It's been said that we're drowning in information, but starving for knowledge.
How are we to determine the quality stuff from the minutia?
My brother-in-law owns his own jewelry manufacturing company. Anyone who's ponied up a stash of cash in exchange for a diamond ring can probably predict what he told me about the 4 C's of diamond quality: clarity, cut, carrot, and color. They have different ways to measure each of these 4 categories to determine a diamond's value.
We too should have some way of measuring the quality of content available at our fingertips if we hope to digest the healthy stuff while keeping the bad stuff out. We are what we eat after all.
So here are the 4 C's of Quality Mental Health Food -
1) Character. Look at the source of the content - who's writing it? What's their background say about them? Does their core-being speak to you? What are their basic beliefs?
Example:
+ Gary Vaynerchuk of winelibrary.com, and author of the book “Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion” is someone I admire and enjoy hearing whenever I get the chance: he generates excitement and there’s a lot of vibrancy in his message. He loves his work, and you can feel his enthusiasm when he speaks. Contrast his passion for life, his work ethic and 20-hour a day work schedule with someone who’s message isn’t consistent with their output. Gary eats, sleeps and dreams his business, and it’s apparent that he loves what he does.
- Tim Ferriss on the other hand is far from inspiring. Many people have fallen in love with the best selling book, "The 4 Hour Workweek" – probably because the idea of not working is appealing to many of the zombies who get by with dead-end jobs and hate their lives. Tim shows people how to escape work, but not how to thrive and overcome challenges. While the book was entertaining, for me, his message wasn’t very inspiring.
