What is more powerful than knowing? Wanting to know more.

Know what is more powerful than knowing? Wanting to know more.

Today, Learning to learn is the single most important skill?for working professionals, entrepreneurs and just about any one.?

Going forward,?those who institutionalise and evangelise a culture of continuous learning AND ‘help’ people with developing the skill of learning to learn will be the only ones who are future ready.?

Someone in the L&D space i was talking to remarked, “We have given people access to the best of best content that has been curated with great care n. All they have to login?” ?

I told him, "You are not accounting for the following";

1. Curiosity is not a vastly prevalent mindset
2. Inertia is a big one!
3. Learning for an immediate need is what we have been conditioned for.

Technology for instance is scary for those who are not from that background (like yours truly) But embracing tech and the rapid developments in them is the only way to stay relevant and competitive.?

This has been my biggest learning journey these past months. It doesn’t mean i am a tech expert.?I am just more inquisitive, positive and out of the ‘not my scene’ mindset.?There hasn't been a better example of how #fixedmindset Vs #growthmindset has separated people than technology.

EMBRACING means, we do it intentionally and enjoying the process. Not grudgingly or with inertia as something to do out of necessity.?

Learning to learn is as much a skill?any other softer skill like communication or leadership.?It’s about creating new rituals and sustaining them for a while till they become habits.?

And as the habit sets in, you learn more and that in turn reduces your inertia as you feel more confident, making you want to learn more.?And so goes the virtuous cycle.

As i always like to do, i am going to stop with the pontifcation, ( I think i made my point! ) and suggest rituals that are simple, doable and frictionless to help build the skill of Learning to Learn.?

These are inspired by one of BJ Fogg, PhD ’s powerful tool for habit change. Integrate a new ritual as part of an old habit.?

Here goes;

• Create a ‘new’ Social media pattern: The idle mind seeks the phone today and then your go to Social media app. Pick the same app, be it Twitter or Linkedin ( am not an Instagram of FB user so i will not comment on the content there) but instead of randomly scrolling on your feed, use the search window to put the topic you want to learn. AI/ML. Gen-AI, cloud, Coaching, Crypto, Music … it can be anything you want to learn, and then start scrolling. You’ll find one post that intrigues you and then the rabbit hole begins… except this is a good one.?Move 50% of your?

• Spotify/Music time to Podcasts - Podcasts are the most amazing thing to have happened. It’s the world giving away fantastic advice for free on just about any topic. I am sure you know that. I’ve allocated some of my driving time, dog walking time, gym time music to podcasts and i can’t get enough. Don’t worry about landing the best one for you right away. It takes time, keep exploring

• Naval Ravikant said something in a podcast that i loved. “Read what you love, till you fall in love with reading” . That is awesome advice for people like me who have fallen out of the habit of reading. So I’ve started with short format reading around sport, business, wellness, comics etc. I want to rekindle the joy of reading before i take some heavy conceptual book which i might stop reading soon. It’s like trying to do a clean and jerk move before mastering the push press. ( for those who appreciate weight training analogies)Book Summaries: Books have been a source of learning from time immemorial. But reading books takes time and an even harder habit to create. I shamelessly rely on book summaries to get started. I hope to start reading the books in full where the summaries excite me. Again Naval Ravikant recommends start with Foundational books in each discipline. So Origin of species by Charles Darwin before #sapiens by Yuval and so on.
• Bookmark #chatgpt : Use Chat GPT for research & recommendations. Sometimes to find the blogs or articles, books etc in the topic of your interest and for this Chat GPT does a far better job than Search Engines.You probably know this already and yet you find yourself going to google more often than Chat GPT. Aargh! Habits! So bookmark Chat GPT and remember to click Chat GPT instead of a search engine. After a few times you will do it automatically as your brain will associate success with that habit.
• Meet people who know more than you. - Whether in an office setting or socially, use opportunities to interact with people from disciplines or functions you want to know more about and ask them interesting questions. So at lunch, every other time, choose to sit not with your friends but with someone interesting doing things different from you. Same at parties or social occasions.?
• Use your team & team meetings - Think up a topic of common interest and announce to your team that the last meeting of the month will be about this topic and each member has to present for 10 mins on that. Divide up the topic into, introduction, case studies, use cases, explainer videos and give each member or small groups one of them. It’s a Win-Win, everyone learns more than what one can learn alone. And it HAS to be done so not question of inertia. Same meetings, different agenda, no extra time involved.

Those are few unglamorous but practical ideas to start and love learning. Am happy to hear other ideas that can be easy to adopt with minimal friction to start.

#growthmindset #habits #learning