How to be a Learner
/When I hear the word “learner” my brain goes immediately to school. I think of massive textbooks, lecture halls, midterm papers, etc. You get the picture.
I was always more of an “experience” student. Don’t get me wrong, I studied and tried hard but what I loved more than anything was the fun that came from being a student. Also I loved the internship opportunities, the leadership roles in student organizations, and letting the rubber meet the road in what we were learning in the classroom in real life.
However.
Recently, I’ve realized that once you leave a school setting, no one is feeding you knowledge. Information and facts and figures and research isn’t at the forefront of what you do everything in average “business.” It’s a lot of meetings and scheduling and to do lists. All of which are great. But the learning trigger is rarely pulled.
I think this disadvantages us as working human beings. If we aren’t filling ourselves up we eventually will RUN OUT. We will run dry of ideas and brilliant milestones.
So - how do we learn outside of school? Here are a couple tips!
People
Find people you admire. Follow them. Read what they write. Find people that you admire admire. There are so many people with unique stories and journeys that have a history to provide insight and wisdom to the next generation. Find your people.
Avenues
Today, there are so many learning avenues (fortunately)! Blogs, podcasts, youtube, books, documentaries, movies, live speaker events, online training courses, webinars, GOOGLE, etc. I once heard a famous public speaker say they enrolled in Google University to achieve their dreams. There is so much information out there to be soaked up and processed. My advice is let the people you admire lead you to the avenues to dive into the knowledge.
Practice
Practice, practice, practice. What a “boring” number three. But man is it useful (and important)! The best way to learn is to try. This means taking something you read or heard and applying the principal. If someone tells you that they achieved great peace from meditating every morning - maybe give it a shot? Maybe they boast daily physical fitness - you could do online yoga videos at home? The list goes on and on.
How incredible that the timeline to be a student is to infinity and beyond. We are lucky to live in a place where knowledge can be free and available with the click of a button (literally).
I encourage all humans, no matter the age, to put on a learner hat every day of the week. Strive to obtain new information in order to be their best selves and produce incredible results.
Go Forth!