As Benjamin Franklin once said: “An investment in knowledge pays the most interest.”
He certainly sounded like a man who embraced the concept of lifelong learning!
Here are some of my thoughts about what lifelong learning means to me.
The old way #
When we think of learning, we think of it as education and often when we think about education we think about the classroom sitting in front of a teacher, who, bless him or her, is trying to teach us about stuff which doesn’t always interest us.
There isn’t much interaction and it’s often just a cramming session of facts and figures. However, the education of children at school clearly works, as we do learn a lot when we are there.
But for most of our school lives we don’t get to choose what we’d like to learn about and; more importantly, how to learn about our chosen subjects.
The new ways #
I guess as we get older we look for different ways. We develop a positive mindset about the health benefits of always learning — to keep our brains active.
And we do it to keep up to date with current thinking and changes in technology and legislation to make sure that our businesses are always relevant and forward thinking
When I think back to how I was working only a few years ago it was very different and I don’t consider that I put a huge amount of time into lifelong learning.
What I did though, was sufficient to allow my business to adapt to change.
Sure, I read a bit because there’s always lots of new stuff to learn and I’m the inquisitive type. But reading isn’t for everyone and I accept that.
People learn in different ways. Some learn by doing, some learn by reading and others learn by listening to the wisdom of others through podcasts and attending webinars. There are excellent resources for this and the power of technology has given us so much more opportunity to learn about a wide range of subjects.
So, I reckon it’s important to not be put off by thinking of learning as being an education in a classroom.
We’re learning all the time. We learn from our mistakes, we learn from books and podcasts and we learn from people around us.
We can do it in the way which benefits us the most: when we’re on the road, when we’re at home with the occasional 10 or 15 minutes spare, having a coffee.
If we take notes as well, we can go back to our own personal journals at times we need inspiration.
The advantages of modern tech #
Modern tech is brilliant.
We don’t even have to type notes up, we can dictate them into a document, as I’ve done here – a message to myself in Outlook.
So, consider developing and enhancing a mindset that helps you to always be looking for learning opportunities:
To quote Robin Sharma: “Investing in yourself is the best investment you will ever make. It will not only improve your life, it will improve the lives of all those around you.”
Thank you for reading.
