you must feed your mind

This essay is an excerpt from my book, The Way of The Karma Yogi .

If we want to find good ideas and think differently, we need to be proactive about feeding our mind. We need to continually and constantly feed our mind ideas, information and inspiration that it needs to help us achieve our big, hairy and audacious goals. Like our body, even our mind needs a well balanced diet of nutrient-rich food — “bread for the head” as Jim Rohn referred to it. 

We all can start with a commitment to feed our mind every single day, even if it is just for 10 minutes. Something is always better than nothing and a little goes a long way. We can always carve out 10 minutes to read or meditate, no matter how “busy” we think we are. If you find this hard, how about listening to audiobooks and podcasts when you are on the go? Whenever I am commuting, I am always listening to either an audiobook or a podcast. The same applies for my fitness workouts and when I’m walking around doing errands. Whenever I am on the go, I am learning and feeding my mind. It’s not easy in the beginning but once it becomes a habit, it becomes our second nature as we go through our daily life. We are able to use all our downtime and waiting time towards purposeful self-education. 

Whenever you are driving, your car shouldn’t move without two things: gasoline and a bluetooth connected device (smartphone in most cases) that will play audiobooks and podcasts. Brian Tracy advocates turning driving time into learning time. He says, “Listen to educational audios in your car. The average driver according to the American Automobile Association, drives 12,000 to 25,000 miles each year, spending 500 to 1000 hours that you spend each year in your car. That is the equivalent of 12 ½ to 25 40-hour weeks. This is the same as two full university semesters spent behind the wheel of your car each year.” If you choose, your car or automobile can become your mobile university where you’re learning every day. This one simple change can significantly boost your income and your success. 

All the knowledge that we need is literally at our fingertips, it can’t get better than that. A great way to educate ourselves, feed our minds and refine our philosophy is to read the biographies and writings of influential people. Even though we will never be able to meet those people who are gone, we can still seek guidance from their words. We can still read the writings of Marcus Aurelius, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, and Benjamin Franklin and extract ideas out of them to implement in our own lives. We have the mighty Internet with us where we can search and access books, magazines, courses and documentaries. There are countless resources in libraries and public institutions that we can use as well to educate ourselves. It’s not about the how, but it’s simply a matter of why.