Many years ago I heard a motivational speaker talk about value of OPE (other people's experiences). His point was that although "experience is the best teacher", it takes too long to learn and it's too painful to learn solely from our own experiences. The easiest way to succeed is to harness the power of OPE.
Pride stops many of us. I was listening to a podcast by Merlin Mann and he was talking about why some people don't write things down. It's simple: pride. They think they can carry all their to-dos abound in their head and consider it an insult to have to stoop to writing them down or typing them in. Rather than having the embarrassment of forgetting something or the stress of carrying all those things in your head, why not use OPE. OPE says that if you get all your to-dos out of your head, you free up your awesome mind to have more creative thoughts.
So . . . when you are struggling in familiar territory or venturing out into new territory: find someone who has been there, listen to their advice, get over your pride, save yourself some time and energy, and just try what they tell you.
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(For more posts like this one, visit my blog, Tech Rest – Enjoying technology and finding rest in a restless world)
