Lifelong Learning
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If you are thinking of building one lifelong habit in 2023, pick the habit of learning. As a kid and a young adult, I never prioritized learning. During my time at school and university, my body was is class, while my mind and heart always drifted towards sports. "Wisdom comes with winters" or so did Oscar Wilde say. After 34 winters, Wisdom is yet to arrive. Since 2019 while waiting for Wisdom, I feel an insatiable hunger for self-development and an unquenchable thirst for learning. These hunger and thirst have sparked my curiosity to venture in the quest of lifelong learning. Wisdom will come in due time.
Last week, I was invited to share in front of a global virtual audience what learning means to me and how I have made it a daily lifelong habit. Reflecting on some of the feedback from the session, I decided to write my experience and thoughts on learning and share them in the world wide web in case it could benefit or inspire others. What follows is not the panacea, it is the result of my own personal journey.
Learning is one of the most powerful habits I have created for myself. It has taken my personal growth and consciousness to a different level. Along the way, I have succumbed to the realization that the compounding effect of learning only comes with consistency and persistence. Hence, I have made learning a daily habit. You may be thinking: "Thank you Captain Obvious.… I know all this. Tell me where to start and how to make learning a lifelong habit."
Let me start with WHY I made learning a lifelong habit. Imagine that I, myself, am my own start up. Let's give it the name of Tonio's Venture, where I am the CEO, CFO, COO, and the rest of the CXO's you can come up with. Tonio's Venture has only ONE starring product, which Tonio's Venture develops, markets, finances, and sells. That product is ME, myself with my bundle of skills, attributes, characteristics, strengths, etc. (i.e. product features). I had never thought of myself as a "product".
This realization turned my mindset on learning by 180 degrees. For my start up, Tonio's Venture, to continue to stay relevant and competitive, I need to iterate on myself, currently on version V34.0, by adding new skills (features), patching up bugs, enhancing existing capabilities. Which department would take care of this product developments? Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner - Research & Development (R&D). In the case of my start up, I have named it Learning & Development (L&D) department.
At Tonio's Venture, I invest my most valuable resource, time (and some personal capital far from being billions) in L&D. Those investments go towards improving my existing capabilities; developing new skills; and most importantly, to evolve towards a relevant and resilient future for myself, both professional and personal.
“Learn what you love, until you love to learn. Only then will learning become lifelong”
I have shared my basis for why I invest in L&D. Let me now address I how to make learning a sustainable lifelong habit.
Start with WHY - Trivial as it seems, exploring and defining the reasons why I want to learn brings me self-awareness and consciousness. It gives intention and direction to my learning journey.
Learning is for ME - I do not learn for others. I do not learn for the company I work for. I learn for myself to develop an enhanced version of myself, which others, including family, friends, peers, colleagues at work, will benefit from and rip my developments. Learning is for ME and only ME.
Making learning personal - I sit down and make three columns with the titles below. I am brutally honest with myself while filling these three columns and I write everything that pops into my mind (no erasing allowed).
(a) Things I am passionate about - What are the things that I love to do, at home, at work, on my free time, during the weekend, etc.
(b) Things I know a lot about - What are the things I am knowledgeable about, independent of category. It could be sports, photography, software development, board games, etc.
(c) Things I am curious about - What are things that itch my curiosity. What are topics I perhaps know nothing or a little of and would like to know more.
When doing this exercise -remember that learning is for YOU. You may find there is often an overlap across the columns. Those are the things you should start learning about. The reason being is that your passions, areas of expertise, and curiosities offer the least resistance for you to start learning and make it a habit. As I like to say, learn what you love, until you love to learn. Only then will learning become lifelong. With time, your passions, knowledge, and curiosity will thrive in different directions leading you to a new "starting" point. I recommend conducting the exercise above once or twice a year. It also serves as a reflection of how you are evolving over time.
Establishing learning as a habit - Start with Kaizen. There is no point on blocking one hour a day/week for learning, if you never show up to that hour. It is a waste of energy and motivation setting aside one hour a day/week to learn if you always find something more pressing or more “important” invade your allocated time for learning. One hour of learning on a day/week could be intimidating, given the "busy" lives we are accustomed to. It may trigger your amygdala (i.e., the part of your brain responsible for your "fight or flight" mode), making you flight even before you start your hour of learning. Begin taking small steady steps that lead to change. This is the essence of the Kaizen way, which Robert Maurer explains in his book One Small Step Can Change Your Life.
James Clear writes, in Atomic Habits, one of the of the steps for behavioral change is to make it easy. My proposal is that you start with as easy as blocking 5 minutes a week for learning. Something you can easily commit to, show up to and accomplish. Something so menial that not doing it would be embarrassing, to say the least. It is very likely that once you are in the midst of learning and the 5 minutes are over, you will think to yourself "I am already here, I might as well do another 5 minutes". Without intending, you have completed 10 minutes of learning. If you are committed at taking one small step and consistently show up to those 5 minutes, do not be surprised when those 5 minutes become 10 minutes; 10 minutes become 30 minutes; 30 minutes turn out to be one hour. Before you know it you will consistently be learning one hour at a time.
Learn and develop because you, yourself, are your most important product. Reflect why do you want to learn. Learn for yourself and for nobody else. Make it personal - be aware of the things you are passionate about, know a lot about, and are curious about. Start by learning about those things. Make learning a progressive one-small-step process.
This is why and how I made learning a lifelong habit.
