Getting down... I mean up, to doing things

I was just watching an inspirational interview with Tony Robbins about what drives some people to pursue something so persitently that they finally reach it. Among many other insightful points, Tony Robbins emphasises that the way to break through is to take action, and do that every day. The idea is that if you make it something you purposefully do on a daily basis, you will gain such momentum that it helps you break through, and, eventually, it becomes a standard, a part of what you normally do, and then it won't be an effort any longer.


Now, I have been looking for a good enough reason to get back to blogging again, because I genuinely miss it, but keep finding excuses not to. This video literally moved me from the comfy place on my bed to my (less comfy) working chair with the clear and doubtless intention to start getting something written every day.

So, I thought for a second about what I could write about every day, and my idea is to pick a single concept, theory or idea related to paleontology and just write as much as I can about it in one sitting. I consider myself having been good at developing ideas, of extracting more out of them, usually by relating them to other things, by putting them into context.

However, I find the demand from university to learn at such broadth and arbitrary detail (that including a whole lot of crap I don't see how most of us would find use in knowing those things), that it comes at the expense of depth and insight. Those who have followed my blog should know by now how draining I find this, how it limits the students' potential to use their thinking abilities, rather than memory capacity.

The difference, now, is that I am sick of feeling pulled in that direction, and finally realised that I have to take the matter in my own hands. No more complaining about the education system (or, well... a little bit more complaining, maybe); I have no choice but to take the responsibility to, on my own, learn and develop the abilities I believe will be useful.

I feel I am already starting well. I had no plan to discuss what I have in the last two paragraphs, but it came as a logical extract of the core subject. Maybe I haven't lost the ability to expand thoughts, just forgotten about it!

I feel that this time I am driven to see this through, driven by the desire to rediscover and further develop my thinking ability – to repair the damage with added improvement! Rather than seeing it as a burden of time, seeing it as work, I now view this exercise as a way to evolve as a thinker!