Consciously Expand Your Knowledge

I run a small handyman business on the side. It keeps me connected to real people with real, around-the-house problems.

One thing I hear all the time is, "I just don't know how to do that." Or, "I can't do that."

Not everyone needs to be a DIYer, and that's fair enough. Plenty of people are too busy, or don't have the tools. But I do believe anyone who wants to learn something, can. About pretty much anything.

Google, YouTube, AI — we've never had it so good. How else do you think I learned wainscotting?! :)

One thing I've stuck with through my 50s, and I'm keeping up in my 60s, is staying curious. Staying interested. Finding out, learning, reading, building on what I know. Not as a discipline, just because I enjoy it.

But also because I believe it’s important to make the most of our time ahead. It’s not infinite. And I don’t want to slowly whither. I want to keep growing.

So my studio and lounge are full of books on science, empires, stoicism, midlife, fungi, Bono, Emerson.

Honestly, it's been an anchor through the harder stretches of my middle years. And along the way, I've felt more awake, more curious, more alive to the world.

So read something. Learn something. Go down a rabbit hole.

Because you genuinely can't live beyond what you know.

So expand it.