Today I attended a preview for an Executive MBA and from the presentation, there was a slide which caught my attention.
“Habits of a lifelong learner…”
When I returned home, while spending the balance of my weekend… reflected and remembered that I have not written for quite some time now.
I would like to share the top 10 habits of lifelong learners as below:
1. Never stop learning as learning is a journey.
Albert Einstein shared this interesting quote, “Once you stop learning, you start dying.”
2. Spread out the learning – chunk it down.
There is no point cramming everything in one learning. So let us take one day at a time. Like what I have shared during workshops, imaging if you improve 1% a month, you will improve 12% a year! How about 1% per week? It adds up to 52% a year… what is stopping us from learning?
3. Action will get results.
“You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.” – Carl Gustav Jung
I do believe that when we put in the action, we get the results and when we get the results, we will be more motivated as well.
4. Visualise the goal (as if you have already achieve it).
“What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill
When we know where we are headed (and see it clearly in our head), chances are better we reach the destination in no time. Example when we want to finish fixing the jigsaw puzzles, we will refer to the picture on the box (begin with the end in mind). Then comes the strategies and execution…
5. Seek out to learn.
One of my mentors used to share with me… “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear…”
Once we have decided to learn (ready with the right learning attitude), somehow we are more receptive and will be able to absorb the learning better.
What are the areas that you can further learn? Take it as a “mini-project” to work on enhancing yourself.
6. Coach and Mentor others.
“You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar
It is also true when we make others happy, in return, we are happy too.
I have decided to coach and mentor as many people as I can because when I do that, I can learn from others that I am coaching or mentoring. The questions we prepared before the coaching sessions, planning and organising, research and development and not forgetting the questions that others asked (especially when we are mentoring).
There is no limit in learning as long as we have an open mind.
7. Challenges are opportunities in disguise.
If it does not kill us, it will only make us stronger… take a rest if you must, just do not throw in the towel! As long as you keep moving, one day you will arrive.
As I looked back (reflected), I have learnt that problems / challenges that I went through have taught me A LOT! We may not be able to have control over the events, with enough practice and awareness, we can learn how to respond (or react) to the situation and get better outcomes. Even if we fail, we can learn from the failure (via reflection, feedback, coaching, mentoring… and many other ways to learn).
8. Be part of learning via participation and collaboration.
There will be a lot of opportunities presented when we attend seminars, workshops, conferences, networking or any social events… let’s do our part to participate and collaborate.
It could be running projects in the organisation, corporate social responsibility, or tasks… look out for ways to be part of the team to contribute (at the same time, learn!).
9. Use technology.
What is stopping you from utilising the technology to learn?
Articles, e-learning, YouTube, TED Talk, GoogleTalk, Feedly, Twitter, Podcasts… and many others… there is an endless streams of media that we can have access to…
Turn your commute to work as “university on the move” or you can listen to audiobooks while exercising… be creative… what is needed is to prioritise when and how we want to learn.
10. Have fun and enjoy the journey.
Oh… might as well enjoy it while we are at it… YES?
Ultimately, it boils down to the choice that we make… to learn or not to learn?
Whatever choice we make, we got to pay the price.
Have fun and enjoy your learning journey.
“Let go, let life, and enjoy the journey…!” ― James A. Murphy
One last thing, when was the last time you visited the public library? 🙂
“Change your habits, change your world!”