When You Learn Something New, What Do You Do?

Most of us go and learn lots of stuff, yet we get stumped on what to do next. When dealing with such things, we can take a leaf from our kids.

Kids, with their naturally curious minds, would constantly devour and boldly explore new things. And they’re amazingly patient at doing new things. They patiently continue to do until they master that “new skill or thing” that they’ve learned.

Yet, for us adults, we’re so caught up with our normal routine and busy lives that we learn new skills or knowledge but then do not use it or do it consistently.

“When you learn something new, what do you do?”

The first thing that you need to do is to really experience what you’ve learned. Experience nurtures learning. Experience here means honing your new skill through constantly utilising the new skill until you get it right. 

As Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, aptly put it, “For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them”.

Apply that new skill or knowledge into your own life, into your own business, into your relationships, depending on what it is, and really walk the talk. You get to know how it feels and how that experience is, of actually implementing this new skill into real life. You may make mistakes along the way, but that’s part of the whole “experiencing” process.

“I believe that the greatest crime is to learn something that can significantly benefit other people, yet share it with no one.” – Mike Pettigrew, Author

It’s one thing to gain learning in the conference room, but when you get out into the big wide world, you need to know the challenges that other people had experienced with the same skill or knowledge.

Sharing it --- this is the second thing that you must do. When you learn something, you have a real obligation to go and share that skill or knowledge with others. There’s always somebody out there who wants to learn what you’ve learned. So, make sure that you share it --- it might be through blogs, social media, or other ways.

Sharing a skill or new learning, in whatever form, will motivate you to be better, or the best, at what you do. It will help you grow as a person, keep your confidence up, and socially connect you with people with like minds. You can learn from anybody and everybody, and they can learn something from you. As astronomer Galileo Galilee points out, “I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him”.

The learning and sharing cycle is a win-win situation, no doubt about it. So, go out of your comfort zone to learn, explore, and experience new things. While at it, learn to share your new learning, and gain insights and connect with others in the process.

So, learn and share, and have fun with it!