It occurred to me that when you receive an idea from out of the blue, it doesn’t contain a step-by-step plan to see it through. It comes as a broad stroke.

It’s up to us to act on it and come up with a plan.

Yesterday, The Grasshopper delivered one of his broad strokes. He said, “How you broaden yourself is by including others.”

I instantly knew that there was something in there, but it wasn’t specifically apparent where to go next. It had to sit for awhile.

The first glimmer of light that came through was that others are our teachers. It’s very difficult to broaden yourself if you come from a position of self contained (that’s code for know-it-all).

We become stagnant when our learning comes to a halt. That happens when we believe no one else has anything to teach us.

I’ve been at that point many times in my life and each time that feeling took hold of me, I became an isolated island of smugness.

There aren’t any dancing girls on this island, in fact there’s no one there but you. Everyone else has left. They’re out learning something new.

The trick is to notice that you’re isolated and alone.

Others will always be our salvation. Others have experiences we don’t own and when our experience mixes with theirs, something new comes to both of us. We learn from others and this broadens us.

Many have a tendency to learn something new and then treat it as the only way there is. They shut down to anything that goes against what they’ve just adopted as the supreme position.

When we take this approach, we believe we have flattened the learning curve but in reality we have flatlined our learning.

Everyone has something to teach you but you’ll never enter their classroom if you only occupy the principal’s office. The only broadening that action brings is to get us more fatheaded.

If what you know is a closed loop, others will bore you to tears and you’ll avoid them and what they have to offer, only to be left crying alone in your beer.

In broad strokes: If your way is the only way, you’ve got a lot to learn.

All the best,

John