I was listening to a podcast recently, on my way to a Personal Training Consultation in Twickenham, London and it got my thinking. We live in a time where you can unlock your mobile phone and spend hours absorbing information. You can watch professionals and experts within your field discussing multiple topics. If like me, you learn better from visual and audio content, this is amazing. You can find a subject, or topic someone has asked you about and learn the essentials quickly and easily. You can even learn on the go, all this content is portable and accessible with a simple tap of my finger. Unfortunately, if you’re student like me, you can’t breeze your way through University stating ‘I heard it on a Podcast’.
Don’t Believe the Hype!
All this information, so much to take in! How do you filter through it all? What is right, what is wrong? The internet can be a mine field of false and bias information. I can guarantee that you can find a blog or a podcast on either side of any argument within 5 minutes. With so much contrasting information, what do you take as being true.
Generally speaking, the most factual, honest information can be found in scientific journal articles or published in, (from a genuine, renowned publisher) books. But I hate reading and I’m not very good at it?
This is where being out of education for a number of years is a bit of an issue. I barely ever read anything, well I used not to. Now, all of a sudden I have 3 articles to read by this time next week (all in ‘scientific text’ which means I have to read everything a minimum of twice to understand it). To say it’s a shock to the system is a bit of an understatement. I know it has to be done, so I am approaching it with the understanding that I’m just going to have to keep practising and KEEP READING!
2 Ways I’m Learning to Read
1 – Read something fictional. The last time I read a book was when I was away travelling and the time to do so. So I have started to read. I generally do this on the train to and from University, it passes the time and although I may not be learning something, I’m getting better at reading.
2 – Writing. Well blogging, writing these posts is helping a lot with my reading. I feel the more I write the more I understand when I read. There is probably something nice and scientific to explain why this is…. But I’ll let you guys find the literature for one.
Find out what works for you. You may be the kind of person who can just dive straight in, absorbing every last morsel or information, popping out the other end of a book without coming up for air. You may be like me. Whichever you are, find a way that you can practice without it being boring.
What’s The Point of This Article?
The point I’m making is to be aware of the pitfalls of the internet. Not all sources of information provide the truth! If you can, get hold of genuine articles or books and have a go – it can take time and practice. If you really don’t or can’t get into the journals, find podcast and videos from the authors of the articles and books.
But isn’t this post on a blog? Yes, it is. However, all of the NK Fitness Leading Personal Trainers who post articles regularly keep up to date with the latest research, findings and popular topics out there. As a result our posts come straight from reliable sources and we always do our best to include links to articles where we can.