When I first started diving into self improvement, I would only get exposed to few ideas. It was because I was paying attention to what I was consuming and focusing entirely on it. If there was something I learned about self development, I’d try to make practical use of it.
For example when I first learned about resistance, I was completely aware of it.
In self development, there’s a concept which states that the more you try to resist something the more it troubles you. So, if you want to move ahead, you need to stop resisting. It’s also a concept which is widely found in Steven Pressfield’s book – The War of Art.
When I learned that I shouldn’t resist anything, I started following that advice in my day to day life. I was getting results with it.
But with time, after going deeper into self development, I was exposed to whole new level of self development concepts and ideas. It made it hard for me to grasp any concept.
So I didn’t get any chance to implement in my life. Thus making it incredibly difficult to ingrain it in my brain.
I was overwhelmed so I stopped going any further. I ended up worse than I was before.
I basically tried to climb the ladder without building the base. The potentiality of a tree to grow is based on its root. A tree can only grow long if the roots are deeper. If a tree grows without roots, it simply falls down.
That’s what happened to me. I didn’t build roots before trying to grow. I was simply trying to be the best version of myself without working for it. And when it didn’t happen, I started getting depressed. It was even worse. I didn’t grasp any concepts of self development at all.
This also happens with kids who get famous overnight without actually being prepared for it. When the reality hits them hard, they start showing all sorts of harmful self destructive behaviours. Some start going into drugs to escape from the reality which they are not yet ready to face. That’s why you see lots of celebrities doing drugs, and even dying in some cases.
That’s also the reason why it’s very dangerous to be successful in business overnight without working for it. If you don’t know how you reached there, you’ll have to deal with lots of stress.
When you reach a certain point of being famous, there will be people who’ll love you and there’ll also be people who’ll hate you. If you can’t handle people hating you, you’ll have to face lots of unnecessary stress. Whereas a person who has strong roots will have learned to deal with those types of situation before.
Hence, it’s very important to focus on building your roots first. And then only you’ll grow. Right now, I’m starting to learn the fundamentals of programming to build roots. Without those foundations, I won’t be able to move further with my programming.
Same for writing. I thought I was a pretty good blogger because I had written lots of posts. But I was wrong. I didn’t build the roots, only tried to feel good for writing. I didn’t write for some weeks and I’m finding it pretty difficult to write again. It’s all because I didn’t build the base, which I am trying to at the moment.
Build the roots first!