Why We Must Develop a Passion for Lifelong Learning

Written by Nathan Everett and Andrey Denisov

July 2021

When was the last time you learned something new? Something related to your current job or avocation – to enhance your skills, or something completely new – just for fun or to master a new hobby. We all agree that learning is an exercise for our brain yet how often do we put it to practice ourselves?

Our first thought when we started to work from home in early 2020: “Oh, we can use free time in our schedules to learn something new”. Luckily, many choices are available now to satisfy craving for knowledge: free tutorials and classes offered by major universities, professional development lessons via LinkedIn Learning, practical life lessons shared through TED Talks, Coursera, Khan Academy, or even self-recorded tutorials on YouTube, and the list goes on. Filled with initial enthusiasm, we signed up for a class or two, downloaded a new audiobook, subscribed to a new Podcast and… our daily routines, the challenge of separating work from home and other priorities got us carried away. Let’s try to understand why did we think that solving a problem in that moment was more important and what we practice instead. Just like a feeling of instant gratification, we feel good when we complete a task but learning is an investment for the future. Time invested in ourselves today, will pay off exponentially in the future.

Our first call today is to remind all of us that learning elevates our conscience. Learning and perseverance come hand-in-hand. Both united under the same mission: to get us to the next level, whatever that level might be for you. If we live an active life, we must not be afraid to make mistakes, stop and think about it, and fill the gaps with new knowledge. It becomes an active thinking which leads to active and sustained learning – a key to long and fulfilling life and career.

Learning new skills is like climbing a ladder of knowledge. When we start in smaller increments, with little steps, say 10-15 minutes each day to read, listen, and explore; a month later we would have covered a complete book and finished the online course that will help us progress to the next phase. Learning is a habit that isn’t simply adopted because we decide to, it takes will power, focus and dedication over time to embed the habit of learning into our lives. There is an old saying “small steps are still steps” and this has been the approach that we have found has provided the best long-term benefits.

Learning makes you an interesting person: with more topics for conversations at your disposal. For those of us, who have visualized a big change (perhaps, if you are planning to pivot your career into a new opportunity), start small. Little bite-size learnings every day are better than trying to cram a 500-page manual into your skillset overnight. Our body likes routine – give your mind the same advantage: create a muscle memory of daily exploration. We need time to digest what we have learned and experience the value of the new tools or skills we have just learnt.

Many people are overly competitive in business environment and appear to have answers to every question. We are practicing radical transparency by saying “I don’t know”. It is acceptable to feel awkward initially – it’s good practice to shift your mind off the idea that “I don’t know” puts you in a weak position or dampens your reputation. We look at this in a different way: it is uncovering a new angle in a conversation that you have not seen before. An opportunity to put a different thought to discover an answer. The Power of Yet by Carol Dweck puts a new perspective on gaining the knowledge and tools required to turn situations where you may feel exposed into positive learning experiences that not only help the reader but also the times in which they work within and indeed lead.

We visualized some of the learning behaviors that we encounter during the daily life. Our Learning Matrix below is meant to be a gauge tool to understand your everyday learning habits. Starting with reading books as a hobby, and jumping on the bandwagon of vocational training for career advancement. None of the quadrants on this diagram are meant to be good or bad. We advocate for a quest to continuous, life-long learning: a subject that you are passionate about or a toolkit that allows you to be more effective at solving problems. Consistency over intensity. The best investment you can do with your children – seed an interest for reading in them from the early age and encourage that to become a habit. A long-lasting passion for new knowledge. Teaching your children new skills give you a miraculous chance to do it all over again. It doesn’t matter if you made a few mistakes along the way – teach your kids how to learn and recover from failures. Making mistakes could be disconcerting yet we can turn them into teaching moments: for ourselves and our children. Reflection will give us ideas what we can do differently next time when we encounter the same situation.

Perhaps, it will help you to set up bigger goals for your personal life or professional career. Share your learning accomplishments with pride! You put some efforts in digging your heels into a new subject, learned new things – it advances you to the next level. As you are moving to the next chapter of your life – professional career path, be bold to apply the learnings into solving real-life problems. We often forget that many problems that we encounter, are repeatable and somebody else has solved them before. Look back at your knowledge that you have acquired during the studies – you might be able to find an answer easily.

?Just like you pick out birthday gifts for the loved ones, pick up a book – it is a gift to your brain and imagination. The pace of technology development in 21st century is pushing us to upskill: we dare to say that being “illiterate” in our times does not mean that you don’t know how to read or write, it means that you don’t know how to learn…..yet. We don’t believe that there is an age limit to acquire and practice new skills or knowledge. Similar to daily physical activity, life-long learning is a part of active aging. If you see your parents glued to a TV, watching the next TV-show, challenge them to a game of chess instead, invite them to solve a crossword puzzle with you, even learn a few fun words in foreign language together.

If we managed to ignite a spark in your today, read for 10 minutes, watch a new TED Talk, or simply engage in a meaningful conversation with an open mind to listen and learn something new. Get curious!

?Authors would like to thank Dr.Yuri Denisov, Professor Emeritus at Ural State Technical University, for his contribution and thought leadership suggestions for this article.