Just because you left school does not mean you have to stop learning. Learning should not be limited to knowing the necessary dates and terms in school to pass an exam. Learning should be a part of life and not just a school requirement. How to make learning a lifelong habit?
It is not that difficult to find learning with the easy and quick way to access limitless information nowadays.
How to Make Learning a Lifelong Habit
Make it a goal and habit
Deliberately make learning a part of your plans and goals. Write down the things that you want to learn about. What are the topics that you want to know more of? Decide that you want to keep on learning and take steps to achieve this goal.
Add learning to your habits. Read at least a chapter of a book a day. Go visit a museum at least once a month. Put it into your schedule or planner.
Be open
There is so much to learn in this world. Culture, places, cooking, arts, theories, technology…research and science keep on discovering things about almost everything under the sun. Be open to new information and be open to what you can learn about.
Learning should not be limited to theories. It is not just about numbers or words, histories or social studies. You can learn a new skill or learn to navigate a new tool or app. Learn a new hobby or sports. Or try and learn to create something; a novel, pastries, a furniture, a painting, a new recipe, or a vase. Just be open to learn.
Find a mentor
Learn from the best. There are free webinars about different topics. Podcasts and video tutorials are also available for learning. There are countless written documents available online. The local library is also there for old school learning.
Authors could be mentors. The beautiful thing about reading is that you get to “speak” with great minds, walk in the shoes of certain characters—both fictional or not, and be mentored by the best in their specific niches.
There are seminars too conducted for a reasonable fee.
There are local colleges or organizations that offer classes for what you are interested in. Nowadays, there are documentary shows on TV about places, history, technology, and cooking shows for those who want to develop their kitchen skills.
Find like-minded people
“If you are the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” (Confucius)
Find individuals who are as hungry or hungrier with knowledge as you are. There are like-minded people who will explore new places with you, who will attend the same seminars you like, and who will visit museums for fun and learning. Learning is fun when you do it with friends.
Search online for groups of people who are interested with the same topic as you are. There are different groups on Facebook dedicated and created for people who want to stay updated about the things they are passionate about. In these groups they share their experiences, their lessons, tips and advice so if you’re new, you can ask around.
Keep growing
When a person decides to stop learning, he stops growing. Learning is a part of living. Change is constant and in order to keep up and cope with the world, one has to continue to evolve through learning.
Be humble enough to recognize that you may know a few things but every person you meet knows something that you don’t. Because we all have different experiences and we have different backgrounds. There is something that you can learn from someone.
Even in our day to day life, several lessons can be learned. In our relationships, in our past experiences, in the way we deal with work, with people we encounter every day, there is so much to learn. Lessons are there and life will keep teaching them to us until we recognize them as they are and stop making the same mistake again.
Learning materials and information are anywhere. Life lessons can be learned first-hand or observing others and learning from their stories. Be resourceful, diligent, and dedicated to learn and you will never be left behind. Be a lifelong learner. Make it a habit.
Writing Wednesdays
Prompt : You weren’t born to fit in. You were born to be brilliant. – Simon T Bailey
As you know, you can also share posts from your week. Please be generous and comment on and share this post and others linked here.
Everyday is a learning journey and one never gets satisfied with what has been learnt. I am learning everyday from bloggers around and this keeps me inspiring and inspire others.
And again with the digitization of knowledge and online courses on everything and skills sharing over the internet, it has become easier to access learning. We have so many resources today, and virtual classmates too. It’s a pleasure to live that life of a beginner in something or other, every time. Learning is what keeps us going. There is always something to discover. Something to try, test, be curious about and learn. Learning provides so many dimensions to our monotonous lives.
The key take away for me in this post are be open and keep growing. These two are my mantras for my forever learning. As I was a professor, I. Love learning always.
Learning is a never ending process. Life will be very boring if we had nothing new to learn and experience,
I definitely agree! There is always something new to learn be it at work or in life. We must be open to learning new and different things because these days there is no dearth of opportunities to learn.
A lot of wisdom in people of all ages adopting this golden value. You stop growing once you decide you know everything. It makes sense to especially learn new things as you get older. In today’s times while the life-span has increased, the quality of life has depleted. We are faced with old age problems of dementia and alzhiemer’s. Learning new stuff may help the brain remain agile longer. Great guidelines.
Unlike the others here, I actually feel sad when I read this. Mainly because I know in my professional field, I will always have to keep on learning new stuff that arises every year even if i am 70 years old 🙂
Oh, the pain of being a ‘forever student’
My take away from this post is… everyone we meet has something that we dont know! This is a golden rule for being a student forever for life.
True this. Learning must be a life long process. There’s so much knowledge so freely available these days that one can learn whatever one wants. Exercising the mind in new ways is a great way of keeping one young too.
At 35 when I am preparing to appear for an exam that could turn my career for good, I completely understand and appreciate the meaning of things mentioned in this post.
Learning should never stop is what I absolutely agree with. The moment learning stops growth also stops. I am always thirsty for knowledge and the day I stop learning that will be my end.
I would say we face the problem of the plenty. It’s like there is too much available and we have too little time to go for it. That’s when identifying a goal and working towards that will help us.
So much free video and audio tutorials are available now that anyone with a streak to learn something new can easily find resources. We should never stop learning It helps developing our personality too
This is inspiring indeed. I have been feeling the need of late to learn and do something new. Maybe a lost hobby or a dream to learn a dance form.
Very true. Learning is lifelong and each circumstance teaches us something. You just gave me an idea for journaling and my vlogging. Thank you.
This post is valuable. Learning should never stop and this post has given me ideas to find various new sources to learn the things I want to.
Couldn’t agree more. Life is all about learning. And knowledge, is power. I love it when you say there is so much to learn in life. Indeed, there is. We need to be open and positive.
Couldn’t agree more. Even in jobs, we unlearn and learn. The more we learn, the more we grow. Learning when done intentionally or unintentionally brings out so much more in us. Thanks for this post. Some good ideas.
I agree. There is always something new to be learned. I have just recently completed a training to be a “tree steward.” It was interesting to learn more about trees and how to care for them. I am planning on taking an oil painting class in August and am looking forward to growing and developing as an artist, too.
Peter Drucker had decided at the age of 30 that he would take up one topic and master it for three years. At the age of 95, when he died, he was still learning.
He said knowledge becomes obsolete, but learning does not.
Absolutely agree. I completed a masters and a law degree in my 30s with the hope to approach that I am a life long learner and age is of relevance when it comes to a dream and a willingness to learn.
one mistake that many people do is not being open to learning after a certain age. If we are open to learning, there is a lot to learn in this world at any age. A few think they are not capable of learning a new skill after 30. If we believe that we can learn, we will.
This post resonates with me. I always believe that we need to keep learning, relearning and brushing up on our skills and knowledge even as we grow on experience. One of the things that comes from lifelong learning is an agile mind and no matter what, learning never ever goes to waste. I love the fact that the mind once widened never gets back to its former state.
I had become complacent. Of late, I have got my vigour back. I have enrolled in new courses, socialise with more people and read more.
Words and write-up i should use as bible to my daily reading.It gives a lot of in puts as well as guidelines. Great