I Learn When I Don't Know

One time my parents told me that one of the first sentences I formed was a question; “What’s happening?” As kids, curiosity defines us. We are sponges, experiencing everything for the first time. But as we grow older, our upbringing, social circles, and cultural standards shape how we interpret the world. We come out of the womb like wet clay, and slowly, we harden. 

Our conditioning makes it hard to see beyond the limits of our minds. We accumulate knowledge, then it binds us, creating a false sense of conviction, separating us from those who see differently. By the time we leave the education system and enter the workforce, we suffer from a gradual decline in curiosity. We become set in our ways, fragile like hardened clay.

We see how this process unfolds by first wondering, then tracing it back to the beginning; to the spongier version of us. An us that learned at a rate we can barely fathom today. If we embrace a beginner’s mind, we can harness this power. But as long as we treat our perspectives as reality, we limit our capacity to learn. And learning is the bridge to freedom. It unshackles us from ignorance, broadens our perspective, and introduces us to new ideas that challenge us to think beyond our limits of today. 

This approach to life-long learning, to embrace the wet clay mentality, enhances our ability to adapt to change, taking it in our stride rather than staying fragile in the dark.