Learning is the single most powerful tool we have as humans for life here on earth.
The capacity to learn new things and adapt to new environments is what makes us unique as a species.
Throughout the course of our lives, we will often be presented with new opportunities and new obstacles to learn from, and the quicker we can learn from these things, the smarter and more adaptive we become.
In order to bring genuine value to others, it is imperative that the capacity to adapt and overcome new challenges and environments will determine how capable we are of bringing value to others.
As you continue on your journey of building yourself, you will begin to realize that as you continue to climb the mountain, how people view you and how you view others will begin to change.
In other words, people who once saw you as being this particular person in their lives, will see the person you are becoming and not want to conform to this newfound version of you.
These people will begin to lose interest in wanting to be a part of your life and you will also begin to lose interest in being a part of theirs.
There is an interesting paradox when it comes to self-growth in that it will oftentimes feel lonely, as if you are the only one around you on this journey.
As you continue to climb the mountain, the air gets thinner and you look around to realize that most people are still sitting at the bottom of the mountain without any motivation to begin their climb up.
The people that choose to do nothing to build themselves to be exceptional in some way, shape, or form, will never truly understand the power of learning.
When I take a look at my own life, I realize that I could never be a person that conforms to having a normal 9-5 job, whether it's working a trade or being an executive.
I personally have to continue to learn new things otherwise, I get bored and feel completely unfulfilled.
I lose interest in things that genuinely bring me no peace, fulfillment, or things that I feel like I can't learn anything else from.
If I feel like I have exhausted my capacity to learn at something, then it is time to learn something new.
This is why I believe that being multi-versed and learning a little about a lot of things brings a different kind of value, then say someone who is an expert at one particular thing.
Both have their strengths and weaknesses and this is why I believe in building a team of people with these strengths and weaknesses is crucial for success in anything.
This does not go without mentioning that you must be willing to try new things in order to learn new things.
If you are constantly living in the same conditions and situations day after day and your behavior doesn't change, then you are not learning.
The concept of losing interest is an interesting one...
While it may seem like I am going completely off course of how this post started, please bear with me.
It is easy to lose interest in things or people when you realize that what you are putting in, you are not getting out.
When this happens, our natural reaction as humans is to stop trying.
We stop trying at work when we feel like we are getting underpaid for the amount of work we do, so we stop putting in our grade A efforts that we were giving when we started.
We stop trying in relationships when we feel like all we doing is giving to someone else and all they are doing is receiving - you are not receiving the same level of effort in return of what you are giving to someone else.
This is where learning comes into play because if you lack the ability to learn, then the same things are going to continue to happen to you over and over again.
You will lose interest in whatever you are doing, or lose interest in the person you are talking to or dating, and the effort begins to dissipate because you realize you are not reaping any of the reward of what you are sowing.
When you find yourself in this particular kind of situation, a very important conversation needs to be had with yourself first.
You need to be able to ask yourself: "is this worth it?"
If you are in a position to where you cannot operate to your fullest potential, whether it be in your professional life or your personal life, then your ability to serve others begins to dwindle.
You need to be able to leverage yourself mentally, physically, and emotionally to be able too continue to serve others to your fullest potential.
If you are talking to someone new and they are not giving you the same level of effort that you are giving them, then it is is time to have a conversation with yourself and ask yourself "can this person truly give me what I need?"
If I am focused on serving others and this person is only focused on serving themselves, can this person truly give me what I need?
If the answer is no, then you have your answer and it is time to move on.
If you are focused on how you can add value to someone else and they are only focused on themselves, then there is nothing you can personally do that is ever going to make them conform to the mental model you have painted of them in your brain.
You have to be willing to give because that is the basis of being able to serve others, but if others cannot understand the purpose of serving others and all they are looking to do is serve themselves, then there is nothing you can do for them until they have their moment of self-actualization and realize the true meaning of serving others to serve yourself.
Some people never wake up and have their self-actualizing moment.
There are also some people that are going to prioritize other things over you and there is nothing wrong with that.
This is something that you are going to need to be willing to accept because other people do have other priorities and if you are not one of them, there is nothing wrong with respectfully moving on and going back to work.
This is the point of learning because if you continue to give to someone that has lost interest in you, what are you actually learning?
You are learning what not to do even though you aren't aware that you shouldn't be doing it.
Take your feelings out of it and sit down and have a genuine conversation with yourself.
You must be willing to serve others, that is a given.
But if the people you are serving do not recognize what you have to offer, and they do not respect you, then you must be willing to learn to move on and continue working on being the kind of person that brings even more value.
It may be hard finding the particular person that you want to share your life with, especially in the digital age where everyone is consumed by immediate gratification.
This doesn't mean that you wont eventually meet someone that actually does see you working to build your value, support you through it, and them want to add even more value into your life.
God is extremely rewarding to those who are willing to learn, serve others, be patient, and most importantly, have faith.