Sep 13, 2019
Never stop learning because life never stops teaching
“There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an exam and finish with education. The whole of film, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning”
As they say, learning is a never-ending journey. From cradle to grave, we are in continuous cycle of learning new things. It is a necessary part of our life. Without learning new things, we will remain unaware of wonderful things in the world. Our sight broadens when we get the knowledge and make ourselves lifelong learners. Indeed, traditional education may not be for everyone, but learning is. Learning is about enriching our minds, honing our skills, and changing the way we see the world and ourselves. It improves our behavior and the way we think by expanding and challenging our understanding.
“Education is what people do to you and learning is what you do for yourself”._Joi Ito
We often don’t think about education and learning as a two-way street, but if you take a moment and ask yourself what can I do to become a better learner? it can make your training investment even more valuable. Moreover, when I say, “to learn effectively” what I mean is to not just accumulate knowledge but to be able to apply that knowledge effectively at some point in the future. By this definition, much of what we did in school was not learning. It was temporary exercises in memorization. By this definition, most of the seminars and courses and books and conferences people spend money on is not learning either. Something is not truly learned until it changes you in some way, no matter how subtle or simple.
“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”
According to modern sciences, a child start learning even before its birth. From early childhood, we humans try to observe and learn things. One of first achievements of human child is to speak and walk. It cannot happen without learning. However, as we grow the tendency to absorb things into the mind becomes low. That is why, you can teach 5 languages to child of 7 years but after getting an age adults face difficulty to learn it. But it doesn’t mean that we can’t.
Learning new things represents the growth mindset. To be good learner you should be able to switch the diffused and focused thinking modes of brain. Focused thinking is when you concentrating on something (already familiar with) that you try to learn. However, if we talk about diffused mindset it helps you to think out of the box and to look for options, to look for different perspectives and try different ways.
If I talk about myself I was facing the goblins of procrastination. So the techniques I found beneficial were chunking my work, dividing my work in tiny parts which I can work efficiently on and the second technique that I got a chance to use and it is the Pomodoro technique, that not only boosted my productivity but also helped me to overcome procrastination.
One more thing I was always afraid to take risks, I was so used to of living in my shell, in my comfort zone that I rarely found it necessary to come out of that self-made shell. Therefore, I always opt for the easy way out but after coming to Amal Academy, this perception of mine changed a lot. I came to know that making mistakes is just in human nature, you can’t be perfect. Your mistakes, your failures do not define you. Failures are not permanent, so rise above your failures, use them as stepping stones instead of letting them become the hurdles of your way. Rather than be frustrated with difficult content and your own mistakes in the labs, remember that these are a key part of the learning experience. If you are not able to grasp one concept today, it does not mean that you won’t be able to perform better or that you won’t be able to get the complete essence of it ever. You just have to try, you have to practice, you have to work on your skills, you should just be willing to make mistakes and learn from them, we are not born perfect and we are not meant to be perfect, we are meant to be just human.
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” ― Maya Angelou
Moreover, you have to be eager to want to explore your curiosities. Eager to discover solutions to your problems. Eager to improve, to stretch your understanding, to discover new insights. You should be open to changes, adaptable, flexible in your thoughts and actions. I am now being exposed to information that I was previously unaware of, a new perspective. Now I’m collecting dots, churning the information in my head and figuring out how it applies to my life. Does it make sense? How is it useful? What am I having a hard time understanding and why? Over time, we can start making connections, discovering new insights, and surprisingly, being more curious which is always helpful. Self-education is valuable habit to start building. It will carry you throughout higher education and well beyond it. By studying subjects outside of our comfort zone, we can inadvertently discover useful information and insight to not only help us think well, but to also change the way we do our work.
“When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.” ― Ellen DeGeneres
The last challenge was that sometimes I found it difficult to focus, unable to develop interest and not able to pay proper attention. Firstly, learning something new or difficult takes time and we can avoid all these problems and become a good learner by proper planning and constructing a daily timetable. The timetable should start with a morning prayer then some exercise it will help your nervous system to work properly. Proper sleep is necessary to focus on our work, do meditation, go for some physical activity or exercise. Moreover, practice because practicing will repair as well as train your brain and your brain would be better able to grasp all the concepts and new knowledge. Moreover, I also learnt this new concept that instead of “Practice makes perfect, practice makes permanence”.
“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” _Aristotle
Final Words:
Believe in yourself, take on your challenges and dig deep within yourself to conquer your fears. Never let anyone bring you down. You have to keep going. Learning is not restricted to a place or a deadline. It is a practice, a habit, a part of your daily routine and that’s what I am looking forward to do. I will surely apply these while leaning the new things during my professional and personal life. I will try to apply the Pomodoro technique. There are other takeaways like we have to think positive and making a to-do-list on daily basis, also there is an update for exercise that it helps in building the new neurons which help in solving the problems. We should remember that we can improve by taking small steps and these small steps will eventually lead to something grand.
