Law of Proximity

I was walking to a nearby shopping mall and my thoughts wandered off again. This time, I was thinking about how did I managed to get pretty nice grades when I spent much less effort on my course materials than any of my peers. I found a pretty reasonable answer, therefore coming up with this law. Before going into details on the Law of Proximity, let me first go into the Law of Action and Reaction. I first heard of this law in Simpleology 101 and I think it is a pretty interesting theory.

Basically, the law of Action and Reaction states that for every action, there’s a reaction. Therefore, there’s nothing known as inaction. Lazing around is not inaction, rather it’s an action in itself. This action of lazing around brings upon a reaction, like getting fat and being lethargic. If you like this law, you will probably be interested in simpleology, just go to any search engine and look up the term. This course is by a famous Internet Marketer, Mark Joyner, also known as the Tiger Woods of Internet Marketing. The course material is very easy to understand and you will probably call it common sense, which is why it’s called Simpleology. However, it’s probably still a good idea to go through this course material since it’s so common that we often miss out the simple details in our daily life.

Now, it’s time to come back to my own law. The Law of Proximity states that everything is reasonably proximate to at least a few others. Applying the Law of Proximity to the Law of Action and Reaction, it results in the Law of Action and Chain Reactions. Haha, it’s getting a bit confusing, but bear with me for a moment. What I’m trying to say is that every action does not just cause reactions and end there. For example, lazing around caused the reaction of being lethargic and the reaction of being lethargic caused a further reaction that you can’t concentrate on your work. Thereafter, it causes a further reaction of bad quality work and a further reaction of low self esteem, thereby going into a loop of negativity. Just like how a smile can spread infectiously, negativity can spread like wildfire and I attribute this partly to the Law of Proximity.

The Law of Proximity can also be applied to almost everything in this world, since it’s a general rule and I can’t think of anything in this world that is not related to another in one way or another. Therefore, as a second example, I would like to apply it to justify my performance during the first semester in University. Almost all my friends and family members know that I’m quite a slacker compared to the rest of the cohort when it comes to studying for exams and tests. However, I am a big fan of reading books that are not textbooks in all kinds of areas like finance, business, psychology, marketing, NLP, self-improvement and more. Saying that I have read hundreds of ebooks is pretty much an understatement. As such, the Law of Proximity is on my side, since it’s easier to understand and apply the knowledge in textbooks when you have been exposed to related knowledge.

It’s like being physically fit helps you in playing all kinds of sports and playing all kinds of sports help keep you physically fit. See the link? However, each sport that you play has their own techniques and skills that you need to get used to, just like in academics where each subject has their own ways of working out solutions. Therefore, no matter how much related materials you get exposed to, you still have to spend some time to focus on the subject’s requirements in order to do well. I hope this helps explain how I manage to do well in poly and my first semester in university despite leaving almost all my textbooks intact. If you are only looking to do well academically, this approach probably doesn’t suit you, since focusing on just the subject can get you the results you want faster. For me, I am just a knowledge freak that just refuses to stop absorbing knowledge from all areas.

However, as someone who has taught a few of my peers in University, I would like to focus on the need to understand. Often, many students like to memorize stuff and this knowledge will hardly stay after the examinations. When I’m teaching my friends, I refuse to teach the easy way this=this and leave it as that, instead I always try to explain why this=this. I believe that it’s only when you truly understand the materials and can easily express them in your own words that the knowledge is yours for the long term. I’m not trying to make myself out to be an expert, since I’m still a student myself. However, I want to share exactly what I think and hope my humble thoughts manage to help you in a way or another.