The Adnostic

I've have always had a secret desire to be an international woman of mystery. Some jet setter fluent in multiple languages, ballroom dance capable, expert in multiple sports, able to bend computers and security systems to my will, a master escapist, and a menacing kung fu opponent with a slightly antagonistic relationship with the CIA, but so deftly good at my job that they keep sending me on missions critical to national security, but do not require actually killing anyone.

So the actual life if a spy is probably not for me, but the wealth of knowledge definitely has its allure. The trick is how do you learn everything? Enter TED and Tim Ferriss:

I wouldn't actually term it as feeling like the Incredible Hulk, but I do liken it to obtaining the skills to be your own International Man/Woman of Mystery by having the mindset capable of learning anything.

I've almost never learned anything of value or staying power in a traditional manner. Lectures and tests were well and good for short term knowledge, but nothing beats the Montessori method of learning through experience, fun, and practice. I have always believed that I could learn anything, I just needed to find the right way to think about and experience the task at hand.

I learned to swing dance by going dancing every weekend and dancing with lots of different partners. Am I a good technical dancer? No. Can I dance with almost anyone and follow just about any step? Yes. That makes me a good social dancer, and that's good enough for me. Now I just need to find a way to help Dave understand dancing well enough to feel comfortable leading me for the first dance at our wedding.

Dave and I plan to go to Japan for our honeymoon, so my next big learning project for myself is learning Kanji. I don't expect to be fluent by February, but I would at least like o be able to read a sign or a menu without being thoroughly confused. I bought a book on learning written Kanji, my friend Felicity gave me another book mostly for conversational comprehension, and I downloaded a few application on my iPhone for learning spoken and written Japanese.

Everyone has a slightly different way of learning things. Just because one method doesn't get you to that Ah Ha Moment, doesn't mean that you should give up. It just means that you need to figure out the method that works for you. Quitting is what impedes learning, not personal ability.