Lifelong Learning: Taking Action for Life-Changing Growth
When I embraced lifelong learning, I found that I needed to explain and defend my reasons. As a classroom teacher for twenty years, my goal and intention was to encourage my students to understand and choose this path for their own lives.
“Mrs. Green, you mean you still have to go to school?”
I’d shared with my class that I was taking an astronomy class at the local college and wanted to tell them what it was like to be a student just like them.
“No, Richard. I get to go to school. As you get older, you choose what you want to study and learn. That’s why I want you to stay in school and learn as much as you can now, so you’ll know later on what you want to study. Right now, I want to learn more about space and the planets.”
I had already been a professional student for many years when I decided to go back to college and earn my teaching credential. That’s when I began to understand the value and importance of lifelong learning, not only for myself but for everyone in the world.
Fueling Your Personal And Professional Growth
Life is about growth, and one aspect of both personal and professional growth is learning and it’s a lifelong journey. This lifelong learning journey is necessary to unlock the growth you’re looking to achieve in life, whether your focus is on your personal self or your professional self.
Lifelong learning delivers the ability to adapt and innovate, to create and thrive. Here, we focus on exploring just how significant lifelong learning is and how it impacts your development.
Adaptability
If you want to adapt to this world, and you should because it’s constantly changing, then lifelong learning is going to assist you in that endeavor. As every industry and structure rapidly evolves, you are better equipped to deal with it if you are constantly learning and improving your knowledge. You can embrace new skills, understand other points of view, and disseminate information, which makes you more relevant to the rapidly shifting industry or for other potential opportunities.
Challenge Assumptions
Lifelong learning truly expands your horizons and when you expose yourself to new perspectives, cultures, and a range of diverse subjects, you are equipped to challenge assumptions and develop your intellectual curiosity beyond what most imagine. That sets you up nicely to develop yourself personally and professionally.
Problem-Solving
Learning takes time and as a process, it requires you to deploy problem-solving skills and critical thinking. If you learn for a lifetime, you learn how to better analyze situations and view those situations from different perspectives. This gives you the tools you need to come up with creative solutions to a host of problems. It’s an invaluable skill both professionally and personally.
Development and Growth
It’s important to understand that learning is not confined to a formal setting, you don’t need to be going to classes to learn. Lifelong learning encompasses creative pursuits, new hobbies, researching areas of interest, and any other activities that contribute to a well-rounded, more fulfilled life. Development goes far beyond “official” skills or “certified” talents.
Advancement
Professionally speaking, constant learning is a great way to advance. It turns you into an attractive, flexible prospect who has valuable transferrable skills. As every industry evolves, leaders will look to those who have worked on developing new skills and knowledge regularly. You turn yourself into a must-have asset and you’re poised to adapt if the market changes or you need to pursue a different path.
Growth Mindset
Lifelong learning also helps you develop a growth mindset, which will serve you well in an ever-evolving world, whether you want to climb the ladder in your current industry or recognize that it’s time for a change. Or, whether you would like to pursue personal endeavors with more enthusiasm and recognize that you have some skill gaps – your mindset matters and a growth mindset can make all the difference.
Technology & Networking
The digital world has made accessing information easier than ever, so you can use technology to your advantage in your journey to be a lifelong learner. You can seek out webinars, online courses, free eBooks, online marketing podcasts for entrepreneurs, and even blogs that cater to your specific interests or professional objectives.
Those are also excellent opportunities for networking with like-minded people, and you shouldn’t underestimate the power of those connections you make, whether you link online or off.
Examples Of Avenues Towards Lifelong Learning
Traditional Education Institutions – Colleges, universities, and vocational schools
Online Courses
Personal Development Retreats: Participating in personal development retreats or workshops focused on topics like mindfulness, leadership, or personal growth can provide transformative learning experiences in a supportive environment.
Explore Self-Help Avenues
Community Education Programs
Professional Development Workshops
Conferences and Symposia
Podcasts and Audiobooks
Reading books on topics you have not been exposed to before
Therapy – delve into and learn about yourself
TED Talks and TED-Ed
Self-Study and Research
Language Learning Apps: Apps like Duolingo, Rosetta Stone, and Babbel
Online Forums and Communities
Peer Learning Groups
Volunteering and Internships
Outdoor and Experiential Education – Participating in outdoor activities, such as hiking, camping, or gardening, can provide opportunities for experiential learning and personal growth.
Exploring creative outlets like painting, writing, photography, or music allows you to express yourself while developing new skills and techniques.
Cultural Immersion and Travel
Online Learning Communities
Continuing Education Programs
Mentorship and Coaching: Seeking mentorship or coaching from experienced professionals in your field can provide valuable guidance, feedback, and support as you pursue your learning goals.
The Intentionality of Success
While learning is fun, it can certainly derail your goals for starting and growing a profitable business. Allow me to explain…
When I came online, I knew less than nothing about creating an income stream on the internet. I was in the “unconscious incompetence” zone and moving randomly through each day. I began reading and listening to training from thought leaders about how to shift my thinking to a growth mindset and knew that connecting with the people who had come before me as online entrepreneurs would be extremely valuable when it came to achieving my goals for this new business.
So I set about learning as much as I could, in hopes that the day would come when I knew enough and could create a business plan that would work for me. It was a good thing that I hired a mentor early on and he straightened out my thinking about this. He told me to stop learning and planning and to instead focus on taking action and creating content on the topic I wanted to become known for online.
This advice helped me to move forward every single day. I never did finish that business plan I thought was so important, and it wouldn’t be until a decade later when I did create one for my Amazon business. It was three pages long and filled with action steps I would take each day to make more sales and choose the best products. Whether you are new online, or have been around for years and are still not earning income that increases month over month, it’s all about creating habits that will lead you to success.
I think of what I’ve just shared with you as being the “intentionality of success” and it makes everything in your life much easier and more fun. What habits have you cultivated for your life and buisness? When you brush your teeth in the morning, you’re following a habit that was instilled in you at a young age. Think of this example when you’re creating habits for your business.
According to James Clear, bestselling author of “Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones” — https://amzn.to/3UbqelB — habits are formed by DOING, not planning, habit formation requires constant repetition of behavior until it becomes automatic, and the frequency of action is more important than the length of time you have been practicing the habit.
What are your habits for your business? Are you tasks and activities you do each day? I cultivated the habit of emailing my subscribers each day and soon it became a habit that I look forward to each morning. I also wanted to be a writer to grow my business more quickly, so I began with the habit of writing a short — this began with 250 to 300 words — article each day.
Over time these habits begin to build and grow on their own, and then you can scaffold them into powerful tools for your business and even your personal life. My habit of writing those short articles each day led to authorship, and now I’ve written and published more than twenty-five bestselling books!
Force yourself to spend less time thinking about what you will do and asking endless questions to those who are helping you build and grow your business, and focus on the action steps that will move you forward.
Motivation can be overrated when you’re focused on intentionality to achieve success. Environment is much more important, so you’ll want to surround yourself with people who believe in you and want to hear about everything you’re doing in your business and are open to giving you positive feedback that will make a difference for everyone involved.
Lifelong learning is more than just a habit, it’s a tradition and one that will empower you to think beyond yourself for the rest of your life. It will force you to constantly evolve, adopt, and thrive no matter what life throws at you. This is a journey of constant learning that takes you further than you ever imagined and gives you a much deeper understanding of yourself, people, and the world.
When you embrace lifelong learning, you position yourself in the role of a forever student, but that means you’re constantly growing and finding new ways to contribute to your personal and professional life.
I’m lifelong learner and massive action taker Connie Ragen Green, devoted to sharing what I’ve learned with as many people as possible.
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