THE GIFT OF LEARNING (10): WAYS TO LEARN IV

"You aren’t learning anything when you’re talking. - Lyndon B. Johnson

“Almost anything can become a learning experience if there is enough caring involved.” - Mary MacCraken

Most of us today have gotten so submerged in our daily lives that we forget to learn on a daily basis. Family, work, and social media are all great ways to grow and enjoy life; they provide new experience and countless opportunities for daily learning. I believe learning is best gained through concerted effort.

Here are some more simple ways you can learn something new every day.

1. Improve/Get better. Refine your existing skills. Whatever they are; singing, computers, dancing, cooking e.t.c. Hone these skills and take them to the next level. Also try new things, both inside and outside your preferred skill areas.

2. Do things outside your vocation. As a grown up, your experience MAY be your best teacher. Whether you work for pay or not, focus on a project or activity that grabs your attention - try lots of things and notice the results. You never know when an opportune discovery might arise as a result of your observations and innovative approaches.

3. Create. Not all learning comes from the outside. Matter of fact, some of the most powerful learning takes place when you are creating something for yourself. Creation can be artistic or scientific; physical or intellectual; social or solitary. Try different media and refine those you like the most.

4. Touch. Helen Keller knew more about living a fulfilling life than most of us could ever imagine. She was one of the most inspirational minds of modern times. She relied almost 100% on touch to learn about the world in which she lived. Follow her lead and spend a few moments a day just noticing the temperature and texture of the things that surround you.

5. Write. Like a gratitude journal, a knowledge journal is an attempt to take your everyday experiences and extract the most valuable thoughts from them. Keep a notebook to document daydreams, thought experiments, and stressful times and you’ll automatically solidify the knowledge you gained from each.

There's a need to constantly increase our knowledge - learning new skills, and honing old ones cannot be over emphasized. Someone once said "we start dying, when we stop learning". To stay alive in this present age and time, LEARN DAILY, we must.