Continuous Learning

It is encouraging to see all the new year’s resolution posts on LinkedIn. Setting goals to work towards, especially writing them down, is an important step in defining our priorities, new year or not.

One of the things that struck me thinking about this first article of 2022, and all those resolutions many of us have, is that none of them are possible without being a continuous learner. The world around us changes too quickly, decisions create new variables, people can be unpredictable, so we must always learn how to adapt to make progress towards our goals. I am on this continuous learning journey every day, and here are some things I have found helpful:

1. Self-Awareness: Our pace of learning can be impacted by how we approach our careers and personal life. We can be honest with ourselves that we do not have it all figured out or take the alternative approach, thinking we do. Sometimes the latter can feel like a sense of security, but I promise you that is false. Staying humble and curious to learn creates opportunities, which leads me to the next point.
2. Learning Through Experience: It’s critical to be observant, ask questions, actively listen, and take time to reflect. By being proactive in these behaviors, we can optimize our learning “on the job” (whether in work or home life), interacting with others, and via formal education. It can take focus to be present to observe, courage to ask questions, discipline to actively listen, and thoughtful time management skills to carve out time for reflection, but all of these accelerate learning.
3. Learning Application: Lastly, we need to be applying what we have read, the advice we have received, what we have learned from mistakes made or situations experienced. How often do we meet people that read leadership or self-help books but they do not model the behaviors they are preaching about from the books? None of us are ever going to be perfect, but to truly learn, we must always be practicing and experimenting with new approaches or actions to enable growth and achievement.

There can be peace in the fact that perfection can never be achieved. It is also freeing to not feel like I must have it all figured out. But what is most exciting is that by being self-aware, learning through experience, and applying what I learn along the way, I enable myself to move forward each day knowing I can become a little bit better version of myself. Do I always succeed? No. But from the right posture the failure is only a lesson learned.

Best wishes to everyone as you go after your goals and dreams in 2022!

P.S. Are there any other tips you have for being a continuous learner?