One of the first things I teach the members of Tribe 215 is that real personal development is not about forcing ourselves to “do” things. It’s about transforming who we are into the person we need to be.

Another word for this is “Metamorphosis”, which means that we become a different sort of creature. Like when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, or a tadpole into a toad.

Imagine a caterpillar trying to force itself to fly, or a tadpole trying really hard to make a jump. Can you see the fatigue and frustration both would experience?

We do the same ridiculous thing to ourselves when we try to force our current selves to do something that only a new self can do. This is why so many of us spend our lives in the repeat pattern of effort, temporary results, release and restart.

To free ourselves from this trap we need only stop the “fast food style” of merely consuming information. We need to stop just stuffing ourselves with books, podcasts and videos and start using them to fuel our transformation from the person we are, into the person we need to be to live a good life and lead others to do the same.

To get started you need only to redeploy some of your “information and consumption time”, into an “information processing” time.

This means that you now read, watch or listen to things with a pen and paper in hand with the specific intent on capturing what you are going to now stop, start, modify or maintain in your life.

It won’t take long before you see how the persistent practice of altering the small things in your life eventually equates to both a new kind self, as well as a new kind of life.

Consider the new opportunities in your career and life that will emerge when you make the jump from a tadpole to a toad.