Life will invest in you. But will you?

Dance classes, football lessons, tuitions, clubs, playdates and so on; Are these exclusively for children? Is it all just a learning chance of the past. Is it true that we only really learn when we were kids and now that we are adults we can’t really grow or learn new things? The older the age, the more rigid your brain becomes and hence trying to learn something new, to practice it or to even excel at it becomes impossible.

Well, to a certain extent that is true but not completely. The major difference is that as you grow old, you have more experience to be familiar with. As a kid you don’t have much to work with. Everything is new. You need to trust your parents/gaurdians with what they say and what they ask you to do and learn. And you just simply do it. You learn the alphabets, you learn the numbers, you connect the dots, you learn maths and science. Maybe you go further on with extracurriculars, with your parents, friends or just paid tutors as your teacher.

We are not incapable of learning new things and having new neuron connections. We are just too familiar and comfortable with what we already know. We invest in leisure, we invest on kids(or trying to look like one), we excuse our bad behaviours and habits on past experiences. We forget that we are still alive, that we are not set in stone, that we are still conscious, that our brain still works. We need to invest in ourselves again. Our parents did it for us first. It’s time to parent ourselves. You dont even need money to invest in yourself, just the time and effort will do. As kids any time you saw your friends doing something cool/impressive, let’s say a dance step or a cool basketball trick, you immediately wanted to learn how to do it too, and maybe in sometime, with some practice you picked it up as well. We were genuinely always ready to learn and understand and make sense of all that surrounds us. As we grow up seeing new things trigger us negatively. We see someone knowing or doing more than us and we become purple with jealousy. We see different faces, languages, cultures, subjects and our first reaction isn’t awe or inspiration but aversion.

I think life is a cycle. You are born a baby. You die a baby. You dont grow up to be tough and mature. You grow up to be helpless again just as you were when you were a baby. If we start off with knowing nothing at all, im sure we die with not knowing much either. At least nothing of sigificant importance.

You need to keep learning. That’s the only way to have meaning and depth in your life.

“Ignorance is bliss”, but even knowing that phrase means that you are aware, you learn and you read. I don’t mean to say that you need to sit down and learn quantum mechanics (unless you want to). Creativity, play, languages, reading, writing, solving sudoku, playing chess, anything that is new or maybe acquainted to you is part of the learning process. Don’t believe the limits that people tend to impose on us. “At this age, you should focus on this. At that age, you stop learning because you already know everything.” Do not excuse your bad habits, behaviours, and your absence of political & economic views. Learn and be aware. That is the only way to really live and have an impact (if only on oneself). Learn to express yourself in a new language(it could even be practicing your mother tongue if you don’t really talk or read or write in it anymore). A new language means a whole new vocabulary with words that capture meanings other languages couldn’t begin to explain. Learn about history. Read fiction. Be interested in art. Art is political. Even Albert Einstein has said, “Once you stop learning, you start dying”. Do not get too stuck up on the facts though. He has also said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”

Invest in yourself, use your body, your creativity, your mind, your imagination and learn something new at all phases of your life.

But ofcourse, like many, you can choose to not actively do that and stay in your comfort zone. After all, many people learn through “the course of life”. Experience is the best teacher. Life will invest in you. And you will forever survive as the mediocre version of yourself.