...doing what you want to learn.

I love reading. I'm very passionate and hungry for information that I read everything and anything I'm interested in. The format and how it's presented doesn't matter because reading for me is a form of relaxation and a chronic habit that I can't seem to shrug, a bad combination for is a potential if not an addiction. Reading for me is like eating. The printed word makes me salivate for new knowledge contained in its every character.

The problem comes when my desire for new information ends with reading. I consider myself knowledgeable on various topics. But when I get to the point that am able to eloquently and articulately explain certain concepts and ideas, but have nothing to show for it in terms of results, I lose confidence, a phenomenon appropriate for the realization. It is because the true value of knowledge is dependent on its application, known as output. Output is defined not by what we know but what we've done. Ideas are meaningless unless they are implemented, executed and transformed into tangible goods, services, entities or movements.

Knowledge is necessary for us to be productive, since all processes begin as ideas weaved into our own thinking, but it need not be gained only through consumption of information. Taking risks, experimenting methods, applying new practices and simply just doing what we already know are all manners of learning. These activities require a holistic involvement - physical, mental and even emotional, making the learning experience active and the knowledge gained easier to retain and master.

I've learned that by doing some of the things I want to learn, giving myself time limits on the passive learning process of just consuming information and forcing myself to immediately implement some ideas, no matter how small the scale, is  the best way for me to gain knowledge. I want to learn a lot of things. My free time will only allow me to read so much.

I'm a believer that wisdom is more powerful than knowledge and wisdom is simply knowledge, applied.

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