I just heard something that blew my mind away. I heard that technology was doubling every 18 months and the internet was doubling in size even faster. I knew that we were in the information age and that the world is moving quickly but I never thought about how fast it was actually moving. Ferris Bueller from one of my favorite movies, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off said “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” He couldn’t be more right. Some people do the same thing day in and day out and wake up 10 years down the line completely lost asking themselves “where did all the time go?” and “when did that happen?”.
In the information age, to get ahead, you need information. You need to know what is going on, what new products and services are available, where technology is going. Without it, you will miss plenty of opportunities. Opportunities to make money, to retire earlier, to be happier, have more free time, and many other incredible things.
To keep up with the times many people will tell you to read a newspaper. This is a good idea but not a great one. I used to read the newspaper every morning until I realized how much time I was wasting reading about things like the OJ Simpson case of the 90’s and yet again, the OJ Simpson case of this decade. If something happens in my city, I might be interested in reading about it but anything else, I would be just as well off reading just the headlines on www.cnn.com or www.news.google.com. If the story was important or really interesting, I will read the first paragraph and maybe a little more. You see, the problem with newspapers is that you don’t need 90% of the information in them.
To keep on top of what really matters, you need a source that is going to give you what you want and what you are really interested in. After all you find more opportunities in things that you are interested in than things that you have either slight or no interest in because it excites you and your mind starts to see thing differently. If you are bored by a subject, chances are that you will never see the opportunities in it. But there are so many opportunities in this world that you can find more than your share in just the subjects that interest you.
I find blogs to be one of the best sources of information out there. There are so many of them so you have to experiment a little and find the topics you enjoy, the writing style you like and the information you crave. This way you can keep up with the latest information in this forever changing world, for what you really care about and are interested in. There are thousands and thousands of blogs on every single subject so you shouldn’t have a problem finding something you like. I will write a post shortly on how to find your personal blogroll.
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