How to learn.
Now, if you didn’t go to college that’s fine. You don’t need to go to college to learn how to learn. You were born with the knowledge of discovery.
It’s best to think back to a time when you were excited to learn. Possibly in childhood. The excitement of discovering something you didn’t know. A swirl of questions rushed to your head as you imagined this new world with this new knowledge.
Trouble is… somewhere along the way you lost your ability to learn. You had studied enough of the laws and principles of your universe – that you felt confident in your mastery of understanding and set out to take on the world. You could now approach life as an expert.
“I can do it” the child exclaims as he grabs the spatula out of his mother’s hand before she had time to instruct, and his zealousness shattered the cake his mother had baked. You know that kid. Always jumping in thinking he knew how to do something after seeing it once. He was annoying. He had something to prove. He was good enough.
But what he actually was, was someone afraid of not being good enough. And instead of wondering what it will take to do something great, he succumbed to the comfort of mediocrity. Where improvement is relative to your perspective yesterday rather than your perspective for how tomorrow will take shape.
The moment you forgot to learn was the moment you lost your sense of wonder. That imagination that allowed reality to feel magical. You lost your vision of the world beyond this world. You settled right where you are.
To learn something you must be vulnerable to the idea that your reality is not what it seems. Your paradigms are yours, not everyones. Your perspective is unique. Your experiences exclusive. The data that comprises your life is yours and yours alone. Your values are shaped by that data, your personal algorithm.
It is insane to think that everyone, every single person, should have the same perspective. It is also unsane to reason that all perspectives are valid. Therefore, a sane reality would have in it such a law that ensured the possibility for a diverse population to remain diverse.
To do so, three things are necessary in structuring the environment:
1. Individuality
2. Values
3. Privacy
Many who attend university, actually never learn the importance of a college education. Very few ever did. For that is precisely what Universities are designed to do: guide society to fulfill its potential. At the individual level, this can be summed up as simply expanding your horizon. The individuals potential is an array on a spectrum. And if the universe truly is infinite, the values are infinite, and if values can be negative and positive they must be privatized to protect the finite value of the individual.Doing so promotes the deeply held belief that once made learning so exciting. That belief that may have even driven you to attend university. And deep down you know that society depends on this belief to be true… That anything is possible.
The question is: Do you want to be the one that discovers it?
Secure your value. Find Satori, my fellow salesperson. Go learn something new. Define the future.
Author: Jeff Donnelly
Game Designer. In both business and life, the potential is limited by the number of transactions available. Life is like a game. Jeff designs games that allow people to realize their full potential.
