Have you ever met someone and been amazed by the depth and significance of their insights? Someone whose savvy thinking and worldview transformed yours?
It’s an amazing experience. It forces you to look at part of your life through a new lens – one that’s suddenly full of wonders and possibilities you never considered before. This once-in-a lifetime opportunity happened to me several years ago. It was such a profound experience that I feel compelled to share it with you.
What I thought I knew (but I was wrong)
You see, everything I’ve done over the last 20 years has been focused on helping people be more creative. I’ve written a lot about creativity tools, including mind mapping to brainstorming applications, ideation card decks and tools for capturing ideas any time, anywhere. In the process, I’ve developed a significant amount of expertise about creativity.
I thought I “knew” how to use Evernote. I even wrote a book about how to leverage it as a creativity tool. Little did I realize that I was missing one of it’s most powerful creative applications – as a personal knowledgebase that could contain every bit of knowledge I’ve encountered, every idea and observation I’ve brainstormed and everything I’ve created.
Who was the deep thinker who forced me to rethink how I create?
Who was the genius who challenged how I develop new ideas and insights?
Tiago Forte, the author of a remarkable course called Building a Second Brain.
What is it?
Building a Second Brain Is a simple but powerful system that enables you to capture your ideas, insights and the knowledge you encounter each day, using the popular note-taking tool, Evernote. It then empowers you to use it as a catalyst to power your creativity at a level I’ve never seen before.
Simply put, it’s a system that gives you the freedom to thrive in the Information Age.
So what?
Why am I sharing this with you?
Why does Building a Second Brain matter to you?
Because if you work with information, knowledge or ideas, its principles and practices can elevate the quality and quantity of your creative output.
As Tiago explains it, if you want to contribute to your world a higher level, then you need to take a radically different approach to how you interact with the information around you. All the world’s knowledge is just a Google search away. We’re living in an almost limitless sea of information. This creates a significant challenge:
How can you create new ideas and value when literally everyone has access to the same raw materials?
The key is to become exceptionally good at gathering, distilling, organizing and then remixing it into new ideas:
“Your quality of life, your income, your impact, your success, everything you care about is tied directly to your fluency with information – your ability to capture it, organize it and share it with the world.”
The impact of Building a Second Brain
Tiago’s approach to personal knowledge management has literally blown up and expanded my worldview of creativity because it solves this problem in a very simple and elegant way.
I’ve watched him refine the principles and concepts of Building the Second Brain during the last decade. I’ve been interviewed by him. I’ve gotten to know him personally, and have been super-impressed with the depth of his insights and the modest sincerity of his mission. He’s the real deal – a genuine genius.
Building a Second Brain is now about to open registration for the 10th cohort of learners to enter its live, collaborative learning experience. As each group of learners has benefited from it, Tiago has his team have used their feedback to steadily improve its content and effectiveness. What started out as an e-book containing a few breakthrough ideas a decade ago has matured into an entire ecosystem that is changing lives.
Want to make a difference? This course will show you how.
Check it out now
If you’re serious about making a bigger impact in your work and life, then I urge you to go to the Building a Second Brain website. Learn more about the thinking behind it. Sign up for Tiago’s 7-day email course: 7 Lessons Before You Build A Second Brain, I think you’ll be VERY impressed with his work and what it can potentially do for you.
During the next several weeks, I will be sending you several messages that dig deeper into my thoughts about this learning experience and why it’s so important. I also hope to do a Zoom interview with Tiago about the creative aspects of his remarkable framework. Watch this blog for an update on that!
Disclosure: I am one of 11 people Tiago hand-picked as affiliate partners to help him spread the word about Building a Second Brain. I’m sharing it with you because his thinking has made a profound impact on my work. I’m convinced it can do the same for you!