Fellow blogger and nametag guy, Scott Ginsberg [1] makes the point of frequently asking himself the question: “Is everything I know written down somewhere?” I believe this is an excellent point because writing down what you know is one of the best ways to improve your understanding.
One of the best benefits of starting this blog has been the greater understanding of the personal development ideas I’ve picked up. My own personal growth has skyrocketed because I began articulating my experiences and the ideas that I’ve come across. Writing my Habitual Mastery [1] series, gave me a far greater understanding of my own habits and the process of changing them.
A basic tenet of goal-setting is to write your goals down. The first and obvious effect of this is that it keeps you committed making your effort more than a whim. The second and more subtle effect is that by writing your goal down you gain a far greater clarity of exactly what you want. What was once a vague desire can become a concrete objective for you to reach.
Writing down your ideas gives you greater clarity. Writing down how you feel self-discipline works, what you should do to overcome fear or how to run a business takes vague feelings and intuitions and solidifies them.
This process also forces you to fill up gaps in your reasoning. While you may not notice these holes and hidden contradictions in your knowledge, writing them down will force you to fix them up. Many times when I start writing an article, I realize that there are places in my thoughts where I am uncertain or contradict myself. By writing these things down I can fill these holes in reasoning.
Writing down your ideas does take up some time. Each blog entry I write takes me at least an hour or two to put together. But the benefits you gain from increasing your understanding are well worth the cost. You can often speed up the process by using visual diagrams or pictures to simplify your ideas.
Get into the habit of writing down your ideas and you can have them reinforced when you need them. Just take a few minutes to explore a different idea each day. You can use this method to tackle specific areas to your interests or line of work or your daily life.
Is what you know written down somewhere?