I don’t mean to use one of those “college words” to try and impress anyone but this one in particular stands out for me.
The word, Autodidact, means a self-taught person (from the Merriam Webster Dictionary). It’s someone who embarks on a course of study without the guidance of a teacher or subject matter expert, they determine their own course and their own reward system. They learn for the sake of learning, not for an external reward such as grades or titles, they learn because they want to.
Of course, we are all an autodidact to an extent as we all take to learning new things constantly. We learn a new way to cook something, a new way to get from point A to point B when driving, for that matter we learn to drive. These are all things that show the fact that we are all capable of learning but to be a true autodidact, we have to love learning.
I don’t put myself in this category, however, I do love to learn and to share what I’ve learned. I’m always reading and expanding on the knowledge that I have so that I can share it, and hopefully, have a conversation where someone is holding an opposing viewpoint – it’s no fun to be in a room where everyone agrees.
So as I sit and crack open another book, turn to another article or blog post, I encourage you to do the same. Find a topic that you enjoy, something that you’d like to learn more about and dig in. You don’t have to spend every waking hour on it, but a few hours every week may just lead you to something interesting, something you hadn’t thought about before.
Then, take the next step and share what you’ve learned – the world will be a better place for it.