Good morning, everyone! π Welcome to the very first edition of A Piece A Week with Sadiq Shamaky, where I'll be serving up bite-sized nuggets of information on topics that truly matter to you. But before we dive into today's discussion, let's begin with an uplifting quote to set the tone not just for today, but for the entire week ahead.
The biggest takeaway for me from The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz is the Thirty-Day Improvement Guide. This guide serves as a structured framework designed to enhance one's journey of self-improvement. By providing a systematic approach, it empowers you to make tangible progress in your personal development over the course of thirty days.
As you grow and strive for success, your habits play a pivotal role in determining whether you achieve your goals or not. It's the small, consistent habits we cultivate day in and day out that pave the path to our desired outcomes. While setting goals is undoubtedly effective, I've found that condensing the traditional 30-day period into a 7-day framework enhances effectiveness. By breaking the program into bite-sized chunks, it becomes more manageable and conducive to consistent progress.
The 7-Day Improvement Guide
Here's the format of the revised version of the 30-Day Improvement Guide:
For my 7-Day Improvement Guide, I start by listing the habits I want to eliminate and those I want to cultivate, with checkboxes for each day of the week. Additionally, I create a column for tracking statistics.
At the end of each day, I mark each activity with a βοΈ for completed tasks and β for those left undone. The aim is to maximize β for habits to cut and also maximize βοΈ for those to acquire.
Weekly, I tally the β (for habits to eliminate) and βοΈ (for habits to acquire) and record the numbers in the final column. This method fosters self-accountability and allows for necessary adjustments.
It's a powerful self-monitoring tool, driven solely by personal willpower. For more detailed insights, I highly recommend reading the book, where you'll discover numerous valuable self-improvement strategies. Below is a snapshot of a week (7-day) from my February 7-DIG.
Here's a downloadable template of the 7-Day Improvement Guide for you to print and utilize. This customizable template enables you to tailor your goals, facilitating necessary adjustments for your journey towards self-improvement. Feel free to download and use it to track your progress effectively.
Take a moment to grab a piece of paper or dedicate a notebook to jot down your own goals - both the habits you want to cut off and the ones you aim to acquire. Remember, as the saying goes, The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. Your time is now, at this very moment, to take action towards your personal growth and development.
Now that we've explored the insights of the 7-Day Improvement Guide, let's pivot to delve into the intriguing dynamics of the Asch Conformity experiment.
Asch Conformity
Imagine you're in a room with a group of people, but what you don't know is that everyone except you is a paid actor. You're all asked to compare the lengths of lines labeled 1, 2, 3, and 4. The catch is, lines 1, 2, and 4 are actually the same length, while line 3 is noticeably longer. As each person in the group confidently chooses the incorrect line, you might start doubting your own perception, eventually feeling pressured to conform and select the wrong line just to fit in with the group. This classic experiment by Asch highlights the powerful influence of social pressure on individual decision-making.
In conclusion, the Asch Conformity experiment vividly illustrates how the desire to fit in and avoid standing out can lead individuals to disregard their own judgment and succumb to social pressure. This tendency to conform, even when it means ignoring obvious truths, underscores the profound influence of our social environment on our decision-making processes. It serves as a stark reminder of the importance of maintaining independent thinking and resisting the urge to compromise our beliefs for the sake of conformity.
News π°
The Pieces We Could Get Our Hands On:
The price of the world's largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, briefly hit a new all-time high of more than $69,000 on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. It surpassed the previous record set in November 2021 - though by 2022 Bitcoin's value had sunk to $16,500. The new surge in price has been spurred by US finance giants pouring billions into buying bitcoins.
Nigeria is the 5th African country with the lowest fuel price in March 2024, with petrol pump price at $0.428. It was the 8th country globally back in January 2024.
βAfrica imports 70-80% of its medicines.β Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, President AfDB, shared this information as he received the prestigious Awolowo Prize for Leadership in Lagos, Nigeria.