Why It’s Essential to Be a Lifelong Learner
Five Lifelong Learning Skills That Can Enrich Your Life
When we’re good at what we do – whether it’s being a great team leader, an excellent accountant or an experienced nurse – it can be easy for us to think we know it all. After all, we have experience. We've had formal education or professional development. We have wisdom. We have the know-how to do our jobs and to even mentor others along their paths. And in doing so, it may feel like we are experts, so what else is there to learn?
The answer: Everything. At Bold Kindness, we believe that regardless of our experience and skill sets, we always have more to learn. And when we make a slight shift in attitude – from "I'm an expert" to "I wonder what else I can learn?" – the world opens up. The key is to avoid complacency and shift to a mindset of being a lifelong learner.
Lifelong Learning: Beyond Formal Education
Lifelong learning, or continuous learning, is the ongoing process of learning new skills and knowledge. Lifelong learning can be about anything, big or small:
- Taking formal education to increase your knowledge
- Engaging in professional development to improve a skillset
- Being curious about the everyday world and how it works
- Having the desire to learn something new about a team member
- Discovering a new way of doing something, like learning a new recipe
- Being open to being wrong in how we do something
- Reading this blog and learning about lifelong learning!
Lifelong learning is so much more than formal education or skill development. It's about cultivating the lifelong ability to be curious and open about what we can find and learn, every day. It's about letting go of our preconceptions about how things are and being willing to pursue lifelong learning, with a growth mindset of professional and personal development.
That doesn't mean our existing skills and experience don't matter. They do. But by not settling for what we have, and by being willing to stay open to personal development and the acquisition of new knowledge, we can exponentially increase our personal and work lives in numerous ways.
The Benefits of Personal Development and Lifelong Learning
So why does all of this matter anyway? When we open our hearts and minds to being lifelong learners, this is what happens:
- Our lives become more interesting when we're lifelong learners.
- We feel a greater sense of personal fulfillment.
- We acquire new skills for work or home.
- We boost our self confidence and enhance our mental health.
- We realize we are 100% responsible for our actions and results, which can be liberating.
- We cultivate greater flexibility in how we see the world and gain a greater appreciation for what's around us.
How to Shift Into a Lifelong Learning Mode
Most of us don’t want to sit back and watch the world pass us by. Yet it can feel daunting to be lifelong learners and take chances, try new things and put ourselves out in the world. Acquiring any new skill, or way of being, takes practice. If you're curious about how you can shift your attitude into one in which you're continuously growing and taking on new challenges, consider the following tips to become a lifelong learner:
- Get curious. Don't accept the world as it is; get curious and ask why and how something is done. Gain knowledge. Keep your brain healthy and active.
- Learn something new. Whether it's reading a book, discovering a new podcast, or learning a new language, seek out sources of new knowledge. It could be about anything – something you love or something you know nothing about.
- Challenge your way of thinking. The next time you decide what something is about, challenge your preconceptions. What facts support your point of view? How could you, as a lifelong learner, see things differently?
- Be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Lifelong learning requires us to step outside of our comfort zones and be vulnerable. Remember the feeling of traveling in a foreign country when you don't know the language? Be okay with not being an expert.
- Follow your heart. This is the most important skill of being a lifelong learner and key to living a Bold Kind life. Don't force yourself to learn new skills if they don't align with your personal interests. Find the things you love and pursue them.
If you feel resistance to any of these tips, get curious. Ask yourself why. Then ask yourself why again. When we explore what we're resistant to, we start unraveling some of the obstacles that stand in the way of being a lifelong learner who strives for personal fulfillment.
Lifelong Learning is a Lifelong Journey
No matter how much experience we may have, we always have something to learn. When we are genuinely curious about being a lifelong learner and who we are and where we're going, so many possibilities open up. When we just coast on auto-pilot, we miss out on healthy challenges, interesting discussions and new ways to leverage our brainpower. Being a lifelong learner keeps our brains sharp.
Make a habit of being a lifelong learner. Explore things you know nothing about. Try something new. Because with learning comes growth, and with growth comes wisdom, satisfaction and new perspectives – something you’ll be able to build on year after year.
