The art of quickly learning a new skill is a gift that not everyone has. The ability to quickly become proficient in a new language or master a sport after a few months is not unsurprisingly something that anyone can do. However, while mastering a skill in a short amount of time is a gift, the art of learning is itself something else entirely: a mindset. Having a learning mindset is just as important, if not more important, than the actual act of learning. After all, without a learning mindset, an individual will never be receptive to new experiences and activities, and as such will fail to receive the enormous benefits that learning provides. In the novel The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, the way in which Don Tillman’s well-being improves
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The exceptional emotional growth Don experiences in The Rosie Project is a brilliant example of this. Prior to his learning mindset, Don literally scheduled the entirety of his life in such a way as to avoid situations which he would have found emotionally uncomfortable. He ensured that every minute was accounted for in his schedule so that he could guarantee the avoidance of uncomfortable situations such as the dreaded “Apricot Ice-cream Disaster.” In fact, Don’s fear of emotions themselves was such that he believed that everyone should “be vigilant [so] that emotions do not cripple us.” Because Don’s lacked a learning mentality, he saw emotions as something to be avoided as opposed to a valuable way to grow. Nothing demonstrates this clearer than the “Wife Project”, a project designed to allow Don to date without any emotional turmoil. Don refused to emotionally invest himself into anyone because he feared that he might need to grow and change emotionally, and so he designed a questionnaire so that he could know who he could “safely” date without needing to emotionally
The exceptional emotional growth Don experiences in The Rosie Project is a brilliant example of this. Prior to his learning mindset, Don literally scheduled the entirety of his life in such a way as to avoid situations which he would have found emotionally uncomfortable. He ensured that every minute was accounted for in his schedule so that he could guarantee the avoidance of uncomfortable situations such as the dreaded “Apricot Ice-cream Disaster.” In fact, Don’s fear of emotions themselves was such that he believed that everyone should “be vigilant [so] that emotions do not cripple us.” Because Don’s lacked a learning mentality, he saw emotions as something to be avoided as opposed to a valuable way to grow. Nothing demonstrates this clearer than the “Wife Project”, a project designed to allow Don to date without any emotional turmoil. Don refused to emotionally invest himself into anyone because he feared that he might need to grow and change emotionally, and so he designed a questionnaire so that he could know who he could “safely” date without needing to emotionally