How do we move through life each day, each week, each month with intention, curiosity, style, and grace? Three key aspects make the journey meaningful: learning new things, slowing down to make the most of each moment, and acknowledging appreciation for what we already have. This week’s blog topic is about identifying what we want to learn this year.
Being a lifelong learner gives you advantages.
“To thrive economically, you simply have to keep learning. (The Economist, by the way, finally tuned into this idea and declared lifelong learning an ‘economic imperative.’)
[L]lifelong learning increases your knowledge and – just as importantly – your ability to use that knowledge in diverse and meaningful ways.When you are truly available for it, lifelong learning opens up and enhances your mind, helping you to see and appreciate new opportunities. It fuels creativity and innovation. At the same time, lifelong learning is an approach to living life consciously and deliberately, rather than being guided purely by instinct, emotion, and the desires of others. It is nothing less, I’d argue, than personal philosophy in action.
[There are cognitive advantages to lifelong learning.] [T]he process of lifelong learning helps to keep your brain working well, and as we continue to live longer and longer, this is a benefit that is hard to ignore.
[There are social benefits to lifelong learning.] [A] huge percentage of what you know came from watching and listening to your parents, experimenting with and testing out new ideas or skills on friends, family, colleagues, and strangers, taking risks and failing or succeeding in front of others, gauging reactions, adjusting and adapting. Learning sparks social engagement – we often connect with others because we want to learn from them and with them – and it is also an outcome of social engagement, often without our even realizing it. And, as John Dewey and others argued long ago, lifelong learning is critical as an element of democratic societies. Your learning efforts, in other words, support the greater good.
[There are spiritual benefits to lifelong learning.] As with the term ‘intellectual,’ I use the term spiritual in a broad sense. Learning, I believe, feeds the spirit. It gives us purpose, it gives us focus, it fuels our sense of fulfillment” (qtd. in (https://missiontolearn.com/benefits-of-lifelong-learning/).
Of course, not everything we will learn this year is wonderful on the surface. While the lessons we get grant perfect opportunities for learning, some can appear to come out of the deepest levels of hell. Rather than thinking of those life lessons as something that was done ‘to us’, we can shift our thinking to see them as something that was done ‘for us’…for our growth as a person and as a contributor to the collective.
On the other hand, what do you want to intentionally learn? Do you want to learn how to converse and understand Spanish? Do you want to learn how AI works? Do you want to learn how to read Marcus Aurelius’ works in the original Latin? Do you want to learn how to ski beyond the bunny slope? Do you want to learn to hold a plank for 10 minutes in your pilates class? Do you want to learn to play the saxophone? Do you want to learn to ballroom dance?
How do you decide what you want to learn?
You could think of topics in categories: job/career, personal, social, specific to roles you play (student, parent, friend, partner, employee, boss). You can identify knowledge, skills, abilities you want to learn or hone in each category.
You can identify things that light you up. What did you like doing as a child or what interested you as a child? What do you enjoy doing so much, you lose track of time when you’re engaging in it? I have a friend in the UK, Jo, who is a self-taught cake baker and designer. Jo says, “[I was] taught mostly by trial and error and You Tube videos. Been baking since I was a child but didn’t really start anything with proper decorating until the grandkids came along. They are labour of love!” The cakes she makes for her grandchildren and for friends are worthy of The Great British Bake Off. Jo doesn’t make cakes for her livelihood; she creates them out of love for the craft and for the person she’s honoring with the spectacular cake. Baking and designing cakes lights her up. What lights you up?
Consider what you wished you would have learned in school, in your growing up years. You didn’t learn another language and still want to. Go for it! Your parents would not allow you to take dance classes and you wanted to. Take classes now! You’ve never gotten out of your awkward stage and you want to. Take Vanessa Van Edwards’ People School course.
You don’t have to sign up to get advanced degrees; look for ways to learn what interests you. A few years ago, I took classes in astrology because it’s something that’s always interested me. Now, I’m working on a PhD in Metaphysical Science. I didn’t have to pursue the higher education route of learning, but, dabbling in learning about astrology sparked a wider interest in metaphysical studies. Have you participated in watching TED talks? If so, you are looking into learning about something that interests you. Have you done classes over Master Class? If so, you are actively reaching out to learn.
You don’t have to commit to continue to learn once you’ve sampled learning something. You thought you’d enjoy learning to quilt, for example. After a few months, your interest fell away. It wasn’t as engaging as you imagined. That’s okay. You learned enough to know it isn’t something you enjoy doing. Move on to learn something else instead.
You don’t necessarily need to invest lots of money; learning resources are varied- some are free or inexpensive. YouTube, Master Class, community centers or local colleges, the public library.
What do you want to intentionally learn this year? One of the great aspects of posting your answer to this question on social media is you might find a teacher, a mentor who can work with you to learn what they are knowledgeable in and can share with you. Or, you may find a buddy who also wants to learn what you want to learn and you can learn together, share resources. Perhaps someone else will answer you with resources suggestions. Please share what things you want to intentionally learn this year by either commenting below this post if you are reading this on social media, or, if you are reading this through your email subscription, please share, by emailing me, at reimaginelife22@gmail.com.
Thank you for reading and participating in this blog essay; I invite you to subscribe to my blog at www.reimaginelifecoach.com. Happy learning!
תגובות