Learning Strategies: How To Get The Most Out Of Learning

Learning Is A Big Part Of Life.

All problems could be solved if only we bothered learning how to.

And if it weren’t for the fact there’s variety – without which the world would be a most boring place. Variety makes that while some are busy learning how to solve problems, others are busy learning how to make them. Everybody is not interested in learning the same thing at the same time, which is a good thing! Luckily for us all, the problem-solvers learn faster than the problem-makers.

In the park I saw someone kick off the head of another flower with every other step he took. There were more flowers than steps and there will be new flowers again next year. I tell the more-flowers-than-kicks story because it illustrates the underlying principle that force always eventually succumbs to power, status quo always eventually succumbs to progress. Talking of which, I take comfort in the fact that progress is the great tendency of human kind that has survived all other tendencies combined. With gloom and doom the darlings of mainstream, I understand everybody does not agree. But what the heck, even giant Louis Armstrong got plastered for recording “It’s A Beautiful World.” The human kind is making unbelievable progress, but at the level of individuals, it’s a different story.

Does Learning Work?

While society as a whole is able to overcome any challenge, for many individuals of said society, life sucks. Some rise out of the ashes because, at some point, they are invested with a belief in the possibility of triumph over seemingly impossible odds, but by and large, learning doesn’t work too well for everyone. You cannot win them all, but some aren’t winning any of them. Relationships are marked by high divorce rates, personal finances by indebtedness, health by skyrocketing consumption of an ever-increasing variety of drugs (legal and otherwise), and spiritual-emotional wellness by addiction, crime, suicides, wars and skyrocketing consumption of sleeping aids and anti-depressants. So …

What If You Could Learn, With Less Effort?

How to get the most out of your learning? How to make progress the dominating tendency in your life? What if all of your problems could be solved if only you could learn how to? The study of how we learn has been instrumental in the development of the “Beattitude System Of Thinking And Doing.” Hence I know firsthand, learning is too vast a topic to address in a single blog post. Until such time that the book version is available, today’s “learning post” will be followed by many more posts. By all means, please visit again.

To get the greatest mileage out of what you learn, the first rule: Even more important than learning, is from whom you learn.

Learning is critical to your success, but who you learn from makes all the difference in the world. Closely related, the fastest way to success is learning  from someone who is doing successfully what you’re seeking to do with success.

Easy Said, Easy Done…

“More important than learning, is from whom you learn” is easy to apply in practice – if you know what you’re learning for. How to identify the right person to learn from, implies you have a clear learning objective. But when asked about the importance of learning, most people initially respond with generalities – to be able to read, write, hold a conversation, speak languages, travel, or to get jobs. If pressed, they realize these are but means to an end. The end might be to take care of their family, make the world a better place, make a contribution, volunteer, or to fulfill a lifelong dream. When pressed further still, it becomes evident there’s an even bigger end. The real end – the ultimate ambition – in most peoples’ lives, is fulfillment or completion of their purpose.

The hierarchy of means and ends can be important to understand. If your reason for learning is at the level of generalities, change can be fast and furious. You risk to find what has been learned has been replaced by technology, transferred to another location, regulated beyond recognition, or made illegal. In this case, the loss of work can mean the loss of end, and can result in despair. By contrast, if learning for work is but a means to a greater end, the end remains and will likely result in the search for a different means.

Much Learning Remains Just That

There is vastly more learning happening, than action resulting from it. Every bookseller and seminar provider knows a large percentage of books sold and seminars attended never grow bigger than the brain cells they once fleetingly occupied in the minds of the clients. Peoples’ uncertainty in purpose leads to uncertainty in whom to learn from and what to learn. When the time comes to put the learned into action, understandably trust is not present, and the process aborted.

What’s Your Reason For Learning?

If you know the answer, you may want to skip this paragraph. If not, learning how to find your purpose is actually rather easy. Just remember the first rule of learning: more important than learning, is from whom you learn:

If you desire to find your purpose, seek to learn how from someone who has.

If you need help to recognize or locate someone with purpose, contact me via comment or email. I’ll do a special post or answer directly.

QUOTES

• “Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly until you learn to do it well.” – Anonymous
• “You don’t learn so that you can then do. That’s an anxiety reaction and an avoidance behavior. You learn by doing, or I solemnly declare, you’ll never learn at all – or worse, you’ll abandon your calling altogether.” – Nick Murray
• “Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom. How do they learn it? They fall, and falling, they’re given wings.” – Rumi
• “Kids – they dance before they learn there is anything that isn’t music.” – William Stafford
• “Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.” – Winston Churchill
• “The learners will inherit the world. The learned will be beautifully equipped for a world that no longer exists.” – Anonymous
• “The wise learn from personal experience. The happy learn from the experiences of others.” – Anonymous
• “Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.” – Benjamin Franklin
• “Experience helps you recognize a mistake when you make it again.” – Anonymous
• “Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.” – Hector Berlioz
• “Experience is a hard teacher. She gives the test first and the lesson afterwards.” – Anonymous
• “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” – Anonymous

Hi, welcome back! Any ideas how to make your experience of finding value at beatschindlerdotcom even better? Please let me know! Cheers, Beat

Related Posts:

• The Secret To Learning? Unlearn!
• Life Enhancers We Can Copy From Cats
• Learning Strategies: How To Learn
• Beattitudes 3 – Time To Talk About Time
• Beattitudes 2 – Passion

Tagged as: Learning, personal growth, Self Development, Success Strategies