Hello, and welcome to another summary of an article I found on the web using the tag ‘self development articles.’
You can view all the previous summaries in the series by clicking on this category link. And here is a link to my Personal Development page for your convenience.
The series of summaries of self development articles works like this – I find an article on the web using the tag ‘self development articles’ and I summarize it for your convenience. It is intended as an aid to find worthwhile self development articles on the web and condense them for you. It saves you time!
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Today’s Self Development Article – Are You This Smart But Lazy Guy?
I hope that in this day and age you realize that the “guy” in the title is not gender based. It could be any smart man or woman. I stumbled upon this article funnily enough on Stumble Upon 🙂 But it turned out it was based on yet another question posed on the Quora forum.
The full title of the piece on SU was The 1 Habit That Can Make the Most Positive Impact on Your Life.
Favorite Quote from the Author In the Article
There isn’t one! So, I will insert an alternative but randomly chosen favorite quote of mine.
Sonia Maria Sotomayor is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving since August 2009. She has the distinction of being its first justice of Hispanic heritage, the first Latina, its third female justice, and its twelfth Roman Catholic justice. Sotomayor, along with John Roberts and Elena Kagan, is one of the youngest justices on the Supreme Court. Source: Wikipedia
Summary of the Article
According to the SU article, the question that was posed in Quora was “If you could give one piece of advice to a very smart but lazy guy, what would it be?
On further digging the question was this: If you could give one piece of advice to a very smart but lazy guy, to get off his butt and do something with his life, what would it be? I prefer the original version don’t you?
The article essentially extols the virtues of exercise – physical exercise. Below is the intro to the article that sets out the approach to the answer –
If you truly want to go from lazy to motivated in all aspects of your life, you should do one thing, and one thing only:
Exercise.
Why? Because exercise is measurable, it doesn’t take a lot of time, and it creates a cascade that will trickle down into all of the other aspects of your life.
Let me explain (and show you how to easily make it a habit)!
Reading Time of the Article
3 minutes
About the Author and Lesson(s) Learned From The Article
The author of the Quora answer is Graeme Austen. His bio is short and simple – Career Development Guy, Founder @ CultivatedCulture.com. It seems that he is a bit of a self improvement guru. Hmmm.
The main lesson is that cultivating an exercise regime is a keystone element or habit which the author argues leads to the development of other good habits.
My Take
One of Austen’s arguments for adopting physical exercise as the “1 Habit” is that it is measurable. I’m not convinced by that argument. He gives an example of running every single day then weighing yourself after every run. Presumably, to bask in the glory of weight loss?
That example is flawed. Running every day will not necessarily result in weight loss. It could actually create weight gain as you build up muscle mass. In any event, exercise alone will invariably result in small weight losses unless accompanied by a diet regime.
I speak from experience as one whose weight has yo-yo’d over the years. If it’s weight loss you seek, then eat less!
Exercise has other valuable benefits so I agree with the principle of regular exercise, not necessarily running. Exercise makes you feel good and more energetic. That’s the # 1 reason to perform regular exercise.
Whether it is the Number 1 habit to make a positive impact upon your life is open to question.
Conclusion
A short read but I remain unconvinced as to the merits of the claim made by the author. I also come away with the feeling that Austen does not write from personal experience. He uses too many quotes from others to back up his message. There is nothing inherently wrong with that but I would have preferred to see more personal experience stuff in an article of that type.
The credibility of the author is let down by the weak story and example of running to lose weight. I have been there Mr. Austen. Your story does not resonate with me.
It’s a bold claim he makes in the intro. Let me remind you –
If you truly want to go from lazy to motivated in all aspects of your life, you should do one thing, and one thing only:
Exercise.
“… one thing, and one thing only” is that right? That is way too simplistic. Beware of gurus holding the gifts of simple solutions!
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