There are so many things I’m curious about, that I want to learn about, that I want to read.
A short list:
I want to study theories of causality. I want to learn Ancient Greek. I want to read all of Nietzsche. I want to be familiar with each of Plato’s works. I want to tackle Kant. I want to be familiar with the various concepts of health from various times and cultures. I want to read and see all of Shakespeare’s works.
My gosh, even one Item of this (abbreviated) list is a one-year full-time project with no distractions!
So what am I supposed to do, especially if my principal work—my ikigai—is not reading but writing? Do I give up even attempting these projects? Do I approach them all halfway? Or do I select just one and work it in parallel with my writing?
Truthfully, I’m not sure. Perhaps I can marry several of these reading and learning projects with a writing project. For example, I think it would be interesting to take a year off to learn ancient Greek and write one blog post today for 365 days about this experience. (Wayne Dyer did something similar with his book about the Tao Te Ching). Or perhaps I should press more on my current Nietzsche writing project which requires critical reading of all his principal works. (I suspect I could do this in several months in parallel with my fiction writing). Or perhaps I need to spend an hour each night reading about causality, with appropriate note-taking (and coffee). Now, that sounds like a lot of fun.
But, whatever path I take, one thing is clear: to tackle any of these subjects as I work on my writing will require me to level up my already strong organizational skills. Otherwise, my curiosity will be my demise rather than my gift.
Wish me luck.