How to fall back in love with regular study (short)

Untethered Mind, Friday short, 2-min read.

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It’s funny.

I study more now at thirty-six than I did at school or university.

I remember that learning was fun and occasionally intriguing during those times, but there was an undercurrent of resistance to what learning entailed.

It always felt like a bit of a push.

I think it was because we were obligated to learn so that we’d pass tests and avoid punishment.

Not always, but often.

Fear-based, rather than for love.

And it was that sense of learning out of fear that often drained it of enthusiasm. An anaemic kind of study, heightened still by teenage angst and the necessity to learn in volume across an immense variety of subjects.

The requirement, therefore, was ‘just enough.’

What drives me nowadays is an entirely different form of energy.

My ‘why’ has shifted without me realising it.

I continue to study most days, whether it’s through courses, coaches, YouTube videos, articles or books — not out of a sense of obligation.

Obligation is a heavy thing.

Instead, I do it out of a willingness to develop mastery in a craft.

I am doing it for me. And by doing it for me, I am also doing it as a form of service.

This is enlivening.

Every day that I deliberately learn something new, I am cranking up my ability to contribute.

As Darius Foroux wrote beautifully in this article, it is not happiness we need to be after, but our usefulness in the world. Our usefulness, in this sense, IS happiness.

A commitment to mastery is a commitment to usefulness at the very highest echelons.

Developing mastery is a beautiful strategy because it inherently has no end — it incentives continual growth and study — an open and uncritical eye.

Beyond that, there is something exciting about living in the reality of becoming the very best. Anything short of this, as many of us come to learn, is ultimately draining.

Mastery, therefore, is our only choice.

And learning out of love for the craft, the ground on which we tread.

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New book for you to study ;)…

I’ve just released my latest book, The Art of Self Respect— Twenty-five subtle habits for cultivating deep self-respect and attracting the respect of others.

You can buy it today until Tuesday March 5th at a special low launch price here, and other Amazon localities:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Enjoy.

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