This blog is my common place book. An idea I first came across while reading Paul Jun’s blog at Motivatedmastery.com. I loved the idea of naming this blog Novel Learning because this collection is of all the interesting and important discoveries I make while reading. Not just novels, but self-help books (I’m not too cool to say I don’t read them) science books, biographies, and even good old fashioned murder mystery novels. I read by Kindle and by paper back, and everything I highlight, scribble in the margins, or just spend all day thinking about, I plan to record here, in my novel common place blog. The idea for a common place book is as old as Marcus Aurelius, so the idea itself is not novel, but the idea of learning from books and combining it into a blog feels a bit novel for a young millenial.
The first passage I find highlighted in the Kindle is from January 8th, and I am pretty sure I read it in San Francisco on a work training trip. It reads, “Do you really want a couch and a couple of dressers to keep you from what could be the best experience of your life?” This passage comes from Packing Light: Thoughts on Living Life with Less Baggage by Allison Vesterfelt. I first heard of the book while working at my previous job and listening to a podcast hosted by Erik Fisher called Beyond the To Do List. In the episode Allison talked about letting go, building bridges, taking leaps, and how to do exactly what the title says, live life with fewer things. The passage above to me speaks about how attached we can get to things, ideas, desires, and memories. Recently this has been a huge theme in my life, and I am grateful for reading Allison’s book. It really spoke to the importance of being able to move on and evolve without feeling constrained by things that we place on ourselves. There are certainly constraints that we all have that we can not just let go of, but by stepping back and examining what we are holding on to, and what is holding us back, sometimes we find that we an move forwards when we decide to let go.
For now I am going to cut this first blog post short. But I have many more passages and quotes from Allison’s book on the way. I plan to examine each and write my thoughts on each passage that I read. This will give me an opportunity to reflect on what I read back in January, reprocess it, and see how I have or have not applied it to my life. I can’t wait to share, and remember what I have learned.
J.A.
