With Learning Comes Progress and with Progress Comes Learning

The 19th century American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote “the mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.”

The message contained in his beautifully crafted sentence is that without the stretch or #challenge, one doesn’t #learn; and progress stagnates.

I’m drawn to Emerson’s 19th century words.

I’m also drawn to Accenture CEO Julie Sweet’s words about #learning and progress.

Shared by Fortune Europe’s Ryan Hogg, Sweet said “One question that we ask everyone, regardless of if you’re a consultant or you’re working in #technology…[is]…’What have you learned in the last six months?’…If someone can’t answer that question…then we know they’re not a learner,” and if they’re not a learner, then they aren’t ready for the job.”

Close advisor and wife to the second US president John Adams, Abigail Adams, said “#learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardour and #diligence.”

What might you put your mind to, today, to seize the moment and find new horizons?