I spoke to a sceptic the other day that had a major aversion to personal development and getting into concepts that can help improve life and make you more of a conscious person. He got stuck in a way of thinking that no one concept works and so had a bad attitude to the whole industry.
I said to him “you’re a builder aren’t you mate?” and he said that he was. I said to the Aussie Builder ‘It’s just like saying that you can’t build a house with a hammer! Of course you can’t but you do need a hammer from time to time, so you hang it off your tool belt and use it when you need to and then put it back when you don’t. Some tools are used even less often but you don’t throw them away. You know their value so you keep them in your tool box and take them out when you need them.
Others are like those tools you see on info-commercials that are just gimmicky and claim to ‘do it all’. You’ve developed a lot of wisdom about your trade over the years so you know what tools are just a gimmick and you leave them for the home handy man to play with. As a professional builder though, you are always on the look out for new and improved tools that can make your job easier.”
I told him that concepts are my tools and they are the Tools for Life. One time when I was asked how many concepts I knew, and I spent twenty minutes and wrote down over 300. If I was to teach my children the Tools for Life that I think were the most basic set, I think I would teach them about 50 and let them work out the rest for themselves. I guess this would be the same for the builder and his tools.
This is the way I look at the personal development industry and the learning of concepts as Tools for Life. We need to have an attitude like a builder does for his tools of the trade. As you hear and discover new concepts or ideas etc, it may be a good idea to rate them in terms of usefulness and maybe think of the specialist jobs that the less useful ones may come in handy for.
So I then said to him, “welcome to my workshop mate, I’m going to show you some tools to renovate your house into a home. After our conversation and my session with your wife the other day it looks like you have built on some pretty rocky ground and your foundations are pretty stuffed so let’s start there hey mate!”
Aussie blokes love it when you talk to them like that I reckon. I know I do anyway.
Hope this helps
Peter O’Neill
Peter O’Neill is a kinesiologist, life and performance coach. Skype consults are now available book at iam@peteroneill.com.au
© 2011 Peter O’Neill
Lucky Charms
- The Thieves Of Personal Development The Thieves of Personal Development Nothing is worse than having...
- Ways To Use Mind Tools The mind is a peculiar, complex and interesting organ~The mind...
- Ways To Use Mind Tools The mind is a peculiar, complex and interesting organ~The mind...
- Personal Development – Originating In Where? For most people self-development continues to an abstract word. What...
- Understanding Personal Development And Its Effects In Our Lives Nowadays, what you appear to be plays a a lot...
