Learning is Wasted with No Action

A painful realization is that learning on its own is useless. Without action, knowledge stored internally does nothing for us. Knowledge and learning are wasted if we do not take action. We can learn everything we can about any particular subject but without deliberate action to follow in the footsteps of our learning, we remain stagnant. Learning is not only about what comes into our brains. It is about how we repurpose the input in the form of new output. Knowledge is power and our action showcases the power we have.

A personal fault of mine occurs with how I read books. When I read, I take notes. I have progressed from simply highlighting passages or quotes to compiling all of the notes from any particular book and putting them into a singular Word document. I have eliminated friction in the event I want to go back and find inspiration, knowledge, or memorable moments from the books I read. All I need to do is access the documents. The problem is, I hardly ever do. The learning I take away from the books remains locked away internally within these documents. It very rarely sees the light of day and is a big issue. Without any action, my habits are wasted because of how I treat my learnings from reading.

I present a personal example to show how prevalent the idea of wasted learning is. Do you find a new menu and never make it? Do you research a vacation for a trip you never take? Do you study a new language that you never speak? Do you learn about starting a business but never put any effort into its creation? Do you learn how to form a new habit but never practice the steps? The examples are all around and can be in any aspect of our lives.

Learning is powerful. Learning should be a part of each and every day. Learning should not stop after the action of learning occurs. Learning should cocoon itself in our mind and spirit until it emerges via the beautiful trance of action. Without learning there is no potential for any metamorphosis but without action, there cannot be any metamorphosis. We must take the potential and realize it. We do not only want to be able to explain the world, we want to be able to change it. By turning learning and thinking into action, we begin this process.