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Discover how to be a continuous learner
By John Carroll
Contributing Writer
In my last column, we looked at the importance of learning and how it can make a significant difference in our lives, both at work and at home.
In this second part, we will consider ways by which we can become effective learners.
Learning, as with most other activities and processes, happens more easily when you, as the learner, employ some simple steps to gain the knowledge you desire, regardless of whether it is related to work or your personal life.
To be a systematic, continuous learner:
• Find credible sources of learning and access them regularly. By reading a trade association publication, you might find valuable tidbits of useful information.
If so, find a way to get your hands on that publication regularly, by subscribing or getting a hand-me-down copy from someone on your team.
It is a good bet that once you’ve found valuable information from an ongoing source, there’s more to come.
• Be selective. Feed your mind with positive, inspirational, constructive reading and listening.
Some of the best learning you can do is available to you on tape or CD while you drive in your vehicle. Consider the number of hours you drive per year and think of all the learning you can accomplish with educational CDs or audiocassettes.
• Read when you can, as much as you can. With the onset of hundreds of television networks and channels and the availability of computers with the Internet, the frequency of reading has declined in America.
It is commonly held that if you read one non-fiction book per month, totaling 12 books per year, you put yourself in the top 1% of the nation’s population.
If you’re not a reader, set a goal to begin the habit of reading or learn how to improve your reading.
Start by reading for 30 minutes each day on a topic that interests you. Once you acquire the habit of regular reading, you can move into topics that can advance you personally and professionally.
• Spend time with other lifelong learners. By sticking around those who make it a habit to learn, you’re more likely to find yourself reading what they read or at least reading or learning something to keep up with them.
Ask people you admire what they’re reading or learning and their preferences of books and other sources to get great recommendations.
• Take up a new hobby. There is great wisdom in learning and practicing a new hobby. It can force you to consider new ideas and approaches, as well as help you carry an attitude that you have plenty to learn.
Learn a musical instrument, start collecting something that interests you or decide that you want to read everything from a particular author whose books you enjoy.
• Consider the possibility that you might not know it all. Taking the mindset of “I have plenty yet to learn” to your work or your family can result in some drastically improved methods and results.
For example, if you find yourself stuck on how to help your child with a particular challenge, you might ask someone who has been in a similar situation how he or she addressed it. That small item you learn can make a huge, positive difference in a child’s life.
• Reflect on your life and your experiences. Wisdom has been defined as experience plus reflection.
Take time to pause and think back on situations and experiences of a day, a month, a year earlier. Consider the lessons in each, and mentally file them for easy future reference, either to avoid repeating mistakes or to help others save time, money and perhaps embarrassment by benefiting from your experience.
Life often serves up the same opportunity for our response until we demonstrate that we have learned the lesson. Reflection can help us advance to the next lesson sooner, reducing frustration, irritation and aggravation.
When you learn, you expand your mind along with your capacity for improving your life and your income. You also use the most powerful computer ever discovered, one more powerful than any government or space program can possibly devise—the human brain.
Use that gift to keep your mind sharp and in great shape with regular exercise by learning continuously.
John Carroll is a business consultant, speaker, author and president of Unlimited Performance inc. in Mount Pleasant. E-mail him at jcarroll@uperform.com.
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