Marita’s Blog

How much have you learnt since your last birthday? Over the past year? Over the past three years? Since you started uni? Since you switched jobs?

The truth is, you won’t know how much you’ve learnt since a certain date, unless you sit down and nut it out.

So when you have a spare moment, take the time to think:
- What projects have I completed/ worked on?
- What milestones have I accomplished?
- What awards have I won and why?
- What am I proud of myself for?
- What do I know now that I didn’t know before?

I bet you’ve done a lot more than you initially thought. I bet you’ve learnt so much more than you would have imagined possible.

You’ve come a long way, and I congratulate you! Congratulations for everything you’ve achieved!

When you learn something for the first time, everything is new to you.

So you explore, you try different things, you fall down, you fail, you fail, and you fail some more… But you keep persevering and you get up again and again and give it another go. There are no expectations and there are no critics, there’s only you and the work you are toiling away at. Then, people start to notice your work, comment and compliment you.

And suddenly, people begin to expect a certain style and excellence from your work in that field. You’re recognised and you can no longer be a fool - you’re an expert!

Now that you’ve learnt how to make it in that field, your once steep learning curve plateaus and your learning step increments shrink.

When this happens, find something new. Start something you can be arrogant about for not knowing, something where there is no expectation, where the only person whose curiosity you want to satiate is your own. Be playful, rejoice from and learn so that you grow. Branch out into something new and dare to create genius in what you know not.