Connect the Dots

Here's a great inspirational article at www.idfuel.com on the value of living life "just cuz".
The premise is pretty simply presented: get outside of the narrow confines of your field of expertise (in our case animation) and broaden your horizons by adding a multitude of varying life experiences. In is recent speech to the graduating class of Standford University Steve Jobs called these variety of experiences "dots". Only later in our lives are we able to "connect these dots" to solve the problems before us in our field of expertise.
Basically... get out and live. Take that scuba diving class you've always wanted. Go on that trip. Visit that place. Read that book. Take that walk. Go to that concert. Talk to those strangers on the train. Visit that museum. Go on that mission trip. Dance that dance. Teach that class. Volunteer at that hospital. Live life just for the sake of living it, collecting the experience as you go. Someday later you may find that one moment will bring you a unique solution to a problem facing you.
Stuff like animation training is very good and helpful. There are many students out there ardently studying animation in great programs and their zeal and commitment is admirable. But we need to open up our field of view to see a bigger picture. I know my own personal faith has brought me into contact with many, many different people and life experiences that only much later present themselves as unique solutions to my everyday challenges as an animator. Without those life experiences I'd be the poorer animator, and worse, the poorer man.