One of the challenges of reading a ton of business books is that, when it’s well presented, every idea seems like a good idea.
For those who take the “Actionable” concept to heart, this can mean applying concepts to your life or business in an ad-hoc fashion; affixing new processes, styles of thinking or styles of communicating to your current practices based simply on how novel the concept is or how convincing an argument the author has made in her book (or Actionable Summary!).
We need to stop with the blind consumption of “should do”.
Make no mistake, we need to continue to grow. We need to expose ourselves to new ideas and experiences, constantly. When it comes time to actually apply the learnings from those new lessons into our lives however, I believe we need to be more deliberate; more careful. Just like we need to choose carefully what goes into our calendars, we need to be protective of what new concepts we integrate into our lives.
I recommend pouring a new concept through the strainer of your clearly defined values. Anything that sticks is worth keeping and experimenting with. If it doesn’t jive, wash it down the drain. (As a side note, just because something doesn’t align with your values doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea – it simply means it’s a bad idea for you.)
You are not a door mat. You are not an unformed piece of clay. As such, you shouldn’t let just anything shape you.
You are unique, wonderful you and – while we can all improve – you deserve to improve in a way that is true to who you are; naturally, authentically.
