What’s your aim for the next 365 days outside work?
Whether you want to learn a new skill, master a craft, adopt a new habit or change what’s not working, you will be learning something new. But enthusiasm won’t help if you don’t have a practical learning plan.
“Once you know how to learn, the whole world opens up to you,” James Baldwin once said.
You don’t need exceptional cognitive abilities to learn or master something new. The bad news is, if you do what you’ve always done, you won’t challenge your brain enough to pick up and retain new skills or habits.
Common learning techniques like deep reading, making notes and teaching what you know work for many people. The critical question to ask yourself is: Do my learning methods work for me, and are they sustainable?
The rapid change of the world and how we live means we need new skills to succeed in it. It can be challenging to keep pace with the rapid changes in the modern world.
To keep up with change, you’ll need to upgrade your skills, knowledge, and understanding of the world around you.
There’s an incredible opportunity out there for anyone who wants to learn new things. But how can you keep up when change is so fast.
But how do you know where to start? And what habits can you adopt to become a super learner?
Super learners are people who have found ways to stay engaged with their world in a variety of different ways.
They experience new perspectives by consuming information in various formats, from books and videos to podcasts and blogs.
Learning is a lifelong process — a journey
“A learning journey is a curated collection of learning assets, both formal and informal, that can be used to acquire skills for a specific role and/or technology area,” says Sonia Malik of IBM.
Many of history’s brilliant minds were lifelong learners. Nikola Tesla, Leonardo Da Vinci, Aristotle, Helen Keller, and Benjamin Franklin were competent in diverse domains and exceptionally integrated ideas.
Leonardo Da Vinci once said, “To develop a complete mind: Study the science of art; Study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”
“Corpus Aristotelicum”, a collection of Aristotle’s works, covers physics, philosophy, literature, poetry, music and politics.
“Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and a provision in old age,” Aristotle once said.
Lifelong learners are also constantly trying new things and learning topics that may help them connect knowledge better. They want to test their limits and explore all the possibilities life offers.
Today, the abundance of knowledge sources (books, courses, podcasts, newsletters and virtual learning programs) means you can dig deeper into any topic from the comfort of your home.
Technology has allowed us to learn anything, anytime, anywhere. You can learn pretty much anything and everything that interests you. But you need a curious and open mind to make time for learning.
Stacking skills can make you indispensable
“Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.”
― Richard Feynmann
Super learners have an insatiable quest for better knowledge. The passion to explore feeds their curiosities and push them to discover better knowledge in the most unstructured way.
And their learning is primarily self-directed. A lot of lifelong learning traits can be learned if you schedule time for your learning journey.
Your schedule will determine what to learn, when to learn and how much to learn at any given time. It’s your roadmap for embracing self-directed learning.
The goal is to learn something new almost daily long enough to make the learning habit a routine.
Successful learning is not so much about building a perfect learning habit; it’s about picking ideas, learning new skills, learning new topics, figuring things out and enjoying the process.
Richard Feynman, a brilliant theoretical physicist, once said, “Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough.”
You won’t be a world-class expert in a few months if you embrace the lifelong learning habit, but you will end up with many benefits in the process.
Becoming good in a few topics can open up so many opportunities for you in the future. You will be able to connect domain dots better and develop unique ideas that can advance your career in the right trajectory.
“The future belongs to the integrators,” Ernest Boyer said.
By exploring and learning unrelated topics, you will be able to see patterns between subjects and solve common problems quickly.
You can quickly become good at what you do.
Scott Adams says, “If you want something extraordinary [in life], you have two paths: 1. Become the best at one specific thing. 2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.”
Lifelong learning is one of the best ways to prepare yourself for the uncertain future. Future-proof yourself for our rapidly evolving world.
Lifelong learning is the best way to become anti-fragile in a world that rewards problem solvers and original creators.
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This post was previously published on Better Humans.
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You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
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