Reading a book and telling someone something you learned is very different from doing something and telling someone what you’ve realized. Neither is better, neither is a waste of time, and when paired together they create an unstoppable combination.
I’m not against books, I love words, much of what I believe I know I acquired from reading books. There is too much to know to learn everything through direct experience. Sometimes you need to be in the stands watching life (reading and learning) because there isn’t enough time to do everything you need to in order to learn everything first hand. So lets just say that reading is an experience of learning something second hand.
The human brain is a remarkable thing. It is a wildly complex network of cells which are either on or off. It is very much like a computer, a gray compact computer that doesn’t have a user manual and it that runs on sugar. What we know about it is that it will do everything it can to keep things the same, to use as little energy as possible, to create meaning and a unified understanding of the world and to create lessons (wisdom) out of experiences.
Of all the things it does, the wisdom creating part is the most noteworthy. Creating lessons out of experiences, ones and zeros, and sugar is a purely remarkable thing.
For this reason, I have really enjoyed the last month and a half because I have been making a consistent effort to not let my blood sugar level drop. I’ve been eating exactly as I had been encouraging my clients to eat when I was a trainer. The outcome has been a big boost in my productivity, emotional control and self-awareness. Following the simple advice of eating good quality whole foods, drinking lots of fluids and being aware of your energy levels to use them as a gauge for what is going on inside.
Without specific telemetry, creating an optimal internal environment through food manipulation and paying attention to how the body feels is the only way to make sure you are ready to create wisdom out of your life experiences.
Don’t go hungry, don’t get too fuel and have as many experiences as you can. Wisdom is waiting for you.