Learning

It's kind if silly, but I feel I must start this by saying that I hate gerunds, or verbs made nouns by adding -ing to them. They always feel lost. Never-the-less, this post is indeed about learning. Not education, but learning.

Rather, he doesn't ever slow down until he's so tired he just has to stop. I'm constantly amazed by his energy levels. And he's not the first kid to have shown me energy output of epic proportions. What truly amazes me though is he never has this urge that many adults do; an urge to get away from everyone and everything for a while just for the purpose of resting. 

He's also always learning. Whether it's about how he can move and twist and run and climb or it's about the specific properties of chalk and what happen when it's thrown on the concrete with some amount of force, the gears in his head are always turning. Everything is till so new to him that even repeated experiences are learning experiences.

I imagine those gears don't stop when he goes to sleep either.

A while back, on a day when I was feeling particularly exhausted, a post from Ron Shaich, CEO and founder of Panera, popped up in my LinkedIn news feed. The title, If You're Learning, You'll Never Need to Recharge, was intriguing, and I needed a break for a minute. I put aside the numbers I was inputting in to a database and read the article. It was something of a life changing moment for me; one of those moments when everything just falls in to place. The title of the article says everything. The gist of it: he goes on to say that despite running around the country constantly, he doesn't ever feel the need to re-charge; to stop and escape from everything for a time. He suggests it's because he constantly learns new lessons and takes on new challenges.

I think he must have taken a lesson from a child.

I also think he's right.

I'm always happiest when I have a new puzzle in front of me, especially if it's a puzzle I've never solved before, but even if it's similar, but not a carbon-copy to, one that I've already mastered, I'm a pretty darn happy girl. Learning keeps me going. Trying more, better, bigger things recharges my batteries and keeps me doing what I love and what I have to do well.

Charge forth, I say, and take over the world one new challenge at a time. Do what I did yesterday, but do it better today. Do something new today, so that I can learn and do it better tomorrow. I can never know too much.