You quite simply never stop learning, never stop questioning and never think you know it all. The more you learn and understand the more you see how much more you still don't know and will never understand. Your horizon is getting wider as you climb but so are the number of things that are still hidden behind the horizon.
Which is not a bad thing; it keeps you grounded and humble, it keeps you questing and gaining further insights into how things are connected. David Attenborough is my own guiding light, both as a person as well as a scientist and as an outstanding communicator.
Thinking you know it all or pretending to know it all is the biggest mistake you can make in life; you start playing self-serving power and ego games. There is always somebody who knows more about something or does some things better than you but there is also always something you yourself can excel at and on which you can base your own life quest.
Just build on what you do best and have the most interest in and follow it through to wherever it leads to. Everybody has something special they are good at, whether that is a practical ability, an artistic or physical one, a social or emotional knack or an intellectual one. As long as you stay true to yourself and make the world a little better place with what you do best you won't fail in life, whatever else happens.
I am quite simply the child that has never stopped asking 'why'. After a lifetime of keeping asking 'why' I have become fairly proficient at seeing connections and being able to think things through from different angles. There are always underlying principles.
It has taken me a long time to understand that my personal special gift - and that it is actually a proper gift that is not all that common - lies in being able to explain complex issues in an easily understandable way because that is how I perceive them. I am quite simply too practically minded for splitting academic hairs for the sake of splitting them but I can understand and unweave complex braids and show others how the various strands of hairs are put together and why they work the way they do.
I have an interest in guinea pigs so I have built on that and have found my niche as a forum moderator. Knowledge for me must have a practical application or answer an important question in order to be satisfying. Making things work for very different people and situations can be quite a challenge. But if I get there, it is a great feeling. And I usually learn something new or gain a bit deeper understanding myself in the process as well.
If I can be an inspiration for others then that would be quite simply wonderful because it is not something I have set out to achieve; only to help others in a positive and supportive way.
