People often comment on or ask me why I do so much learning.

Monthly, weekly and daily, I ‘work on myself’. Every time I get the question, I realise that this is not a natural habit for that many. It shocks me and then I remember that our natural tendencies are not all cookie cutter. We are driven by different impulses and values. That’s what makes us unique and interesting. I usually smile.

In response to sharing that I’m off to put myself through a (yet another) workshop or I’ve taken on a new mentor, I hear “But you know so much, what else do you need to know?” or “you already give so much to so many” and my favourites are “but why do you need to learn more?” and  “don’t you know enough?”

I go because my hunger is not for learning, it is for growth.

And growth is an experience, an unfolding and a reaching for a new level of me, sometimes higher, sometimes deeper. I put myself in rooms and with people from whom I can learn, so that GROWTH can occur. Learning is a means to that end, it’s a stepping stone.

What can I learn today that deepens my knowledge and experience of me?

That is the question for us all. Learning provides us with that AHA!, it helps us to figure out how A and B and Z connect, it opens us up to finding out something that did not click or connect yesterday, yet now makes perfect sense. And with that new found knowledge, we can have new visions, understanding and experiences. All of which, I call Growth.

Growth is an expansive homecoming.

Where learning is expanding your mind outward, backward, building on what was, making connections, assimilations and assumptions, Growth is an inward expansion, a home coming of knowledge turned to wisdom and wider experience. You are literally a new person – as a result of learning. And that’s the key here. The thing that matters to me is not the learning, it is the growth. Which is why I am absolutely and always going to seek out the people from whom I can grow.

I’d love to hear your distinctions and thoughts 🙂