When I hear the word “phenomena”, I always see and hear that Muppets character, whose name, and even utterance, eludes me. But I know some of you now have it in your head (as if anyone but me will ever train eyes upon it). So now that we are alone, let me broach the subject of creating cycles, because they can be useful in helping you move to the next level, whatever that might be.
For instance, I want to learn basic conversational skills in as many world languages as I can handle. To study the languages one at a time will not get me to where I want to go. So instead, I cycle through the 35 or so languages offered in English, as well as those offered to every other language at Duolingo.
By doing it this way, I focus on the basic howdy doodies, since that is all that is likely to ever be immediately exchanged, but then also notice the languages comparatively. This enables you to see how similar our beautiful Romance languages are to one another, as well as the Germanic, Slavic, Indo-Iranian, Niger-Congo, and so on.
I am also writing stories and essays in this cyclic way. It is a bit like playing many chess games at once. Work on this table, or story, then on to the next…hopefully finding proper endings eventually.
One, or even two, can cycle through, say, musical instruments. Get better at piano, guitar, percussion, vocals, violin, sackbut, oud, or what-have-you. I’m getting pretty good on the what-have-you. Suck at the oud.
When asked how he came to be so good at so many things, the polyhistor Steve Allen said that when he got tired of doing something, he would just shift to another, and new energy would become available. While many might nap, he widened his world, by cycling through his expanding set of abilities.