Good, Thoughtful Hosts #310: Inspiration Through Lifelong Learning with Jill Lee

Episode #310 Transcript | Listen on SoundCloud

Producer 00:00
Today’s special guest.

Jill Lee 00:03
My name is Jill Lee, and I’m a senior interior designer and Associate here at Cushing Carroll. And I live and work in Boise, Idaho.

Sarah Steimer 00:11
Okay, so Jill, please tell us what inspires you.

Jill Lee 00:16
Well, you know, listening back to you some of the past episodes, like, like Charlie said a few back, you know, I originally wanted to answer this question by saying, you know, everything around me is inspiring, you know, which is true, but that’s that’s also cheating. So my real answer is that continuous lifelong learning has always been a source of inspiration for me, whether that learning, you know, is happening in my personal life or in my professional world, I feel that continuous learning has really kept me feeling inspired. It helps to expand my my mind and think about things in in a new way and and, you know, it really does bring me a lot of joy to learn new things.

Sarah Steimer 01:00
Welcome to another episode of Good, Thoughtful Hosts. I’m Sarah Steimer, and today we’ll be talking about continuous learning, and it’s a topic that I find really deeply, deeply relatable. While I don’t have any plans to pursue additional formal education anytime soon, I do really love gaining a new skill or learning a new fact. So I can definitely vibe along with what Jill discusses in this episode, and you’ll notice. But of course, we can also see what the research has to show so it’s not just, you know, Jill and I fangirling over the idea of learning. So what I found was a study from 2011 that explored the benefits of lifelong learning, they focused on three areas in particular. First, they showed the benefit of lifelong learning actually helping us adapt to change. The second benefit was a bigger paycheck. And the last huge benefit, like they actually called it a huge benefit of lifelong learning is the enriching and fulfilling of your life. And I’ll quote the research directly here: to people for whom continuing education becomes second nature, they can look forward to active and meaningful lives instead of 20 plus years of sitting around watching life pass us by we all have subjects in which we’re interested in. A lifelong learner uses opportunities to explore these topics which they find compelling. You I so this is, you know, I’ve of course, loved everyone’s answers so far. I find this one very relatable personally. I mean, I’m not out there. I’m not trying to get any additional degrees, and not at this moment, at least. But you know, when you’re talking about ongoing learning. I know that you are doing many different things right now, so if you would tell me a little bit about how you’re going about this, maybe from the large scale down to the small scale.

Jill Lee 03:15
Sure, yeah. So I, I guess throughout my life, and you know, particularly my adulthood and professional life, I have always seeked out opportunities to learn more, you know, advance my knowledge within my profession creatively, I get a lot of inspiration from creative endeavors in my in my personal life, such as quilting or making jewelry or learning how to weave things like that. So at a very high level right now, I am hoping to get a master’s in biomimicry in in a few years, and first I have to finish some college credits to actually finalize my my bachelor’s degree. So it’s really interesting, you know, to be a professional of 20 years now. I can’t believe it’s been that long that I’ve been an interior designer, but my my degrees in interior design is, you know, was an associate degree, and so in order to even apply for this master’s program that I’m really interested in, I have to go through formal education to get a bachelor’s degree to do that. So, you know, right now, I am pursuing a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts, which is fantastic, because I am able to study a lot of very interesting and a wide variety of topics.

Sarah Steimer 04:28
When somebody gets really excited about something, or they are really inspired by something, like, there is this, you know, excitement to say, Okay, let me tell you all about what I’m doing, how I’m getting there, this and that. So, no, I think, I think that was a great answer. And, you know, I want to dive into, I love the idea that you started with. Well, I’ve sort of always been this way, like, I’ve always wanted to, like, learn this new thing, that new thing, etc, and something that I’ve talked to, one of my friends, in particular, she and I have had conversations about she and I joke that, like, we don’t love hobbies, but we love projects. Because I think, sure, you know, it’s that idea of like, let’s just learn something new. Let’s learn something new. Let’s learn something new. There’s absolutely that constant, what is it about this sort of like, I’m going to dabble here, I’m going to dabble there. And there’s nothing wrong with, you know, having a hobby and getting better and better and better and better at that thing, of course. But what is it for you about learning something new consistently that is so appealing?

Jill Lee 05:30
Yeah, so I think that, you know, it’s the curiosity that really keeps, kind of keeps the drive alive, like this idea that, you know, there’s never, there doesn’t have to be a, you know, formal education or a formal way of learning, or that learning isn’t only happening when you’re a kid in K through 12 education, or, you know, in in college, or when you’re in your 20s, but there’s always, you know, so much in in the world that we can be learning about, whether it Is something creative, like a hobby or just straight knowledge. So I would say that, you know what? What’s really exciting for me about always learning or continuous learning is that it, it is, I know it’s just really invigorating, I suppose, and that learning really does bolster creativity, and it helps to give new perspectives in the world around me, it can help me, you know, really increase the empathy that that I have for others, learning about the history of others’ lives and people’s experiences. And I there’s something just inherent about accomplishing learning something, even if it’s not, you know, it’s for no one else except for me, the accomplishment of learning and understanding a new topic or a new interest, or learning how to put something together with my hands. It just really provides a sense of accomplishment for me that I just think is self esteem-boosting and kind of bring some value and some joy to my life.

Sarah Steimer 06:55
Sure, there’s, you know, I wanted to touch on something you just said there, you know, you mentioned that it helps you, in terms of, you know, growing more empathy for others, or feeling like you accomplished what I’m getting from everything that you just said. There is, it sounds to me, to some extent, that to you, learning something new is, in a way, kind of humbling, where it’s like, oh, I don’t know it all, like I can learn.

Jill Lee 07:22
Oh, for sure.

Sarah Steimer 07:23
I can get more. It’s, what is it about that sort of humbling aspect of continuous learning is inspiring to you?

Jill Lee 07:33
I think that, well, you know, this is such a good question. I’m like, noodling on it. The humbleness of it, I think, is probably stemming from just the idea that there are so many experts out there in various fields, and there’s so much knowledge that everyone has their specialties and things like that. And I feel that I and most people or everyone actually will never know everything in the world. We’ll never know all of the histories, or all of the technologies, or all of the ways to be an artisan, and you know that learning from others and learning from others’ expertise is, I think, the best way to learn. I think meeting with or learning from experts in their field, again, whether it’s professional, whether it’s, you know, in my profession of interior design or a creative endeavor, like learning how to weave, or learning quilting techniques, things like that. It’s almost like you’re kind of gaining some secrets, like you’re you’re kind of being inspired by this idea that you’re learning so much from somebody who has so much to give.

Sarah Steimer 08:39
That’s, I think that’s a cool way of putting it, too, because I when you said that, like you’re, you’re learning this the secrets to something there is, you know, you can, of course, walk through the world and maybe not know how everything works. Of course, like I actually particularly feel that way about airplanes. I don’t need to know how an airplane works. There are other things, you know, you, you’ve mentioned a few different like fiber arts, like I just did tufting yesterday for the first time. And I was like, Oh my God. I never knew how this worked, you know? And it’s such, it’s such a cool and it’s like this titillating feeling, almost to be like, Oh my God. Now I know,

Jill Lee 09:20
yeah, you’ve, you’ve kind of peeled away a little secret there, yeah, yeah. It’s like, yeah. Like, you

Sarah Steimer 09:25
get to be a little Explorer. You can discover something new. It’s in terms of what you’ve learned, you know, whether it’s been, like you said, quilting, or whether it’s, you know, this new degree that you’re pursuing. What is it? Is there, like, a moment that’ll happen, and maybe you can kind of give me an example too. Is there a moment where you learn something and you’re just like, Oh, my God, I just want to, like, devour more knowledge. Like it just made you want to learn more and more?

Jill Lee 09:55
Yeah, actually, that that’s actually where my desire to study biomimicry came from so in in our profession of, you know, interior design and architecture, there is an organization called the Living Futures Institute, and they have developed a handful of programs that are geared towards the most stringent building standards for design in terms of regenerative buildings, healthy materials, equitable organizations, and they have an accreditation for professionals called the Living Future Accreditation. And through pursuing that, which is, you know, a series of of learning. So you’re you’re learning about their programs, and then you are tested on those programs, and once you pass, then then you become a Living Future Accredited Professional. So biomimicry is something that was part of that curriculum, as well as biophilia, and both of those topics are related to learning standards and technologies and systems through nature, Kaitlin McCoy talked about her passion for systems and inspiration and that’s exactly what biomimicry is. So through pursuing this professional accreditation through the Living Future Institute, I learned about biomimicry, and I just like, I just don’t want to stop at this point. So again, just sort of the downfalls of like formal education that I can’t quite pursue it the way I want to, until I take care of these other credits and this other stuff. You know, at first I I felt just like the injustice of it, like it’s so frustrating that, you know, you can’t pursue some, you know, this degree because you have to get all these prerequisites taken care of, which, you know, a lot of people that are in our profession have already gone through all that schooling and could probably jump right in. So yeah, initially I felt like it was a real burden to have to finish up my bachelor degree, but now I’ve just I’m getting so much joy out of it. I just been loving it so much because of the variety of topics that I’ve been able to study over the past year or so. So I’m currently taking a woman’s history class. I’ve taken environmental ethics, stress management, which stress management taught me about meditation and how valuable meditation is for our mental health, and now I try and practice it as much as I can. I think my favorite class so far was Italy and the Mediterranean lifestyle, because I got to cook a lot of delicious food and learn about this healthy lifestyle and kind of dream about living in Italy. And the last class I took before this history class was the cross cultural perspective on death and dying around the world. So the variety of topics that I am able to study and learn about, you know, although might not necessarily have immediate impacts on my work life, they certainly are having a lot of impacts on my personal life and just the expansion of my own mind and expansion of the way that I see the world and the way that I think.

Sarah Steimer 12:52
That is so cool. I’ve joked with people when I have like, friends or family members who are either going back to school or taking some courses, whatever, I’ve said to them before, like, will you send me the syllabus, because it’s just, yeah, so interesting, you know, and it’s but this that really does sound so cool. And as you’re talking about it also, you know, we’re talking about inspiration, but such a big piece of that you sound so invigorated by it. And I think there is something, you know, I want to say that a lot of us believe that, like, Okay, you get the information, and it’s so easy to walk away with a degree or an accreditation or a certification or whatever it may be, and go, Okay, this proves that I’m now an expert. But the reality is, is like, well, you’re never, really, you’re never going to know everything about, really, any topic. And it’s so cool to see and hear about folks who look at education, look at the opportunity for this, accreditation, this that the other thing as like, Oh my gosh. Now I can keep learning more things about this. It can push me forward like there’s such an interesting energy behind this idea of continuous education that I find very, very appealing. So I wanted to ask you, you know, from your opinion, and wax as poetic as you want, in your opinion, if someone were trying to maybe get into this idea of continuous education, and it doesn’t always have to be like you and I have both talked about it doesn’t have to be formal, necessarily. But if someone is interested in getting more, just learning more and making it part of their routine, more part of their lifestyle. What sort of advice would you give them, both from the doing standpoint and then the beneficial standpoint, like you should do it this way, but also you’re going to want to do it because this happens then.

Jill Lee 14:56
Yeah, I would say that the actual doing it. Is, it is a commitment. So my commitment right now is probably more than most people would want to put in, because it is more formal. But within a profession, there could be an accreditation, like the Living Future Accreditation that I talked about. There could be accreditations within someone’s career that they could pursue that is just inherently going to give them a lot of learning opportunity and make them better at their job, or give them more tools to do their job. Well, from an informal point of view, look up classes if you want to pursue art or creative endeavors. I’m sure that most cities and towns around the world have classes, whether it could be like community art school, or there’s a really cute shop here in Boise that has various craft classes on the weekend. So, you know, there’s, there’s always resources out there for finding classes in the creative world at as hobbies. Or maybe you might pursue like glassblowing and just fall in love with it, and your whole world is going to change, and you’re going to become a master glassblower like you just won’t know until you pursue that education or pursue that class to learn about something, most libraries will have a series of lectures and knowledge sharing, and authors come to town and have speaking engagements. Those are small opportunities to learn. What else? What other examples? I think even environmental opportunities, like with parks, parks and rec services around town, like I know in my neighborhood, we have an ongoing kind of wildlife series, where you can go bird watching with the community, or go help clean up the wetlands, or something like that, where you might not realize that you’re learning something, but you are by being there and participating and and hearing what the folks around you are talking about in terms of, like the wildlife cleanup, for example.

Sarah Steimer 16:50
Yeah, and I mean, you also brought up a great point. Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt, but no, when you when you are doing one of these things, you know maybe if you are doing like wildlife cleanup, things like that, not only you probably going to learn about the environment a little bit more, but you’re also talking to a bunch of strangers, and yeah,

Jill Lee 17:04
you might learn a lot from them. Exactly, that’s right, exactly? I think you know, ultimately, my my point is that, like getting out there and putting yourself in opportunities to learn is like the first step and it and it’s totally scalable. It’s totally in your control. There are no rules. It’s just a matter of doing it.

Sarah Steimer 17:25
I think what got me so excited about the conversation that you and I were going to have today, and I think I mentioned this to you previously too, was I loved everything that people have been talking about so far, but it felt very, very personal in the sense that it was sort of like you can kind of do it on your own, but so much of what you’re talking about does sound like it happens within a group environment a lot of times. And, you know, learning from others, taking classes this and that, like, there’s also just something very inspiring, invigorating about learning with others, and kind of seeing everyone move at their own pace, and seeing other people have their aha moments about learning something like that’s always so fun and so cool. But I again, Jill, I love this conversation. I feel like I could talk about it with you forever, because it is so fun to learn something new and let it is sort of drive you forward, and, you know, move the needle. But I know, before we wrap up today, is there anything else that you wanted to mention, whether it’s advice or just some big takeaways that you’ve had, regardless of what it is that you have decided to continue to learn about, or just your journey in general that you would want to share?

Jill Lee 18:44
Yeah, you know, I think probably the biggest takeaway for me is that, well, first of all, I didn’t realize that lifelong learning and continuous education was a source of inspiration for me until I was asked the question, it’s just something that has been a part of my life. More, you know, as long as I can remember, I’ve always been learning in some capacity, and it is so inspiring because of all the reasons that we talked about previously, the connections to other people, the empathy-building, learning histories, just kind of finding that curiosity and like seeing where that’ll take you. And so I think stopping and and kind of analyzing your own life and looking for ways for inspiration or ways to inspire yourself, it does feel like now that I’ve reflected on this that learning and lifelong learning and that kind of curiosity is the best way to get inspired and feel inspired as an adult. Now, I’m I’m totally in control of my learning, which I think is just really empowering, and, you know, also a privilege. I can choose when I want to learn and how I want to learn, and if I go down a path, let’s say, with biomimicry that I’m so passionate about. So if something happens in the future and I’m not able to pursue that in the way that I think that I want to now, that’s okay. I can pursue it in a different way. I can pursue other things. It’s just there’s nothing that’s going to hold me back and hold any of the listeners back from from learning what they want to learn. And it’s just really important to remember that that that that’s an option for us regardless of our age. Learning is not just when you’re a child or in your early 20s. It can happen at any age and should continue to happen throughout our lives.

Sarah Steimer 20:31
I really love that. That makes me incredibly happy to hear someone kind of because I think we have a shared perspective on that. So that’s it’s really cool to hear someone else describe it. And you know what they find so interesting. And I know I keep using the word invigorating, but that’s just what keeps coming up in my head all the time. Well, Jill, thank you so much for joining us today and chatting with us about your journey, your continuous learning, things like that. I have a feeling that you are not slowing down anytime soon, that rules so again, thank you so much.

Jill Lee 21:05
Yeah, you’re absolutely welcome. It’s a pleasure to talk to you, Sarah, thank you.

Producer 21:15
Music for Good, Thoughtful Hosts was written, produced, and performed by Sam Clapp. Our moderator is Sarah Steimer. Editing by Travis Estvold. And a special thanks to our content development team, Amanda Herzberg and Marni Moore. For more information about the podcast, visit thoughtfulhosts.com. Thanks for listening!

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