How do you stay motivated when learning something new?
Learning is central to life. We learn from the day we are born. Children learn because the world is interesting, not because they have long-term plans.
Children do not learn to walk because they are motivated by productivity goals. They fall, laugh, cry, get up, and try again because the chair is over there and the dog is moving away.
That kind of curiosity has never really left me. After a lifetime of learning, and a few degrees along the way, I still want to know more. Almost everything I study opens up several other things I would like to study.
Motivation is not usually the hard part. Once my curiosity is piqued, I tend to become focused. I want to go deeper.
I admire people who are self-taught, who can master new things on their own. I am not really like that. I can follow my curiosity for a while, but I learn best when there is a well-developed framework, deadlines to meet, and a community of people to engage with.
What I have learned is that curiosity works best when it has a container. For me, that container has three parts.
The first is robust content. I like knowing that what I am learning has been carefully chosen, ordered, and taught. I can read widely on my own, and often do, but there is value in a course where someone has thought carefully about what matters and how the learning should unfold.
The second is assessment and deadlines. They keep me on track. They turn interest into progress. Without them, I can wander from one interesting thing to another. With them, I have to read, think, write, finish, and submit something.
The third is community. I learn better with others. A community of learners brings conversation, encouragement, questions, and shared discovery. Other people see things I miss. They ask questions I had not thought to ask.
That is why I keep being drawn back to formal study. A degree gives structure to the desire to learn. It gives me content I can trust, deadlines that keep me moving, and companions on the way.
Curiosity gets me started. The container helps me keep going.
The Afterword 
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