They call it Epistemophilia
An excessive love of, or striving for, knowledge.
I am a lover of knowledge pure and simple, any subject it doesn’t matter, if something piques my interest I need to find out more
They call it Epistemophilia
An excessive love of, or striving for, knowledge.
As a kid, my mum would buy me a book instead of a bag of sweets. At the beginning of every week she would randomly choose a new word from the dictionary, and I would have to learn what it meant and how to use it.
At the time, I would huff and puff a little, now, it is one of the things I am most grateful for.
Books oh beautiful books....
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero
With books I love the feeling of turning a page the anticipation of what is coming next.
I could lose myself in a library for hours, days, possibly even months, so many stories, so much knowledge.
The Long Room of Trinity College Dublin is where I would be in a blissful state if I was able to roam freely, soaking in the knowledge of the greats.
My collection at home isn’t as magnificent but it is certainly varied
Health, motivation, auto biographies, spirituality, cooking, physics, business… the list is endless. I save my gritty novels for holidays choosing something that is going to stretch and inspire me for day to day reading.
Every morning before I begin my day, I will pick a book at random and read a chapter, I find it incredibly inspiring, I will then share what I have learned.
As I can’t walk around with a book all day long, although I would love to, when I’m doing the housework, going on dog walks, school runs, or exercising I turn to Audible, pure genius, in 2018 alone I listened to 33 books. Which one was my favourite that is hard, but I would say a must would be the Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and to date in 2019 it is The 5am Club by Robin Sharma.
We do not just learn from books..
There are people, we learn so much daily from others, every person we meet has a lesson to teach, everyone knows something that we don’t, how mind-blowing is that.
I am a great believer that people come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.
If we took a minute each day to speak with a stranger, we would learn something new.
Knowledge without action, is useless, knowledge is power, even if it only enables us to help one person we have made a difference.
Can you imagine training 11 years to become a heart surgeon and never using what you have learnt to save a life.
That is why my purpose it to pay forward what I have learned
As children we ask why a lot…..
Why do socks go on our feet? Why do I need 10 hours sleep? Why do I have to do homework? Why are there stars in the sky? Why are there fish in the sea? And my favourite why do I have to eat the green stuff?
And they have got it right… the more questions you ask the most we learn. Not just about the world but about ourselves
At some stage we are told to stop asking so many questions, I never stopped.
I am a great believer in WHY?
We all have days where we feel like we have been robbed of hours, next time you feel like a day like this is evolving, ask yourself why you are doing every task, your productivity will increase.
An example, the other day an email popped in for a sofa sale, so I clicked on it and started searching for sofas, after a minute or two I stopped myself ad asked WHY are you looking at sofas?, I had no idea I don’t even need one.. But once I asked why? I moved on.
4 million adults in the UK have never read a book, that is incredible.
I would encourage anyone who wanted to even make the smallest change in their lives to set a goal to learn at least one new thing a day, it doesn’t matter what it is.
You don’t have to become the master of the subject but learn enough to satisfy your thirst. Empowerment and self-belief is a game changer.
A great place to look it edx.org, founded by Harvard and MIT in 2012, it works with over 130 global partners to provide an incredible amount free online courses
As Warren Buffet once said “the best investment is the one made in yourself”
Of course there are barriers, time, money and fear, are probably the top three but utilising products like Audible remove the time issue, libraries and online learning like edx.org remove the money issue and fear, we have to realise that yes, sometimes fear keeps us safe but sometimes it holds us back.
Most people’s greatest fear is one of failure and if we realise that failure is a lesson, we either succeed or we learn, then it’s a win win.
Life isn’t about proving what we know it is about improving what we don’t know.
Happy learning
Kate x
