can take longer to “get in the flow” than others.  I know from experience, certain activities – especially drawing – can take longer to achieve any sense of “flow” than say, reading.

The key is to leverage what the “tag cloud” is telling you in order to plan your development (activities) more effectively.