The mind is a powerful thing.
Whether you’re learning a new language or improving your professional skills, take some advice from Margaret Atwood, who writes this in The Handmaid’s Tale (also available on Audible):
There’s always something to occupy the inquiring mind.
To keep growing, here are some of my favourite Seth Godin quotes from his 2023 blog posts, together with a recommended title from Blinkist.
If it feels uncomfortable or awkward to acknowledge that we don’t know, we’re pretty certain to lose trust, waste confidence and find ourselves in a jam now and then. ~ “I don’t know”
Learn more: The First 20 Hours
If knowing what’s happening is important, it probably pays to focus on how (and when) we discover the new stuff. ~ In and out
Learn more: The Modern Learning Ecosystem
Instead of “I was wrong,” perhaps it’s useful (if less satisfying to others seeking victory) to say, “It’s time to make a new decision based on new information.” ~ New decisions based on new information
Learn more: Rewire
Some would like to believe that learning can be done alone, in a tower, with a laptop. But in fact, until we interact with other people or systems, all we’ve done is absorb, we haven’t yet understood. ~ Useful assumptions for teachers
Learn more: The Intelligence Trap
A useful non-fiction book is a map, not the territory. It’s a chance to safely experience what might be, to experience it before it happens. ~ On reading it in a book
Learn more: How to Think Like a Philosopher
It’s almost impossible to pick up something when your hand is in a tight fist. This is why emotional enrollment is the key to learning. ~ Closed/open
Learn more: Rewire Your Anxious Brain
Access to ‘smart’ is easier than ever before. But we need to seek it out. ~ Anti-smart
Learn more: Hidden Genius
When we get better at something, it is preceded by a moment of incompetence. In that moment, we’re not exactly sure how to do it better, but we realize that the way we’d been doing it wasn’t nearly as useful. ~ I’ve been doing it wrong all along
Learn more: Retrain Your Brain
Commitment gets us through the frustration, and frustration is the partner of learning. ~ While standing on one foot
Learn more: Brain Energy
Soft skills are real, and attitudes are skills. They can be learned, and we can help others learn them as well. ~ Scaffolds and talent
Learn more: Change Your Brain, Change Your Life
Where we choose to direct our gaze determines not only what we learn or believe, but how we choose to see the world. ~ Focusing attention is a skill
Learn more: Clear Thinking
The ease with which someone can invent and spread lies is going to take most of us by surprise. It’s going to require an entirely new posture for understanding the world around us. ~ Checking the date
Learn more: Critical Thinkers
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