How to Effortlessly Fall in Love With Learning Again
You might’ve finished school, but your journey has only just begun
Do you ever worry you aren’t clever enough to voice your opinion? Maybe you’re too scared to say what you really think.
What if they mock me? What if I give off a horrible first impression? What if they think I’m stupid? I mean, it’s been a while since I last picked up a book…
At first, you might think these feelings of self-doubt arise because you lack confidence.
In reality, they stem because you’ve burdened yourself with the idea that you’re meant to know absolutely everything. And now? Now you think you’re failing because you slowly realise you don’t.
If this has been you for the last few years, it’s safe to say your passion for learning has probably dwindled away.
But rather than beating yourself up with what you don’t know, why not embrace the opportunity that exists to learn more? Vernon Howard describes this mindset shift well:
“Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn and you will.”
It’s Better to Know Something Than to Fail to Know Everything
With a plethora of information now at our fingertips, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, possibly pressurised with the belief that we must know everything.
Just because you’re best friend is always talking about what’s happening to the gold price, the oil market, and bitcoin, doesn’t mean you have to also take an acute interest in the financial world.
But what you should do is deepen your knowledge base in the few topics that you care about.
If you’re a fashionista, embrace yourself in the world of fashion. Read as many as autobiographies as you can get your hands on. Attend a variety of seminars being held each month. Enrol yourself in a part-time course.
You’ll be surprised how remarkably easy it is to immerse yourself in an area that’s already sparked your curiosity. Spend a few moments thinking about what interests you.
If you’ve just come back from your year abroad in Chile, presumably because you were curious about the culture to begin with, use that to your advantage.
Keep yourself informed around what’s happening in the local economy, the political arena, Chile’s state of social affairs. Read local newspapers online. Buy a few novels written by Chilean authors. Watch a documentary about Chilean cuisine.
The aim is to specialise your knowledge base in a selection of fields that well and truly capture your interests, not the interests of others. Chet Holmes said it well,
“I realised that becoming a master of karate was not about learning 4,000 moves but about doing just a handful of moves 4,000 times.”
Tip #1: Don’t read a book on anthropology if your heart lies elsewhere. Tailor your news feed to what fascinates you. It’s the best way to find enjoyment in the idea of learning again.
Practice the Art of Learning Something New Every Day
When it comes to learning, the aim is to stretch your mind frequently. Benjamin Franklin once said,
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
Well, why not grow your investment further by compounding it every single day? When you actively build on your existing knowledge base, the growth potential becomes enormous. And that’s the exact formula Warren Buffett employs when he reads 6 newspapers (or 500 pages) every single day.
But how do you reposition your mindset such that you’re able to end the day feeling more knowledgeable than how you felt yesterday?
I mean, you could try navigating your way through sequential blue links on Wikipedia until you stumble onto something remotely interesting. But you and I both know there’s no fun in that.
Instead, why not practice keeping your eyes and ears open to the world around you?
When you come across something that piques your interest — either in conversation or in reading — why not spend a few moments diving into the subject matter a little deeper? Read another article, ask a few more questions, or simply, take 5 minutes out of your busy schedule to ponder over that thought for a bit longer.
Give your brain permission to think and be curious again, but do so on a daily basis to compound your existing knowledge base. Or as Oliver Wendell Holmes once said,
“Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”
Tip #2: Be actively curious about what’s around you. Ask questions. Ponder more. Embrace the fact that your existing knowledge base is a mere fraction of the entire sphere of information that’s out there. Actively strive to learn something new every single day.
Widen Your Pool of Resources to Discover New Forms of Learning
But what if you don’t like reading? What if you struggle to concentrate while staring at tiny letters on a thin page? Does that mean you can’t ever become “well-read” — whatever on earth that means? Most certainly not.
Practice using the technology around you to your advantage. Tune into the news when the clock strikes midday. Turn up the radio when they start recapping the current state of world affairs. Or better, try listening to an educational podcast for a few minutes when you’re warming up for your next Pilates class.
I’ve recently discovered how much I’m able to learn from documentaries or lectures online. Maybe you prefer visual forms of learning too. And there’s a whole host of platforms that are worth exploring, such as TED talks, or CNBC Explains.
Ultimately, learning is a personal journey. And so, if you’d rather spend 30 minutes watching the Discovery Channel instead of reading every night, then by all means, do that. There’s never a prescriptive, “one-size-fits-all” approach to learning.
Tip #3: Nobody’s telling you to pick up a book or purchase a newspaper if that’s not what works for you. Embrace visual and audio forms of technology to enhance your available pool of resources.
A Final Thought
Henry Ford once said, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.”
And I couldn’t agree with him more. There’s something inherently powerful about embracing the opportunity that exists to learn — to dive deeper into a topic, to explore new areas, to think about subjects in a way in which you’ve never once thought. So why not recommence your journey of learning right here, right now? Who knows what else you’ll go on to discover?
