Why People Are Afraid of Learning.

There are many ways we can avoid the risk of learning something new. But the investment of our time and energy into learning new skills and growing our understanding carries asymmetrical returns, which means the chances of good things happening for us from learning are disproportionately high - at a low risk compared to our investment.

Still many people find the most whimsical ways to avoid the risk of learning something new.

Well, what exactly is that risk?

It’s not as if something immediately horrible is going to happen to us if we don’t commit to learning a new scientific concept, or reading a new type of literature today.

Oftentimes we create scenarios in our heads regarding the shame of not being able to compete with others in academics or success. Like: the “embarrassment” of turning in a test knowing you just couldn’t grasp the concepts on there despite your efforts to study.

These feelings of shame, embarrassment, and other negative emotions - the what-if scenarios of failure - often deter many from even starting.

But what is the alternative?

To stay in our comfort zone and not improve at all - just to bathe in the instant gratification of never being challenged, never being wrong, or never having to fail at anything?

Exactly.

The risk isn’t feeling bad after trying something and not doing it well. The real risk is not challenging yourself, not learning new things at all.

The skills you learn today, as trivial as they seem now, may come back into your life in the most wonderful ways later on.

Stay hungry. The worst thing you could do is nothing, because doing nothing is the only choice that guarantees you stay exactly where you are.