This post builds upon my last one on thresholds and pauses. By threshold I mean any undertaking that is different from what we’re currently doing or have ever done. Once we determine that we are indeed crossing a threshold, we may need to go searching for knowledge and tools to upskill. And we will likely encounter many intriguing and useful ideas during our exploration. Realizing that we know little, there may be an urge to unblock ourselves not just for the imminent threshold but preemptively for future ones too.
There is a bounty of affordable and high-quality knowledge out there; with as many functional frameworks as there are thinkers and organizations. While plentiful information is a blessing in general, it can be disabling if we approach it with a scarcity mindset and binge on whatever ideas we encounter. The key to progress isn’t to know everything and become an expert, it is to understand the context these frameworks are designed for and how they generally fit together. We don’t need to absorb every detail, just make note and categorize compelling ideas, frameworks and tools as resources to call upon when the right time comes.
We don’t prepare for all thresholds, we prepare only for the relevant ones. Because we won’t cross all thresholds in our limited timeline on earth. Every concept under the sun is more helpful and resonates deeper when it is actually applied vs. learned in theory.
“Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”― Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian poet and novelist.
