43 Things

I've connected my 43 Things account to my blog now, so I can post entries from there as blog posts here.
43 Things is "The world's largest goal-setting community." You can list up to 43 things at a time that you want to achieve. A mix of short-term and long term goals is always best, that way you can tick some things off quickly and feel productive and keep some things there to remind you of lifetime aspirations.
You can browse other people's goals and give them 'cheers' or comments, and they should usually reciprocate.
It's a good way of managing your goals and sharing support with other members.
So if you haven't already, take a look :)
www.43things.com

Test post

I am doing 43 things.

Beyond Awareness

I’m not a morning person, at least not in the conventional sense. But recently I’ve discovered the advantages of 9.15am lectures. Somehow, when I’m in my not-quite-woken-up stage of the day, when the caffeine is yet to kick in, I tend to take in half of the lecturer’s words and let them direct my thoughts to anything that crops up, which is usually very little to do with the content of the lecture.

Today, between yawns and chewing the end of my pen, I learned about Piaget… well, re-capped Piaget from 2 years ago. Piaget developed a stage theory of cognitive development, to explain how children come to understand and fit in with the world around them.

Something I hadn’t previously learned is the concept of substages within the sensori-motor stage (the first stage of development, which occurs from birth to 2 years), so this drew my attention. One study that the theory is based on is ‘A not B’ tasks. This involves the infant placing an object in Box A. The infant then observes the adult move the object from Box A to Box B. The infant then has to find the object. Simple enough? Well, up until the age of 12 months (on average) errors are still made in the ‘A not B’ task. This is to say that the infant still searches for the object in Box A, even after having seen the object move from A to B. Infants at this age are perfectly aware of what is happening around them, but they cannot grasp how these things have any influence on their world.

This is where my mind went wandering.

Perfectly aware of what is happening around them, but they cannot grasp how these things have any influence on their world.

I think a lot of us are still in the first stage of development as human beings.

Not a day goes by without being reminded of the suffering, injustice and ecological damage going on around us right now. Images flash up on our TV screens and newsfeeds of war, starvation, cruelty and extinction. Do we take any notice? Yeah, sure we do. We know these things aren’t right and would hate it to happen to us. Of course there are those who choose to ignore. Do we do anything about it? Maybe, if we have a little extra time or money to spare. Of course some of us do more than others. But a lot of us fail to see how a child dying of starvation in Africa or the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest, have any influence on our own world. I’m not an expert, but I know impoverished nations are breeding grounds for terrorism (if we needed any other reason to help the hungry) and that deforestation on such a scale is doing and will continue to wipe out species, as well as causing irreversible global environmental damage.

Of course, things happen closer to home and people still don’t see the relevance to their own lives. Political apathy is a dangerous thing. Fascist groups are growing in Europe. Many people in the UK don’t see the point in voting in the European Elections, demonstrated by a 34.7% turnout in 2009, which resulted in the appointment of 2 new far-right MEPs, well-known for their intolerance and prejudiced views. I don’t think I’m being too presumptuous by not explaining why we should worry about the growth of the far-right in Europe…

It gets even simpler than that. Just look out for the people around you. Be compassionate. Don’t hurt or hate. Help people. Chances are, they’ll remember and help you too. The smallest act of kindness, at the very least, gives you a buzz of wellbeing.

So just take the time to not only be aware of things around you, but to consider what it means; how it affects your life, and the lives of others in the future. We’re all empathetic beings and it’s time we realised this and developed as a human race.