Any craft or profession requires a lot of learning and for some of us that’s half the fun. We’re curious to know more, and when we care about our field the subtleties and nuances are endless.
The risk is we end up taking in a lot of information without giving ourselves the opportunity to process it. Going to a workshop without building in time to integrate the content afterwards is like filling up on Christmas lunch and expecting to go back to work that afternoon.
There’s a risk of constantly seeking new insights only to forget most of them. Output-driven systems also encourage us to see open space in our calendar as dead time to be filled with something else. And when we constantly tell ourselves we need more, we may be rehearsing a fear that we are not enough.
We need to create and protect time to reflect on new learning to find its place within our existing practice. We may need to play with specific skills or concepts away from the complexity of real-world conversations where there is too much going on and it’s easy to default back to what we normally do. When we take time to share learning with others we can consolidate it more deeply for ourselves.
We can make mindful choices about what we learn, who from and how much. And consuming the information is only half of the learning. We can also cultivate a practice of building in time to digest what is most helpful, so it becomes available when we most need it.
Helen Mentha 