If I asked you if learning is always good I bet you your gut reaction is to answer yes, because of course there are great things we learn like gratitude, languages, courage or skiing. But look at the world around you…unfortunately low self-esteem along with all kinds of other toxic behaviors can also be learned; so how can we recognize what is the right thing to learn and what to avoid? Ah! That my friend is a thing we call Wisdom! Turns out that like most treasures in life we must seek Wisdom out through learning. While filming our first winter episode in Montreal and Tremblant I realized that I was slightly afraid of most winter activities like skiing because well, I hadn’t learned to do them before and since all learning happens outside our comfort zone it was a time I jumped into that experience. I decided to take on a frosty adventure to learn about some of the best experiences that Quebec had to offer. Because if knowing what to learn is important, then how we learn is equally important. For example, Some might learn through obligation, compulsion or comparison while others choose to learn from curiosity, self-improvement and well… laughter.
Montreal is actually a mix of European charm and North American attitude, French is the main language and English is also spoken. Today, 120 distinct ethnic communities are represented in its population of more than 4 million. It’s located on the Eastern side of Canada,
The city of Montreal is built on a 30-mile-long island that connects to the mainland through 15 bridges and a tunnel. An hour and a half drive away is magnificent Mont Tremblant, truly one of the most beautiful winter destinations in the world. It’s also great because you can have both an urban and an activity-centric adventure by combining both locations. For this episode I wanted a Quebec native to film with us and also the perspective of someone who was a seasonal visitor. I connected to Nadia through instagram. Nadia is a stunning Miss Universe Canada finalist and Quebec native. She’d just moved to Montreal from a tiny town five hours away and she said she’d love to explore the best of Montreal with me for the show. Montreal is the second largest city in Canada and the cultural hub of the country. For our active winter outings in Tremblant, I connected to Ana Coto, a rising Hollywood star and habitual Mt Tremblant visitor to encourage me on my winter experience. She was a friend to one of my sisters and also an avid skier. Since we are both from Miami I thought she could share some insights into how to keep it cool on the slopes, because honestly… I was nervous.
When it comes to learning something new we all start at the beginning. The place of the great unknown. So the question for all of us is… how can we make sure we’re actually learning good things and in the best way? It turns out the secret element to finding true wisdom is learning to forget! All of us will have to learn to forget discouraging words, failures of our past and our own negative mindsets that can hold us back. When facing Self-consciousness or criticism just shake it off and take the plunge because It’s never too late to begin to learn… and if you don’t know where to start always remember that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
What I learned from our Global Child Quebec experience is that we always have to actively choose to get over our fears. I’d recommend that you sign up for that class, buy that book, make that call and remember that in the school of life, no one flunks out… we just get to take the test over again. So go for it. Whatever your it is.
We all begin in the same place when learning something new, but it’s up to us to decide how far we’re willing to go. When we’re intentional about filling our minds with what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable…we’ll actually end up learning what is good, excellent and worthy of praise.
So when you do fall, just like I did when skiing as we filmed Global Child Quebec, remember to surround yourself with people who will lift you up because it’s part of the process…
I’m sure that as we learn together and grow along the journey, you’ll be able to achieve your dreams, just like through your support you’re helping me achieve mine.
Ultimately, you are a Global Child because you’re part of one Global family. I’m grateful to Nadia, Ana and the people of Quebec for sharing this journey with me and teaching me that there might be many ways of learning, but the best way of learning is learning through laughter.
