Ingrid Cummings

The Summary:
The Vigorous Mind proposes that the way to health and happiness is to “cross-train your brain” by intentionally diversifying the portfolio of your activities. Using historical as well as contemporary “Renaissance people” as inspiration, the book argues for a return to a generalist gestalt during the hours of the day when we’re not pursuing ever-narrower career specialties. With a distinctive approach to time management, The Vigorous Mind puts a contemporary spin on what it meant to be “well rounded,” a notion that sounds delightfully quaint today.

The book taps into one of today’s hottest trends: The application of neuroscience to everyday brain health. Scientists are proving that strategically pursuing a broad spectrum of sometimes-counterintuitive activities can actually strengthen your brain and make you better at everything you undertake.

The secret is consistent, incremental “baby steps,” in the spirit of the newly popular Japanese belief system called Kaizen. Kaizen is an ancient Japanese Zen philosophy that advocates taking small, even trivial steps to accomplish large goals. The intention is for the reader to make accelerative progress toward their cross-training goals by committing just 20 minutes of concentrated attention per day (what the author calls “Triumph in Twenty”) applied to any topic of their choice.

Ingrid Cummings makes the case that through knowledge of seemingly unrelated fields and interests, readers can fortify themselves against burn-out, become more fulfilled, better at their jobs, and more creative — in short, develop a truly vigorous mind.

The Review:
It is my pleasure to be a part of TLC Books Tours review of The Vigorous Mind. This book is VERY well-researched and thought-out. Cummings has obviously spent considerable time on her theory, reading works of great minds, studying history, and really immersing herself in the heart of the matter! I applaud her for her excellence in writing, as its eloquence and precision is to be admired.

As aforementioned in the summary, this book really addresses the benefits of becoming more diverse in your interests and education. She gives great examples of how to learn, a little bit each day, to enhance your overall awareness and life. In essence, she provides instructions for cross-training your mind to become more than just a specialist at one thing. Now, the book does address that it is necessary for many of us to be “super-specialists” in our career fields. But, what she argues for is the ability to expand your horizons and know a little bit about much rather than a lot about one thing. She provides good examples and training exercises within the book to get you on a path of learning and expanding.

This book really came at a time for me when I have just undergone tremendous change. It reassured me of what I may be doing right… and gave some training suggestions for further growth. I recommend this book for people who are looking for some expansion and challenge in their lives… to stretch out that brain just a bit (or, a lot) and really step out of their comfort zone. And, if that’s not where you’re at in your life, Cummings suggests you can still do small and simple things. Cummings recommends subscribing to blogs/RSS posts for the word of the day or news of the day (or, something similar)… just to keep growing that brain! I can see no argument to her suggestion as I believe we all have room to grow and are never done learning. After all, what’s the worst thing that could happen? We’d become better conversationalists and more well-rounded people!

Some of Cumming’s suggested sources:

Books

Book Discussion Clubs

eBooks

Magazines

Newspapers

The Internet

Online Databases

BLOGS

Electronic mailing lists, or e-lists

Chat groups

Coaches

Classes

Online/televised classes

The buddy system

Mastermind groups

DVDs/Videos

Books on tape

Conferences & conventions

Lectures, symposia & public events


Notable Quotes:

“Aristotle concluded that happiness is action. Dressed out a little further: happiness is participation in something that produces fulfillment.”

“We’ll never get around stress, but it’s time to start dealing with a higher quality of stress in our lives: the generative kind, not the debilitating kind.”

“If you think that you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.”

“Kaizen is the fine art of cutting grand goals down to size-the amazing power of taking one step at a time, putting one foot in front of the other. This notion is sophisticated and elegant in its simplicity, yet it’s been neglected. We live in a fast-paced culture, and we want to rush to get to the finish-quickly. There’s something in us that resists the slow and steady, but slow-and-steady progress is how you develop a vigorous mind. It’s how you accomplish any goal for that matter.”

(In discussing practicing something new) “… just twenty minutes a day for 3 days a week.”

“I live each day as if it were my last. Life in all its moments is so full of glory… the staggering glory of being alive.” - Helen Keller

“There will only be one of you for all time. Fearlessly be yourself.” -Anonymous

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” -Anais Nin, Author

“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life… I think that what we’re really seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on a purely physical plane will have resonance within our innermost being and reality so that we can actually feel the rapture of being alive.” - Joseph Campbell, Author & Mythology Scholar

“The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.” -William Blake, Artist & Poet

On Sher’s “Out of 10 Scale:”

In rating this book in the genre: Self-Help/Learning, I would rate this book a 7 out of 10. Again, the book is very well written and researched. There are hundreds of inspiring quotes scattered throughout the book. In addition, Cummings does a very good job at backing her theories with the data you need to prove that what she recommends will work. The rating for me most likely comes from where I am at, personally, in my life. I’ve done so much expansion and growing of late that, to me, I felt that I was already there where Cummings wanted me to go. However, the book is a keeper because I never know when I will need that boost to get me motivated to stretch myself once again!… (mehr)