How much are we interested to learn? Let’s put learning into action
How much are we interested to learn? After my last two posts about “Happy New School Year” and “Curiosity” I think it is a good idea to put the word “LEARN” into action because all these words are related.
On my last post, I have a free printable that says:
School: It’s not what it gives you but what you want to take from it.
In other words, school is about what we really want to learn. Yes, the school has everything we need to learn about specific subjects. It has teachers, counselors, coaches, library full of books, labs, computers, etc. However, going to a place (school), or listening to people (teachers) without the interest to learn will not do anything for us. It is really our “want,” “curiosity,” and “interest” that will make us learn.
It is important to clarify that “learning” doesn’t only apply to school; it also refers to anything we do in our lives, jobs, home, talking with people, hobbies, travels, and life itself.
If we think about it, every minute of our lives we have the opportunity to learn something, but the question is: Are we really interested to learn?
What does "learning" mean?
Let’s take the following definition from Merriam-Webster dictionary:
Learn is to gain knowledge or understanding of or skill in by study, instruction, or experience
This means, learning gives us knowledge, and guess what: knowledge gives us power.
Have you heard the phrase knowledge is power? When we know about something, we can improve, make better decisions, influence people, teach people, negotiate, innovate, create, and understand better. When we have knowledge, we reduce the possibilities to let someone step on us or take advantage of us. So, to get the knowledge, we need to put the word learning into action.
20 Ways to Put the Word “LEARN” into Action:
- Let’s put first the word “curiosity” into action: Always ask why and how. It is through our curiosity that we learn the most. Read my post about “Curiosity”
- Think about things that are interesting to us. When we are interested in something, we tend to dig for information and learn about it.
- Try to learn more about everything we do. Whatever we do, let’s try always to get better at it by learning new skills.
- Try to learn before doing. Sometimes we learn by doing, but depending on the situation it could worth spend some time learning before doing. i.e., During the past few days, I have been learning a lot about polished concrete for a renovation I started at my house. I am glad I learned the process before doing it so I could hire the right people for the job.
- Think about the benefits of learning. If we know what benefits we are going to get by learning, we will feel more motivated to learn.
- Practice, practice, practice. Practicing is what gives us experience. We learn to do things better from practicing. i.e., when studying, do practice tests.
- Read, watch, or listen to the news daily. This will give you information about what is happening not only in our community but in the world. Staying informed is a part of gaining knowledge.
- Read, read, read. It gives us vocabulary, knowledge, and promotes critical thinking.
- Subscribe to websites that send you a daily email with something to learn. i.e. wordgenius.com. They will send you a new word each day to increase your vocabulary.
- Reflect on anything we learn and anything we do. When we reflect, we can start to see things from a different perspective, and that can induce us to look for more information and learn more.
- Pay attention and concentrate: If we want to learn and understand something, we need to pay attention and concentrate. The best way to achieve that is by getting away from distractions in order to focus.
- To focus when studying or working, use the Pomodoro Technique a time management method to break down work into intervals of 25 minutes in length.
- Interact with people. We can always learn something from any person if we are interested enough to dig deep, so let’s not be shy and start a conversation with every person we can.
- Find your motivation. We need to understand what motivates us to learn something. We should have a good reason why we need to learn whatever we are trying to learn. This is something fundamental we need to teach ourselves and our kids.
- Take courses about things that interest you. i.e., computer, blogging, writing, cooking, crafting, painting, etc.
- Consider getting back to school to get a degree or to take Continuing Education courses. This is an excellent way to get updated on the topics in which we are interested.
- Learn through YouTube. We can learn almost anything through Youtube. Let’s take advantage of the millions of videos that can teach us “how to’s”.
- Be adventurous: adventure exposes us to new things that will make us learn something new. Read my post about “Say Yes to an Adventurous Life”
- Register to KhanAcademy.com if our kids or ourselves need help with school subjects. It is an excellent website that offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empowers learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom.
- Learn more about the learning process from University of British Columbia and take the interesting assessment quiz to get insights about our approach to learning.
Conclusion
Learning and the interest to learn is something we must cultivate in our kids and ourselves. We must understand that learning is the only way we have to grow personally and professionally, and we can grow only as long as we are interested.
At the same time, learning is one of those things we will have to do all our lives. It will keep our minds active, make us interesting people to talk to, keep us updated, give us the opportunity to teach what we know to other people. Additionally, it sparks the possibility to create, innovate and change things.
Let’s remember that learning not only happens at school. We can always learn something from anything we see, hear, every experience we have or every people we meet. Let’s be always open and interested to learn because nothing that we learn is wasted.
Here is a question for you:
- What was the last thing you were interested in learning?
Here is a link of an interesting TEDx Talk that can help us learn how to learn. Please take the time to watch!
Learning How to Learn | Barbara Oakley | TEDx Oakland University
Easy to download, high resolution image to print at home or favorite local or online print shop in any of the following sizes: 5 x 7, 8 x 10, 11 x 14, 16 x 20 and 18 x 24. To download, click the green bottom bellow.
2 Comments
Juan E Colmenares
Hi Eliana.
To answer your question, I have taking time to learn about Hemp and CBD oil. Looking to understand more about this trend and the implication in food applications.
Also, signing to a trivia site to get questions everyday is a good and easy way to gain general knowledge. Some questions may inspire you to dig deeper on a particular subject and learn.
Great job with your post and blog!
Eliana Cordoba
Thank you Juan, CBD in food applications? Now you got me curious. I will need to read about it. Thanks also for the idea to register to a Trivia website. I found out that quizzclub.com is a very good one.