Learning
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. - Alvin Toffler
Learning is the super power of our current times as every business is going through unprecedented changes. The future of the industry will be defined by companies and individuals that can change faster and adapt to new market demands and execute accordingly. If you learn better you can earn better. It is as simple as that.
Scenario
Are you feeling left behind with so many new tools and technologies showing up everyday? Are you struggling to catch up with the speed at which digital world is transforming? Are you feeling a little irrelevant in your jobs these days? Is fear striking you as things are getting easier and super fast?
In other words, are you finding it hard to keep up with the world around you? If you nodded yes to any or all of you might have to ramp up your learning. I am not talking about going back to school or getting a degree, all those are slowly becoming irrelevant these days.
The most important trait companies are looking for these days is, are you skilled? If not can you pick up the needed skill quickly? aka ADAPTABILITY. Learning is all about enhancing your potential. Potential is nothing but you are unable to do something today but you can do it tomorrow. It is an ability inside you which is untapped at the moment. Learning will unleash this.
On the other hand if you are a leader or a mentor or a coach or a teacher, you should be able to understand how we learn as a human species. Let’s understand how we are wired so you can pick specific strategies to skyrocket your learnings.
Brain Speak
Our brain says that we can learn at any age as it is incredibly elastic. This is what we refer to as neuro-plasticity. It is not true that only children can learn better. Our plasticity is better as children but nevertheless we can learn as adults as well provided we know how our brain works. We could learn till out timeout (death).
We need to allow our brain to form the semantic neuronal pathways. This process takes time. If we don’t give the time, the pathway will fade away. So the more you are at it, the better your learning is. This is why all that you cram fades away. All that you learn by doing in lab, stays with you for a long period.
Our brains need different dots to connect. Without dots there is no connection. Without worrying about grades or scores, we need to just explore the terrain. Trust in your synapses (this is how neurons speak to each other) and it will pay you back big time. Allow the brain to do its job. 80% of the time we are our learning impediments. Just remove yourself from the process and just allow it to happen.
Strategies
Having a growth mindset (Ref: Carol Dweck) helps a learner. The secret word you must embrace is YET. I don’t know this yet but I will get better tomorrow. You mindset plays a significant role in your learning success.
The only competition to you today is you yesterday. This helps you benchmark your learning.
You will die ignorant anyways. So why FOMO? We will miss out on many things anyways 🤷♀️
Knowledge gaps when it compounds, makes learning harder. So focus on the foundation principles better. Start small and compound over a period of time consistently. That is the secret formula of learning.
Set your learning environment for focus (may be a pomodoro clock or a timer in your phone). Say no to distractions. Say no to context switching during learning. Then go and chill/relax. We need both focused learning AND diffused learning. We can’t learn in one mode only. So set realistic schedules and allow enough diffusion for the learning to happen.
No learning happens over night. Our brain takes a long time to soak in different concepts. If you don’t tamper with it, it can connect dots seamlessly.
When you understand that learning is continuous and long term, the way you will look at learning something completely changes. If you trust your brain, you will learn better 🙌
🥂to learning!
Yo! Thanks for reading. Means a lot to me as attention is the hardest currency 🙏
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Great read. There is a similar article about consistent creativity being related to mental muscle and how to improve it by Nick Wignall.