Unlearn
Providing you’re prepared to invest the time, you can learn just about anything. Want to learn an obscure foreign language? No worries. Amazon will happily sell you one of 3073 books to teach yourself Swahili. Perhaps you’re after a bit of old fashioned wisdom? You can have that for $2.32 plus postage. You’re only a couple of mouse clicks away from a dizzying array of mentors, consultants, and courses constructed to help fashion you into a more effective, productive and enlightened citizen.
But of equal importance (but given less limelight because it’s harder to package up and sell) is unlearning: Identifying and letting go of things we think or do that don’t necessarily serve us. Habits of mind that cast long shadows on unexplored possibilities:
“I’m too old to try that”
“I’m not a creative person”
“I cannot function without an iPad”
“I’m better than you”
Sometimes it’s worth declaring a moratorium on learning, and giving your mind a haircut instead.
