My nephew’s birthday is coming up and he is going to be… either 11 or 12. Anyway, that’s besides the point as there is a story behind this that I want to tell you.
Ricky Gervais, the comedian, actor, writer, director once said that… he grew up on a council estate where he couldn’t have everything that he wanted, but his mum made sure that although he couldn’t have any toy or any game that he wanted, he did have any book that he wanted. Which is why I went and bought a pile of books for my nephew’s birthday.
What I want to add here is that he actually asked for books too, which is good as he’s trying to expand his mind and his knowledge to get the creative side of his brain working, which is interesting to me how he requested more literature. But the message of today is very important. And also the importance of why I do all the book reviews on my YouTube channel.
It’s about learning things that are going to help us expand by getting further ahead of where we want to be which will help us get to where we want to be in the future. I really think it is something that is very underrated. It’s like.. You can literally pick up any book and learn from someone’s experiences of their whole life within about 8 hours of reading their story even though they spent 30 years getting their experience.
And I think that’s one hell of an important lesson to remember, is that all of these people who have written these books have learnt something out of their 30 to 50 years, (however old they are), and they’ve whittled down all of the lessons that they have learnt from life into one book. All you have to do is pick it up. Or you can listen to the audio book. Whatever it is, try and obtain the knowledge of what other people have lived through because it helps you in the long run when you can ‘stand on the shoulders of giants’.
It’s the importance of understanding different ideas from different perspectives as well.
My best advice is that you shouldn’t always read from the best-seller section in the bookshop, you should pick up things that you wouldn’t normally pick up, especially from people you disagree with. I mean, I picked up a book on Donald Trump and I read that… I actually got his perspective on something that I didn’t agree with but I learnt something from it where although I don’t agree with Donald Trump, it was interesting to learn his side of what he thought life is all about. And this gave me a good sense of who he actually was.
You shouldn’t always pick up books that you will enjoy, as it is the importance of learning as well as opening our mind further where we can expand ideas and share thoughts on subjects just because you’re now open to listening to people you also disagree with!
Open-mindedness and different thought trails of how people are living their life will help you expand your thoughts and also your views on broader views across the world.
It’s very important that we can learn from it, and educate ourselves by joining online courses or by trying new experiences. I’ve gifted experiences to people because I truly believe that people learn more from life when they learn something about themselves, which is why I’ve gifted family members such experiences as bungee jumps and helicopter rides, and things of the latter because they’ve never done those things before. They’re scared of trying new things but because they are scared of them, they have now challenged themselves to do something that they didn’t think that they would do in their lifetime. (Plus it puts a smile on my face!) But that is what has gained them more life experience for themselves all because I gifted them something they wouldn’t do for themselves.
When we can learn from everything that we do, whether it’s the experience that we take, the books that we read, or the online courses that we do, we should always keep continuously learning to get us further in life.
And that’s what my blogs are for and what my YouTube channel is all about. I find it interesting how we all perceive things differently, and that is something that we’re losing in the societal norms of understanding different perspectives, which is why I write about it and do videos on the topic.
I hope this can push you to try something new or to read something from a person you dislike, because after all… You might be surprised that although we don’t agree on everything, what’s more important is that we can value each other’s opinions and learn from each other’s perspectives on what life is teaching us all.
Just Dean 