There are people who feel that learning stops with school or University, but that could be seen as just the start. Do you know that if you stop using your arm it would get weaker due to lack of use? This can be said to be the same with the brain, you could think of the brain as one large muscle, and muscles need exercise. I believe Learning helps to stretch the brain and the stretching should keep it healthy.
Life Long Learning
So I see on going learning as an important part of a healthy life I feel it is important to continue to exercise the mind by learning, or to put it another way keeping the mind fit. It has been said that it takes about 30 days to learn a new habit, so it would be good to make a habit of learning, practice learning every day for about 30 days until you have formed the new habit. Most things are difficult at first but once you have developed the habit then it becomes easier. Keep your mind alive by using it regularly, get into the habit of enjoying reading and learning new skills. Find interesting ways to make your learning fun and enjoyable, I tend to learn more when I enjoy what I am doing. For example if work gives joy excitement and fun, then the time seems to go very quickly. In the same way if learning is fun and enjoyable then the time will go quickly, and it becomes a source of enjoyment.
Successful People
It has been noted that people who are very successful tend to be continually learning new skills. By always learning new skills makes a person valuable. So what things should a person be studying? I feel it is useful to study subjects that you will find enjoyable. It is good to do something that you are skill-full at and that you have a passion for doing. As I said before it is easy to do well at something you enjoy. But you may say that you have to study something that you do not enjoy. Well what could be useful is doing a lot of reading around the subject, this could help you to find it more interesting. But I can not emphasise enough that learning needs to be fun, because I feel that we achieve more when we enjoy the things that we do.
It is also important to find a learning style that suits you as an individual. People learn in different ways for example some people tend to learn better by what they see, others by what they hear others by what they do. So we can see that it is important to find out how you learn best and get resources to allow you to learn in that style. Some people prefer to study in groups and some like to learn on their own. I feel that there is no right or wrong learning style, the main thing is to find a style that suits you best. There are many PDF abode e-books available, and also these e-book’s can read them self via the “View” command so they can be quite useful for both visual and auditory learners.
So make it a habit to learn new skills, and have fun doing it, make it a habit and see if you feel better after 30 days.
MGA Brown (c) July 2011
toolsofsuccess 