Today I woke at 5. A stupid hour, conceded, but what was particularly unorthodox when reflected back at the past was the burning energy to jump out of bed.
I hadn’t left the electric blanket on. There wasn’t a little man pressing curling tongs against my big toe.
The fire in my belly was the lust for learning.
Let me ask you this: when was the last time you couldn’t wait to sit on a train, plane or bus for hours?
There are the special few who prepare by chucking a few films on to their portable video player; that’s nice. Others pick up a paperback or newspaper at the station or airport.
An hour in and you’re through with whatever choice stimulus inspired you.
Not so when you approach the voyage with a goal to expand your mind. To maximise every last drop of movement.
To harness the momentum of the vessel, car or plane to take you to new planes. Let me tell you this: something amazing happens when you move. I believe what fuels us are attitudes and beliefs and despite the countless years between us, our prehistoric forebears instilled a magical thirst for exploration in everything we do.
I want you to try something. Best if you do it in a car or train, even better if you don’t happen to be the driver:
1. Find a point of consistent pattern or clean lines just above eye level.
2. Take a deep breath (and smile).
3. Focus every last drop of energy on that spot.
4. As you notice your peripheral vision start to widen, take a few blinks and restore your normal focus.
5. In a few seconds, retrain your focus on what’s happening outside. A passing car, shops flashing by, a kid on a skateboard. Anything that moves.
How do you feel? A giggly moment of childish excitement? A sense of renewed concentration? Want to get out and see what’s going on?
Chances are you have all of these feelings – coincidence-free. What you’ve just experienced is a fresh perspective on life through expanding your view on the world.
And it all started with that avarice – quite guiltless, a rare example – for kinesis.
It’s not necessary to move to learn. Learning in itself makes your mind move – laterally, sequentially – through the garden of happiness.
Often before starting a learning session I invoke a burst of visualisation to get me in this garden. It’s a beautiful way to train the mind in stillness.
I don’t take credit for this technique. Zen Buddhists place absolute focus on moments of calm. When your mind is at rest it is more susceptible to expansion.
Hear the whisper of the gentle breeze; the soothing warmth of the spring day; see the flowers, every hue imaginable, stretching for the sun; taste the inexplicable love of nature in this magical creation of your own senses.
You’ve got the key to this garden, so don’t use it exclusively in readiness for mind gym. The flowers gain new levels of vividness, the sweet aroma more entrancing, more beautiful secrets reveal themselves the more you spend time there.
Take a few minutes to submit to the specialness of your secret garden then slip away.
The mellow aura leaves you in perfect shape to start working on that book, CD or whatever creative process you’ve set yourself.
Personally I’ve discovered maximum potential in the power of the audiobook.
It typifies my preferred style of learning; effortless indulgence!
Seriously, what’s good for the goose. I’m a disciple of aural inspiration simply because my mind bathes and soaks better in this method. I’m still wallowing in the knowledge that your span of concentration lasts longer when it’s coming in your ears – whatever it is.
If you’re still not grabbed by the infinite benefits of lifelong learning:
1. It inspires your entire existence. Everyone needs something else. Learning attacks the lack.
2. The journey of learning is incredibly emotional. We’re talking natural levels of happiness equivalent to chemical highs. I equate discovering a new fact to unwrapping a gift on Christmas Day.
3. You’re in a constant state of surprise.
4. Receptive minds make every experience magical.
5. The more you learn, the more you concentrate – and can preempt and react more instinctively to events outside of your control.
6. Social skills improve. The wider the variety of subjects and skills you experience, the greater the opportunity to network and grow into new spheres of influence – which leads to…
7. More opportunities in life. And a longer, healthier, happier one: a creative and fulfilled mind keeps your outlook brighter and generates willingness of the body to do more things, like go to the gym more often.
I could, as you have come to expect, go on forever evangelising the benefits of learning. But the upshot of all this is learning isn’t just a kid thing.
Or maybe it is. Children are the best people in the world – no preconceptions, great inventors, thinkers, free of stigma or restrictive beliefs.
Call me Peter Pan: the more adult children in this life, the better the world.
Daily goal for tomorrow: jump out of bed and train your brain. It’s the best thing you’ll ever do.
Tomorrow: The Power of YES; and ‘do you get by with a little help from your friends?’