Readers who’ve been following PickTheBrain for the past few months may have noticed my inability to pick a tagline and stick with it. Each one I chose felt wrong after a couple weeks because the purpose of the site continued to evolve. I started writing without a plan and followed my inspiration. After more than 6 months of experimentation and feedback, I’ve finally found a purpose and a tagline that I’d like to explain.
What Pick The Brain Isn’t
One of the reasons I took so long to commit to “An Analytical Approach to Self Improvement” is that self improvement has some negative stigmas. Until recently I’ve never had an interest in the business of self help and I don’t believe it can be constrained to one tiny genre. I don’t want to be lumped in with the thousands of books and websites repeating generic lectures on goal setting, positive thinking, etc. These things are all well and good, but we’ve heard them so many times that they don’t make an impact. Here is what “An Analytical Approach to Self Improvement” doesn’t mean.
1. It isn’t about jumping on the bandwagon with Tony Robbins and all the other motivational gurus.
Although this website is a business, I don’t have seminars, audio programs, or books to sell. I don’t promote myself as a guru. The way I see it, we’re all in this together and the exchange of information goes both ways. I’m here to present the truth to you through the lens of my personal experience without the marketing spin.
2. It isn’t about motivating with emotional gimmickry.
Emotions are temporary. While a great speaker might get you fired up for a week or two, the emotional peak inevitably ends and you fall back to earth no better than you started. Permanent change only occurs when we make a mental breakthrough. This site is about taking a scientific look at our thoughts and actions, identifying the cause of our behavior, and using that knowledge to make improvements.
3. It isn’t about trying to become the ideal person.
There is no ideal person, and if there was, it wouldn’t be anything like the millionaires and movie stars society worships. Self improvement is a continuous process; there is no finish line. Treating life as a competition is counterproductive. It makes us envy our friends and despise ourselves. The purpose of this site is to get past the petty squabbling and find what really makes us happy. Instead of striving for outside approval, it’s about recognizing our unique brilliance and being able to enjoy it, even if no one else notices.
4. It isn’t about pretending life would be perfect if we had a positive attitude.
There is a lot to be said in favor of positive thinking, but it can’t be denied that life involves a great deal of suffering. This site is about taking a cold hard look at the reality of human life and facing it as best we can. I don’t promise to eliminate your problems or make your life easy, but I’ve found that the more knowledge and experience I acquire, the easier it is to endure hardship and tolerate shortcomings in myself and others. The purpose of this site is to share that knowledge.
Why Self Improvement?
I kept coming back to self improvement because I started this site to improve my own life. In that respect it’s already a success, and the business aspect is coming to fruitition as well. I wouldn’t say I was miserable before, but something was missing. I felt like a drone going through the motions without passion or enthusiasm. I felt powerless against destiny and that my creative abilities were going to waste.
This website has given me a creative outlet, a way to connect with like minded people, and a purpose that focuses my mind on something constructive, rather than worrying about things I can’t control. From the feedback I’ve gotten, it’s safe to say that many of you have benefited from PickTheBrain as well. 
Site Content and Frequency
In the past 6 months I’ve learned a lot about what works, what doesn’t, and how much writing I can produce. The purpose of my writing is sharing valuable information. Different styles of writing do this in different ways. The main styles I plan to use are:
- Personal Experience – These articles share important lessons that I’ve learned through experience. They focus on my thought process and the mental breakthrough that lead to success. These articles convey knowledge well because shared experiences create a bond of mutual understanding between reader and writer. Examples include: Overcoming a Loss of Motivation and Making the Best of a Situation.
- Instructional Tips – These “how to” posts share practical knowledge through concrete tips. Rather than elaborating on experience, I’ll only share the most important lessons I’ve learned. The posts will usually be in the form of a list for the sake of brevity and precision. Examples include: George Orwell’s 5 Rules for Effective Writing .
- Theoretical Knowledge – These posts focus on high level theoretical concepts that have important practical applications. Instead sharing tips, these posts are about sharing the ideas behind the tips. Examples include: Balancing the Future and the Present and How Primitive Desires Cause Social Problems.
- General Insights – The purpose of these posts is to increase our understanding of the world. This relates to self improvement indirectly. Understanding our environment helps us understand ourselves. These posts aim to provoke thought and discussion. Examples include: Why Believe the Simple Truth When Lies are More Appealling? and Why are we Afraid of the Truth?.
- Experiments – In these posts I’ll try something new and report back to you with the results. Examples include: Can Anyone Gain 34 Pounds of Muscle in a Month? and The Amazing Effects of a Weekend Without Television.
The majority of posts will fall into these 5 categories, but don’t be surprised if I branch out occasionally into humor or other areas when I feel inspired. There will always be a tie to self improvement.
I’ve found that 3 substantial posts a week is the most I can do without a drop off in quality. These will generally be published on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. This might not seem like much, but I write lengthy articles on timeless ideas, so old posts retain their value indefinitely. If you ever need something to read I encourage you to browse through the archives.
This post has gone on long enough, but in closing I’d like to thank all of you for helping me to reach this level of success. Without your feedback and encouragement I’d have quit long ago. The best part of my day is checking my email in the morning to find all the new comments and messages you’ve left. I look forward to many more months of sharing ideas, forming relationships, and improving the world, one individual at a time.
You have an interesting and down-to-earth approach. I like that. I recognize this explanation to your blog very much in your approach and your posts. Keep up the quality work, and 3 (lengthy) posts a week on Pick the Brain works fine for me.
Yeah, I’m of the same mindset regarding a lot of ’self-help’ writing. So much of it is the same ideas repackaged over and over, many of them resorting more to temporary motivational psych-ups than being substantial.
There are some ideas I’m convinced never really worked, but they’ve been repeated so many times over so many years that no one questions them anymore. It’s kind of like how high school science textbooks will carry inaccuracies for 15 years after they’ve been found to be wrong because each new revision just reprints what’s in the past year’s version without seeing if the knowledge base has been updated.
And then there’s that ‘happy! happy!’ vibe that permeates a lot of self-help material. I much prefer more down to earth writing. You know, tell it to me straight, you don’t need to be a cheerleader.
Very interesting post! You seem to be doing some soul-searching and looking to establish your blogging identity.
I’m not really into the hype aspects of self-improvement that some of the so-called gurus advocate either. While I agree that there is no ideal person, I do believe we can all strive to reach our potential and that’s what I think personal development is all about. I think we need to develop ourselves on all levels, especially intellectual because as a society we’ve let that fall somewhat by the wayside (i.e. the silly people that make the news instead of smart, accomplished, contributing young people).
“It isn’t about trying to become the ideal person.”
Well put!
Good stuff. I like that you write from experience.
I love the way you write.
Really agree with this sentence
“Permanent change only occurs when we make a mental breakthrough.”
“It isn’t about trying to become the ideal person.”
It is about being yourself and trying to be your best: being genuine, keep investing in yourself (education, self-help and improvement etc.), being open to communictaion and different views.
So, it’s not about being some ‘ideal person or personality’ created by the media or your peers, family, colleagues or neighbours – it’s about being the person that makes you feel being ‘ideal’ – after all, it’s you that have live with yourself.
Thanks for the comments everyone. I can tell that you all seem to understand my purpose very well.
whoa, this place looks different
Yes, I’ve made some design adjustments. The biggest change is the sidebar moved to the left and I tweaked the logo. What do you think? I’ve only tested it on my Mac so far, is anything broken?
The new layout looks great on my non-Mac pc. Congratulations on a beautiful design.
All the best,
CLKL
When I submitted the above comment, I received a bunch of errors, but the comment went through:
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I’m also on a Mac, and it looks just fine. Can’t comment on the color scheme (or lack there of?) because I’m color blind, but otherwise it looks fine.
I’ve mostly seen blogs with the sidebar on the right side, but this works just as good.
I love what you are doing here…
It looks great… your message is strong and clear…
Be different… and great… you are both.
Sameness sucks.
And it is evident you know it.
You know what I’ve noticed about you and your blog… not only are you smart… but you keep pushing yourself to be better… you take nothing for granted… those are an uncommon combination of qualities that will serve you well.
You are going somewhere new… uncharted… I look forward to seeing your new world.
clkl,
Thanks for letting me know about that error. I think it was caused by an older plugin. I just upraged so it should be fixed now.
John,
You’ve got a great approach to sharing your philosophies and the wisdom you’ve gained through your life experiences. Truly, I think you and I share a lot of similar inspiration and motivation — much of what you write resonates strongly in me and I share parallel views in my blog (though I tie the lessons into health and fitness).
A book that’s helped me with my writing that you might like to check out is “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser. He’s got a great voice and some great tips that I’m sure you’ll appreciate as you continue your prolific writing.
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