I find this to be an interesting question. It’s a common question to ask a young child. But never an adult. As with most questions, it contains many nuances or different possible answers.
Was there anything new that you learned? Was it interesting? Disturbing? Helpful? It’s always our first emotional response to things that sometimes guides our future interest.
Did you learn something in more detail? Were you surprised by the things you did not know but thought you did? Did the greater detail remove a roadblock for you to allow you to move forward? Can you now complete the project you started?
Where did this new knowledge come from? A TV show, a friend, a podcast, a YouTube video? Was it from a book that caught your interest? A health problem that made you see clearer what you now needed to learn? A trip you took to a new city, museum, or an active experience you might have enjoyed? A cooking class? Wine tasting? Health lecture?
For me, the most exciting part of learning, is what you now do with it. There are many days of storing new things for later use. Some new learnings become serendipitous given the right situation you now find yourself in. Sometimes our learning is intentional — when we look to learn more about a specific topic.
Sometimes the power of new learning is that it begins to change our perspectives. Things we believe in are now not as absolute. There could be new different perspectives than what we thought could only be true and that we may now accept. New learning may create some doubt in what you are doing or believe in today. Confidence can be found to try new things as new learning occurs.
At different points in our lives, we all seek some type of change. It’s cliche to say that we get bored and stuck in a rut when living our lives on autopilot. Our habits and routines deaden our ability to want to learn something new today.
The real payoff for learning something new everyday is that it can reliably lead you to personal change and growth. It destroys boredom and helps you become more present in participating in your own life and future.
All of us can learn something new each day. We just need to be smart enough to understand that we know less than we think we know and need to be more attentive as we go about living our busy lives.