The Power of "Lifelong Learning"

• Have you ever felt that you know everything there is to know?
• Specialists who give you advise should keep it to themselves?
• You have done something for a few years and would be able to do this the same way for many years to come?

If you answered yes, or even gave one of these questions a few seconds to think. You must take a few steps back and evaluate. Do you suffer from the fixed mindset. And of course if you find the answer yes, do not worry as one's ability to change Fixed Mindset to Growth Mindset is not rocket science. The fundamental thing however is to first accept that you do have a fixed mindset, and that you yourself see the need to move to a growth mindset. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft says, the only way to go ahead for professionals is to have a growth mindset. In his words, The know it all may start ahead of the learn it all, but in the end it is the learn it all who would definitely be the winner. While these concepts are encouraging and put things in perspective, I would like to share some of my experiences in practically adopting the growth mindset (even before having known that something like this exists). I have described them in brief below.

1. Focus on learning at least one new thing every 3 months (quarter). You could be working in any function. Sales, Finance, Human Resources, Customer Service, etc. Hold yourself accountable for growing yourself. Perhaps the first sometime you would struggle to identify what you need/want to learn. But once this becomes a habit you would learn to prioritize topics that would have maximum impact on your work and life, you would be able to pick these topics more easily. Make sure you do have some "me time" to review your progress. If you cannot spare 30-60 min for yourself in 3 months time, you must really analyze where you have fundamental challenges. Irrespective of whether you are a fresher or you are a CEO, it is impossible that you cannot catch this time for yourself.
2. Invest in your development, do not always wait for the organization to send you for some training. I mean development could mean something as simple as reading brief book summaries, reading HBR articles or undergoing a 60 - 120 min Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) at Coursera, edx or Udemy, etc. this could mean just watch a TEDx Video clip or just simply listening to podcasts while you travel. The point is to chose the subject, and then use multiple methods that could help you build on it. We live in an age that lack of content can never be an excuse, well an overload could be a draw back, but if you have funneled your thoughts well - you could really get some cutting edge content. There is a saying in India, "If you search well, you could even find God", what is some learning content then.
3. Learn from your colleagues. All of us are different, and carry different qualities, more often than not, individuals are considered as a package deal. And if they have some qualities it is assumed that they would come with some baggage. If you do pick up one positive practice or trait from each of your colleagues you would surely be among the better package deals. This of course doesn't mean you manipulate yourself, or fake yourself, but understand the benefit of adapting in different situations, and the impact it can have on your ability to create meaningful interaction and hence cracking results.
4. Reach out to industry experts for their views. This could be done in a variety of ways, you could attend seminars and workshops - for specific individual speakers and their perspectives. you could follow them on social media like linkedin, twitter, etc. And their views come to you by default. Doesn't exactly mean that you follow everything they have to say, but at least you know what the greatest minds of our time are thinking, and what is their world view. And one of the most effective way I have found to do this is watch business leader's interviews on Youtube, you have some popular interviewers who have interviewed Jack Welch, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai or subject matter experts like Marshall Goldsmith, Lou Adler, Tony Robbins, etc. The impact they would leave on your lives would be profound. Learning from their perspectives really helps one grow.
5. Make it a point to meet your business heads often. Tai Lopez, the famous investor, entrepreneur, and author speaks of the 33% rule. You have to make 33% time to meet your peers, and 33% of your time with your juniors, teaching them as well helps you learn. However according to Lopez, spending 33% of your time with seniors/business heads could make you uncomfortable at the beginning, however you would realize how it impacts your world view. If you are mindful to note the impact, you shall see how this impacts your interaction with your colleagues, customers and with your friends and family as well. You would end up picking up things you did not even intend to pick up from them. Some of your lessons could be more applicable in your personal life than professional. You would have grown as a human being.
6. Learning by observing the common man(and woman). Observe the common folks in their day to day interactions, you could do that with your relatives whom you like interacting the most, step back and observe what makes them popular with the whole family. Observe the Uber drivers - they all work in the same environments and perhaps face the same challenges, but what differentiates one from the other is their way to approach life. I've had drivers whose family members are admitted in the hospital - but you wouldn't know that through the ride until they tell you right at the end of the trip. Look at security guards at your apartments, they could have long shifts, but yet some of them have cheerful dispositions. In fact I saw one young security boy in my apartment 4 years ago move up the chain to be a senior supervisor in a short span of time. I observed his interactions with the other security staff, and the residents was par excellence. And while all of his peers or seniors may have joined with the intent to grow quickly, this boy with his attitude day in and day out proved to be more valuable.
7. Learn from children. You needn't have your own - this could be children in your relation or your neighbour's child. Of course the beauty of learning from your children is the most satisfying thing. Their ability to learn and unlearn, and the cycle could go on a few times. As we grow up, while we are willing to learn, unless we train ourselves to unlearn the cognitive overload could just be too much to handle. Simple things like being curious about things and asking questions, slowly but surely reduces and growing up we are mindful of how we would be perceived if we do ask some inappropriate questions. Above all the most important thing I have personally learnt from children is the ability to have fun while you learn. Irrespective of whether they have chosen to learn something or someone has asked them to, they never fail to enjoy themselves.
8. Learning from writing. This may not be among the orthodox ways, but I have observed - whether it is short pieces or longer articles, to be able to put your thoughts across in a coherent manner, you read, you talk to people, you write your piece and of course at the end you do receive tons of feedback. It doesn't matter if you write in your internal magazine, or write for a print magazine or newspaper, or perhaps electronic media like Linkedin/Facebook or even if you do have a blog. If you would really like to stretch yourself in this direction challenge write a book. The process of doing it would teach you a thing or two you could never learn from something traditional.

In her writing the "100 year life", Dr. Lynda Gratton writes about how in the years to come, with technological changes, disruptions and of course with increasing life expectancy, it would be a tragedy if we do not prepare ourselves for not just the present but the future. And the only one's who would be successful who would be life long learners, and not the one's who think at 21-23 years of age that my education is over and now I do not need to learn anymore.The government of Singapore has set up Lifelong Learning Institute and is doing tremendous work for developing a workforce for the future. What are you doing in your sphere of impact to create lifelong learning - at least for yourself. Carol Dweck says

If you have found any other ways to learn in your life, and has made you a Lifelong Learner, please do share it with myself and the other readers. You never know how just one piece of advise can really change someone's life for ever.

* The views of the author are personal, and are not points of view of any group or organization. The author is a learning & development professional, and speaker based in Singapore and can be reached at [email protected]