How do you set priorities and go deep into your craft and learning?

[Jim Bob]

Hi everyone,

Does anyone else struggle with going deep into either their chosen craft or their learning?

I think this might be a tendency of big picture thinking, getting a thrill from connecting the dots and wanting to see how everything fits together. To put it simply I want to learn everything! I know this is impossible and indeed so allusive, as the more I learn the more I realize I don't know. I actually think its possibly the most beautiful thing about learning, staring into the unknown. 

However I can never go deep into anything and it's draining both my mind and my pocket.

I buy so many books on a variety of different subjects, I love reading but I can only ever seem to read a handful of pages before ordering or jumping into another book. I skip chapters, find the best pages, look up things on the internet while reading.  I used to think this approach of cross referencing and learning was practical and useful. But now I'm starting to see that my behavior is not changing and therefore I'm not really learning. I'm just chasing theories and Ideas. But I can't stop....

I'm stuck in a though pattern of...If I just learned that...if I only knew this. The process seems very self absorbed.

How can I break this pattern and and the same time dive deeper into the learning process?

Does any one else share this problem or perhaps think this isn't even an issue? 

 

 

What are your learning strategies?

How do you go deep into specific fields of study when you want to learn so many things?

How do you prioritize your learning?

How can I apply a mastery mindset to learning?

 

 

[Joseph Maynor]

Here’s the paradox.  You gotta fill your cup completely before you can effectively start to empty it.  That’s the necessary perfect circle of seeking.  ⭕️. It’s the exhaustion of Ego that paradoxically causes Ego to burn away in a highly-conscious person. If I wasn’t so addicted to knowledge in my 20’s up until my late 30’s I would never be able to give all my books away and burn all my Philosophy freewriting at 39-40.  See, people wanna do the emptying the cup part before they’ve exhausted the filling the cup part.  This is like trying to be an old man when you’re still an adolescent.  If you’re still clinging to books and learning — you’re not ready to empty your cup — you’re still filling your cup.  A hungry man is not gonna swear off food.  It’s the satiated man who says no thanks and gives his food away.  Some people fill their cup with all kinds of notions of emptying their cup but never actually empty their cup, so watch out for that trap.  That’s the person who gobbles up a bunch of Enlightenment theory but is not actually getting the results from it yet.  For me, my cup started to empty on its own, it’s not something I forced.  All of a sudden  about a year ago I gave all my books away because I didn’t want to be distracted by them anymore. And then recently I realized that writing a bunch of essays was more about me emptying my cup rather than filling it.  The writing was me letting go of my ideas.  Before age 39 I assumed my writing was me preserving my profound insights; the writing was for clinging to my ideas not for releasing them.  Stuff like that is how you know you’re on the emptying your cup leg of the circle rather than the filling your cup leg of the circle.

Edited October 11, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[Jim Bob]

@Joseph Maynor Thank you for sharing...I'm not sure why but I feel somewhat calmer for reading your words. 

Like I know, it will be alright.

I'm 26 now, reflecting back would you say there is some sort of anxiety that comes at this stage where you just need to know, you have to seek answers? 

What advice would you give to your "addicted to knowledge in my 20's" self?

Edited October 11, 2018 by Jim Bob

[Jim Bob]

@Wasem Thank you for sharing this resource. I will let you know how I get on.