The focus of this post is to differentiate between accumulating knowledge and growing as a person. Accumulating knowledge is a component of growth - but accumulating knowledge alone is not growing.
First we begin with a story from about a year and a half ago. I was in a poor place in my life, unsure what to do in regards to my future. I had just stopped working as a laborer for a general construction company but my life was in an unfocused haze. To make matters worse I was spending a lot of time playing League of Legends, (video games) not valuing my time. This was when I took up the goal to try to read a book a week for a year. On the surface this seems like a good goal to set my life in a positive direction. Reading a book a week for a year is a time measured goal, specific, and broad enough not to be restrictive. A year and a half later I still think it was a good goal, but it became restrictive and unhealthy to my life in a way I did not understand at the time.
Now let's talk about personal growth - my specific formula for personal growth is:
The Accumulation of Knowledge + Tension = Growth.
Let's break down what it means first to accumulate knowledge. We soak up endless knowledge every single day by living. Our brains process this knowledge, neglect some, retain others, and in an ideal world apply the knowledge in a way that allows us to grow. the secret sauce to growing is combining the knowledge we accumulate with action, but more on this later. The mistake I made with setting the goal of reading a book a week was that I was just accumulating knowledge. This is one of the easiest mistakes to make! Introductory college biology courses are a great example of non-applied knowledge accumulation. The majority of the course is memorization and regurgitation of that information.
Now let's take a moment to break down growth. People will go to extraordinary measures to not be uncomfortable, yet being uncomfortable is often a good self-check for growing. For this article tension and action will be synonyms. It would be correct to call this merely "thinking" but I do not think that term does the process justice. Growing is using the knowledge you have accumulated and applying it to gain more knowledge or opportunities in life.
Where I went wrong : For me reading a book a week became easy due to the fact that I had a lot of free time. After a few weeks of doing a lot of reading I developed the habit of reading multiple hours a day. Instead of going out in the world and applying the knowledge I had accumulated I devoted more and more time to simply accumulating knowledge. This is a trap a lot of people fall into, as we in western civilization put such a premium on knowledge.
A year and a half after my original story I still read often but do not have a goal set to read a book a week. I am probably reading the least per day(probably an hour) than I have since High School. This is because I have a backlog of information I have accumulated. I imagine a lot of people are like me in this way - thinking they need to accumulate more knowledge instead of just committing to action. I encourage you to think about if you are or have confused accumulating knowledge for growing in your life.
As always thoughts or feedback are encouraged as I am new to blogging and my primary focus is improving. Feel free to reach out via email at Timmyo357@gmail.com
