On Learning

This Tuesday I posted a a little clip sharing my love of learning completely new things . I was glad to see that it resonated with some of you. It’s always a great feeling to realize that you are not completely alone with your passions 😊

However, in a short video clip it is hard to really explore an idea or concept. Our world today can throw some obstacles in your path that make truly immersing yourself in something harder. When you commit to learn something that you are not familiar with, it will take you a lot longer to really understand the connected concepts and theories.

I urge you to invest time into learning something new you are passionate about.

The sound bites and snippets presented on Social Media offer brilliant possibilities for encountering new things to learn: looking at Reels, TikToks or postings can help to find interesting topics, connect with people facing similar challenges or encounter new things to immerse yourself in. I want to encourage you to not stop after you have encountered something new that excites you this way. Stay with the new idea you encountered and immerse yourself more deeply instead of directly moving on!

For me that might be easier than for some: I do not have one true “calling”. I never had this one North Star to guide my decisions, never felt that there is that one special thing that I am supposed to do in the world. For a long time, I felt that was a huge handicap. I was feeling jealous of people that have found their calling. Documentaries like Jiro dreams of Sushi (currently on Netflix) fascinate me. And sometimes, I still wish I had this one thing that I love so much that I could spend my whole life immersing myself – striving to become a true master. But I am not that type of person: I love exploring different things and learning something new as often as I can.

Emilie Wapnick has shared her ideas regarding this personality type in a TED talk that absolutely resonated with me: I am a “multipotentialite” and I agree that we do have a purpose in this complex world that offers multifaceted challenges. We love to learn and immerse ourselves in a lot of different things. This enables us to make connections and draw from multiple threads of information which enables us to arrive at different solutions.

Looking at the world today, multipotentialites collaborating with people that have found their true calling enables us to find better solutions to the complex issues of today - together. And as these issues are extremely complex and layered we will all need to keep learning and evolving to truly understand the issues we strive to solve.

Learning is essential to reframe how we see the world.

Whatever your personality type might be: Learning is essential to reframe how we see the world. It is like a compass helping us to find the place in the world where we can do the most good at a certain point in time. It gives us a broader world view and new perspectives. Our brains are wired for learning: It brings me so much joy to learn new skills and realize how they first help me solve the issue I learned them for and then broaden my view regarding all other challenges I need to tackle.

I am currently spending roughly 10 hours a week learning a new skill in addition to my regular work. On one hand this is challenging as I am still needing to learn a lot of new things in the VP role I stepped into in April. On the other hand it is a huge load of my back to finally wrap my head around a concept and solve a problem that I dreaded and avoided for years. I realized how easy it can be if you find the right teacher and have buddies that hold you accountable on your learning journey. This learning journey has broadened my view (again):

• I see new opportunities in my job that I was not aware of before.
• I am now keen to tackle a challenging project that is way out of my comfort zone, because I feel empowered thanks to realizing again what I am capable of.
• I feel deep joy and freedom at finally addressing an issue I ran away from for quite a while. Now I have gained the power and knowledge to just solve it in a relatively short amount of time.
• I feel deep gratitude that I am able to learn and expand my horizons whenever I choose.

I want to encourage you: start learning something new today!

Is there a secret passion that you always wanted to live but do not believe to have the time for? Make time! There is always time in our schedules, we just need to commit:

• Perhaps it’s giving up 2 hours of Netflix a week for 2 hours of learning to knit (look at Tom Daley finding time to learn knitting and crochet whilst preparing for the Olympics 😊).
• Perhaps you can learn something new together with your partner or children combining family time with the shared joy of learning something new?
• Maybe finding a learning buddy to hold you accountable for reaching your learning goal helps you find your way back into more face-2-face social interactions after self-isolating for so long?

Just do it! What are you starting to learn today?

I look forward to cheering you on when you share in the comments and look forward to see where your next learning journey will take you.