Hello fellow learner,
Here is your first weekly letter from a learn-it-all!
My intent is to offer you value by curating content that I learn through writing, reading, listening and watching while on my journey to becoming a lifelong learner. The reason I am sharing is to challenge myself to think in different ways, facilitate learning, and inspire ideas for you. I promise that I will consistently strive to be better than I was before.
Each week I will include what I have learned, share blog posts that I wrote, a quote to think about and a question to ponder. Enjoy!
Life update
This is such a strange time for all of humanity. It is uniting us all together and making the world seem much smaller. I have been quarantined in my childhood home in Michigan for 14 days now. I am grateful to be employed, have toilet paper and enjoy the company of my family each evening over dinner.
This past week, I completed taking a writing course called Write of Passage (for the 2nd time) and the lessons are finally reinforced. The mindset shifts, like write first, research second, and that originality is paralyzing, were initially daunting. Additionally, WoP taught me how serendipitous it can be as an online writer, to be prolific with publishing to improve, how priceless online community and quality feedback is, and to be unforgiving in my system of capturing ideas and curating them.
Some things I’ve learned through…
Writing
I have learned about ways to embrace my boredom and wrote about how you can cultivate your curiosity.
In the meantime feel free to try out whichever of the below hobbies:
- Yoga with Adrienne
- Meditation with the Waking Up app with Sam Harris
- Learn to play an instrument or new song
- Listen to an old favorite album from start to finish. For me, this was my first CD by Britney Spears
Watching
I watched Matthew Hussey explain what Coronavirus means for your love life.
- He helped me understand the difference between conversation and keeping company. There isn’t pressure of responding to a conversation while keeping company. This is what people are missing while in quarantine. It also serves as a great time to pick up the phone and check-in with a friend. Leaning into relationships has never been more necessary during this time.
Listening
I listened to the Infinite Game episode on the What you will learn podcast summarizing Simon Sinek’s newest book. My biggest takeaways were the principles that were explained:
- Have a just cause
- Trusting teams
- A Worthy rival
- Existential flexibility
- The courage to lead
The most notable example I found insightful was CVS. Their vision is to help people to live longer, healthier, happier lives. In order to align with this, they addressed the elephant in the room to stop selling tobacco products in 2014 which resorted to a loss of $2B in sales.
Defining a word
Social life: the part of a person's time spent doing enjoyable things with others
- Given the circumstances of today, we need to redefine what this meant historically.
- Some ideas of how to get social virtually: download HouseParty, set up Zoom meetings for cocktail hours, go on walk and talks, watch a movie virtually together with a friend.
Quote to inspire
“The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game." — James Clear
Question to ponder
Who do I wish to become more like? What does this individual do that I can mirror?
I appreciate you reading this and would love it if you reached out to share your thoughts, so I can make your experience better. You can reach me directly at vermetjl@gmail.com.
Until next week,
Jen
PS- Stay well everyone and cultivate your curiosity
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