20+10 Ideas to Make Yourself a More Well-Rounded Person in 2010
by Steven Rossi on January 2, 2010 in Thoughts on Life
One of my favorite parts about starting a new year is the number of obnoxious blog posts that offer advice on how to make and follow through with New Years’ resolutions. This year has been no different, and I wanted to add my own pointless opinion to the mess of resolution-related thoughts that you’ll forget tomorrow.
Here is my not-that-definitive list of ideas for ways that you (yes, you!) can become a more well-rounded person in two thousand ten. They’re in no particular order, however the first twenty are significantly easier to accomplish. Enjoy.
Easy Stuff:
- Read one Wikipedia article per day – Talk about a simple thing to do to learn about new topics. Wikipedia’s “Random Article” link (in the main navigation on the left) offers a lot, and I confess to sometimes getting sucked in for hours.
- Go to the gym – Let’s get the obvious ones out of the way early. If you’re reading a blog post about New Years’ resolutions, you are out of shape. Fix that.
- Subscribe to 5 blogs in 5 different fields that you know nothing about – This is one of my favorite ideas. I’m an RSS addict, and I think it’s a great idea to subscribe to a few blogs from which you can learn unique things. Consider subscribing to a blog about art, history, travel, or something else. Let me get you started.
- Read through the Bible in a year – Christian or not, you better know this book. It’s really not that difficult to read the whole thing.
- Get into art – If you want people to think you’re intelligent (which, I mean, come on, we both know you do), you’ve gotta be able to hold your own in a conversation about a piece of artwork. Start here. But really, just be intentional about looking at art more often and making stuff up about it. I’d set a more defined goal than that, though, if I were you.
- Learn a new word per day – Yes, I went there. Dictionary.com’s Word of the Day is possibly one of the fastest ways to become more intelligent. Subscribe via email or all sorts of other ways on the right side of the page, now.
- Buy a CD from a genre you don’t like – You can probably find some cheap-o CD on Amazon for a buck or two, and it’ll teach you to be more open-minded about music. Just don’t buy anything country.
- Become a movie buff – I recommend AFI’s “100 Years…100 Movies” List, particularly the revised 2007 version. Make a goal, to watch 25 of them this year, for example.
- Study maps of your area – Maybe it’s just me, but I respect people who know their way around an area of which they don’t live in the immediate vicinity. I might just be self-conscious, though.
- Memorize something – Pick a passage of Scripture, a classic poem, a world-changing speech—something—and memorize it. Someday I’ll write a post on my favorite memorization techniques. Anyway, you’ll feel smart if you do this, no question.
- Read the biography of a famous person – Respected famous people are respected and famous for a reason. Start on this Amazon search page (affiliate link), but watch for books with thousands of pages. These biographies are cheap, but they can be pretty darn long.
- Turn off the screen – Take a screen-Sabbath. It’s good for you, and you’ll have time to do a bunch of the other stuff on this list.
- Learn to cook something new – A good cook is a good person, I always say (never said that…). Seriously, though, you can always afford to learn to cook a couple new meals. You’ll certainly impress your friends if you become an expert at Mongolian delicacies.
- Go to a cool local place and take some pictures – Go to a cool park, that’d be fun. Take some pictures while you’re there, and post them to Flickr. You can even put a link to your photos in the comments here. We’ll enjoy them.
- Ask people about their lives instead of telling them about yours – They don’t really care, anyway. I read Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People (affiliate link) this summer, and it changed my life. You should read it, too. Maybe I should have just told you to do that.
- Quit an old habit, pick up a new one – For example, nervous? Switch from nail-biting to the more calorie-burning leg-shaking. Watch a lot of TV? Don’t do that—do the stuff on this list.
- Take advantage of free days at local attractions – Our town has a cultural center with a glass-blowing museum and other things like that. Yours probably has something like that, too. They also probably don’t charge, at least not every day. Check it out.
- Choose a charity, and get passionate about it – There’s lots of great organizations whose cause you should take up. You don’t have to donate tons of money, just be passionate about it. Blog about it, tell your friends about it—do something.
- Stimulate your mind when you’re bored – Being bored is for the uncivilized. I recommend simple math problems (that is, anything but Sudoku) or word games (like Words with Friends! My username is SuperMoonMan, if you’re interested.). It’ll keep ya sharp, which we all know you should be.
- Philosophy – No explanation needed.
For the More Serious Folk:
- Teach yourself an instrument – Duh.
- Learn a new language – Why am I even writing this?
- Learn a programming language – Not a programmer? You can still do it. Start with easy stuff like HTML or AppleScript, and move to the more advanced stuff. You’ll impress your friends. Programmer? You can always afford to learn another and build your resume.
- Audit a college course – Most public colleges will let you audit a course for free or cheap. Auditing is great because you choose classes in which you’re interested without having to really do any homework. Get smarter and don’t do any work, how could you beat that?
- Do freelance work – You’re probably good at something, like writing, copy-editing, or web design. Do it for someone else and get paid for it.
- Become an expert on an obscure topic – Choose a person, place, or thing that no one knows about (like a not-that-famous dead guy or a random city in Nigeria), and study it as if it was super important. See #1 above for a good starting point.
- Travel – You want to be well-rounded? You gotta go somewhere. You don’t really have a choice. If you’ve got the money, start with somewhere like Italy. People who go to Italy are 43% more well-rounded than people who don’t. I’ve never been there, that’s just what I hear.
- Brush up your leadership skills – You can be a cool person, but it’s cooler to be a leader.
- Develop your hobbies – Like I said before, you’re good at something. Get better at it. Like to write? Read Strunk and White’s book (affiliate link), and get better. Bowler? Go bowling more. Good at sports? No you’re not.
- Set big goals, make serious plans, and evaluate yourself – None of this is going to go over very well if you don’t take it seriously. Get organized and work hard. Think Ben Franklin-style (affiliate link). You’ll thank yourself later.
So try some of these things out. Pick a couple, and make concrete goals. You won’t be the world’s greatest person even if you do every one of these, but you’ll certainly increase your well-roundedness…and I guess that’s a good thing.
Image Credit: Mr Magoo ICU
by Jason Hommel
On January 3, 2010 at 10:39 am
Those look simple enough. I personally haven’t tried checking out the “Random Article” feature of Wiki myself so it can be a good start. We’ll never know when we’re going to stumble upon a great article. On that note, StumbleUpon is also a great idea!
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by Ivy K.
On January 4, 2010 at 12:41 am
I think using stumbleupon and stumbling for a while would be a good one too. For instance, that is how I found this post!
by Matyas
On January 4, 2010 at 12:54 am
I did the thing with the "one new word every day" – neat idea, thanks for that. Also browsed the films list from which I saw around 20%. That should be enough for 2010.
by leah
On January 4, 2010 at 12:56 am
I agree with Ivy re: stumbling – not only did I find this article as a result, I have found many useful ingenious tips for my web business that I would not have – had I not stumbled! People are amazed where I get the stuff – I try not to share my secret – oh just kidding, I do tell them –
My recent post How to Clean Your House in Ten Minutes | eHow.com
by Steven Rossi
On January 4, 2010 at 1:06 am
Yeah, it definitely is! The problem for me with StumbleUpon is that it's much easier to get distracted from an actual learning experience. If you're more disciplined than I am, though, it's definitely a solid replacement for Wikipedia's Random Article feature.
by Steven Rossi
On January 4, 2010 at 1:07 am
Yep…you've just gotta weed through the goofy stuff. The goofy stuff is great (and, to be honest, I pretty much use StumbleUpon to find goofy stuff), but if you're looking to learn something you've gotta be more intentional.
by Steven Rossi
On January 4, 2010 at 1:08 am
Yep. I'm not really a movie person, but I figure if I set out to watch a small number of these really good movies, I've got an attainable goal.
by Steven Rossi
On January 4, 2010 at 1:09 am
Ha! You're not kidding! There's a ton of great content out there that's not being seen by many eyes. I've found many valuable tips or ideas by just browsing around, as well.
by Alan
On February 6, 2010 at 2:32 am
"You better know this book"….What sort of advice is that?
Why? Where's the benefit? It's full of contradictions and lies.
If you're going to provide that sort of wisdom, back it with some reason that might encourage the weak to actually do it.
Personally, I don't need imaginary friends and fiction, but you've certainly repelled one potentially regular visitor.
Bye. If I stumble across this site again, I'll be moving on.
Now surprise me by NOT providing some defensive and derogatory response.
by Steven Rossi
On February 5, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Hey Alan. I went ahead and emailed you a response to this comment. Feel free (you or anyone else) to follow up with another comment on this subject (and definitely feel free to email me back!).
by Andrew
On February 14, 2010 at 10:01 am
I would like to echo Alan's point though with admittedly less vitriol.
Why had we better know that book? What of the various books written around the same time that were destroyed by the church or lost favor and were neglegted by history?
Why not The Odyssey or the philosophy of Sartre? Why not the Scrolls of Abraham or the Qur'an?
by Steven Rossi
On February 14, 2010 at 6:12 pm
I guess I probably should have been more explicit as to my reasoning within the post. When I said "Christian or not," I was thinking that it's important even for those who do not agree with the Bible to be familiar with it, if not even for the reason that it's been so influential in our culture. So while I agree that the Odyssey or Sartre's works are important (and I've read those two, although not the latter two, and advocate that others do the same), I don't believe that they've been nearly as influential as the Bible has. Hope that clarifies things a bit.
Oh, and obviously I believe the Bible carries more weight than those things, as I believe in it as God's Word and as significant for our lives…but I figure that's obvious from the subtitle of my blog.
by Andrew
On February 14, 2010 at 6:42 pm
Thank you for the polite and cogent reply Steven.
To clarify, your point seems to be that the bible has been a major influence on our culture and therefore it would benefit even non theists to be familiar with it.
While I agree it is an illuminating read I must disagree that the Christian text itself has been a major influence on culture. Christianity as a religion and the Church as an institution certainly have, but not the text itself. At least not more than other great works of literature. I think if your advice was meant to give someone an understanding of the genesis of our culture, you would have been better off recommending a history of Christianity.
Aside from this point I enjoyed the post.
by Steven Rossi
On February 15, 2010 at 5:26 am
I would tend to agree with what you've said in your reply: the Church as a group of people has probably influenced society more than the text of the Bible has. I believe, however, that the Bible's influence on the Church is undeniable (even perhaps in misreadings of it!), and therefore somewhat indirectly the Bible has been fairly significant.
And I do think that the Bible itself has been influential in its own right. For just one brief example, consider the prevalence of literary allusions to the Bible. I imagine it would be hard to be successful in the field of literature without at least some basic familiarity with the Bible.
In general, though, Christianity derives its ideology from the Bible. That alone is reason enough to be familiar with it, although I confess that if one approached the Bible with the intention of becoming familiar with it for academic reasons, a general overview would be more practical than a reading of the complete text, as I suggested in the post.
And again, I believe that the Bible changes lives, so that would, of course, be my primary motivation in suggesting it.
Thanks again for discussing this!