Learnt Something New!

When I was a kid, our allowance was operated on the star-chart system. Do a task, get a gold star, add them up each week and get paid accordingly. We had "brushed my teeth", "made my bed", all those things it's hard to get kids to do (ask me, I've got a kid now and I know!!!) It worked well, until my parents noticed I was making nearly as much cash as they were... :)

One of the items on the chart was "learnt something new today". If we could tell mom what we'd learnt, we'd get to stick a gold star in the space provided. It motivated us to keep learning and exploring.

I still find myself wondering as an adult, "Did I learn something new today?" every now and then. If I have, I give myself a mental gold star! It's a principle I'd like to carry with me forever, this constant learning and growing and mind-expanding. Except some days I forget - and I come home without having learnt a single new thing at all. It's just been humdrum same-old stuff, and my head is filled to exactly the same level it was that morning.

Perhaps I need to put up a star-chart to keep me at it every day. Except, instead of gold stars, I may just reward myself with chocolate! :)