Continuous Learning is Your Key!
Every new day is full of lessons to learn and lives to touch either positively or negatively. Learning is an integral part of successful people’s lives. They don’t only learn, they equally apply and share lessons learned. The quality of a person is measured by the level of application of the knowledge and skills he has acquired.
What is Learning?
Learning is a dynamic process of gaining new or modifying and reinforcing existing knowledge, skills, behaviours or values by being taught, studying, practicing or experiencing something.
I stop growing when I stop learning; I stop learning when I stop asking, researching and teaching. Learning is my keyword!
Ways Through Which We Can Learn
There are various formal and informal ways through which we can learn new things. [1]We learn from the people we relate with, including families, friends, bosses, supervisors, co-workers, advisers, teachers and guidance counselors. [2]We can also learn in organized settings, such as in schools, seminars, lectures and other related gatherings. [3]We learn from experiments, exhibitions, and experiences. [4]Oftentimes, we learn from the natural and artificial things we see around us. [5]We learn from sounds and music we listen to and from videos we watch. [6]Most importantly, we learn from books we read. Reading is a major key to learning.
Learning Requirements
Brian Herbert says, “The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice.” Therefore, for you to learn, you should be willing to learn and develop your learning skill. Motivate yourself to learn by establishing the relevance of what you want to learn to real life situations.
Two important things that help learning process are listening and asking questions. You are not expected to know everything, so ask for help from somebody who understands better than you do when needed to avoid making mistakes. Don’t be too curious, but be inquisitive to know more. Ask questions and listen to people around you, especially your colleagues, boss, and your superiors. If you are a good listener, you can learn a lot from their experience. Another important reason why listening is helpful is that you get feedbacks from people when you listen careful and it is nearly impossible to learn anything without feedback. Feedbacks provide ideas on what you need to improve on or learn.
Research spirit—wanting to know and discover more. This is a very important factor that can improve the constancy of your learning and improve your skills. Curiosity is the mother of all discoveries and inventions. Get involved in projects and experiences that require critical thinking, enhance your research and writing skills and offer some exposure to quantitative analysis.
Another important key to learning is repetition. Continual learning is real leaning and the key to continual living. You master what you repeat overtime.
Apply and Share Lessons Learned
Learning without application and sharing is like a body of standing water that is dirty as a result of its stagnancy. Those who do not learn and/or make use of what they learn usually lack freshness, progress or change. Continual learning and sharing make you a more valued resource person. They are requisites for personal, career, business and community development.
Dedication to life-long learning is the key to success, the key to life and the key to our future; while the key to failure is to think you know it all. Keep educating yourself; never stop learning!
About the author