Why choosing to embrace learning throughout life is a courageous act.
It takes guts to keep growing, knowing and learning.
There are those who are hungry, thirsty and addicted to expanding their intellectual horizons, expanding their minds, and uncovering new perspectives and truths.
These are the humble knowledge-seekers, who are committed to bettering themselves and others because they know so much more exists and evolves beyond their mere existence and parameters of their minds.
These are self-aware, fallible and vulnerable curious cats, who aren’t afraid to change their mind, acknowledge they’re wrong, or admit that they don’t know enough and are open to actively seeking the information and knowledge they need to be better, do better and act better.
And then, there are those who choose to cease, block or demote their learning, who feel, because of their age and stage, they know enough or are afraid to learn things that may force them to change their mind.
These are the dissenters and the intellectual objectors who, whether consciously or subconsciously, channel ego into ignorance and falsify being too busy to entertain acts of learning.
These are the distractors who attempt to derail and obstruct opportunities for shared knowledge, open learning and progress, because it’s easier to snuggle in to the status quo than to consider realms of potential and possibility.
Between curiosity and status quo stands courage.
The more time goes on, the more evident it is that intellectual courage and continuous learning is not only a divisive developmental skill that breeds equal parts enthusiasm, ego and envy depending on who you are along the spectrum, intellectual courage is also an act of service, for the self, and for others.
And there lies the difference. Where do you fall on the spectrum?
Here’s some more thoughts and threads on this…
‘Intellectual courage is the quality that allows one to believe in one’s judgement in the face of disappointment and widespread skepticism. Intellectual courage is even rarer than physical courage.’ - John Charles Polanyi
Link: Intellectual Bravery at Work - Forbes
‘I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.’ - Louisa May Alcott
Link: Valuable Critical Thinking Traits - CriticalThinking.org
‘It is my conviction that physical courage at crucial moments comes from the sum of intellectual courage and integrity that you muster at that moment.’ - Michael Weisskopf
Gallery:
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