what does learning feel like?

If knowledge is power, than curiosity is the muscle.

Focus is a fabulous force. Tho’ sometimes, it’s good to blur the lines and depart from your expertise, your skill set and what you think you know so well. Many a great discovery has come from accidental encounters and seemingly unrelated interests.

Choose three subjects that you have no interest in whatsoever, or that you’re actually slightly adverse to. Do it right now. Google ‘em. Let yourself meander for a bit, not too long – just until you learn something you didn’t know before.

My topic picks: knitting – I respect it dearly, but it’s never going to happen for me; National Rifle Association – a mentality that baffles my sensibilities and values; high-jumping – not in this life time.

Here’s what I learned in under fifteen minutes:
1. From Craftnicity and The Knit A Square Project: It is estimated that there are 11.6 million orphans in sub-saharan Africa. 1.4 million live in South Africa.
2. According to the Washington Post, “visitors to some national parks would be able to start packing heat along with their tents and picnic baskets under a proposal being considered by the Interior Department that would ease restrictions on loaded firearms in the parks.” Just what I want…to go camping in the same vicinity as some yahoos with a Winchester in their cooler.
3. Blanka Vlašić is considered the Best Female Athlete in the World. Her legs go up to my chin. Wowza.

The point of this exercise isn’t to waste time or fill your bean with trivia. It’s to remember what it’s like to actively learn. Feel your brain pulse, your eyes lift, your heart open. Freshness. Power. Perspective – is everything.