Do you think that getting university degrees is your key to success?

Do you think that you stop learning when you complete your formal education?

Do you think that those who get a formal education are the wisest people?

If your answers to all of the above questions is no, this blog shall perhaps resonate with you! However, if your answers to any or all of the above questions is yes, welcome to a different world we explore today, that of lifelong learning! A fulfilling life is significantly supported by lifelong learning! Let’s deep dive and see why! As is the case universally, our formal education had a limited life span. But in those formative and higher education years, we didn’t simply learn subject matter. We learnt sports, art, physical education etc. The common thread amongst these experiences is that the seed of learning was sowed in us. However, with that seed, each of our learning journeys have been unique.

Sharing an anecdote from my journey, I was a not-so-good student of Mathematics, and that is an understatement! When in Grade 2 my favorite teacher helped me barely scrape through with passing marks in a Math test, I was on top of the world! I remain grateful to her even today, for doing me that favour and saving me from class and family shame! At the time, that outcome was perfect!

What was not perfect though is that I continued to despise Math, did not make a focused effort to learn it despite the many tutors that were hired, stumbled my way through till Grade 9 and then the inevitable happened! The dark clouds of Grade 10 Board examinations were looming large!

While I was a fairly good student in all other subjects, my limited learning and understanding of Math was bound to pull my overall grades down therefore limiting my prospects of being admitted to the best college in the city! That realization or ‘aha’ moment was a turning point for me and I don’t remember a single day passing in that year where I did not put my heart and soul into getting the fundamentals of Math right. I worked hard to learn – not just to get that score and the coveted college admission but also to beat my resistance to learn the subject.

Imagine the happily shocked faces around me, when at the end, I landed with a score of 136 on 150 in the Math Board examination!!

Now when I look back, what did I REALLY learn? Was it Math or lessons for life?

Of course, I did not learn Math alone. I also learnt to deal with resistance and anxiety to some extent. I learnt to take up a challenge and punch it in its face and I learnt that confidence is earned and not received as a favour from any one!

And while those were only baby steps back then, they were, for me the beginning of open minded lifelong learning!!  

What stuck to me as lifelong learning in childhood came in quite handy in adulthood as well. There was a time in my life where I had hit rock bottom with psychosomatic diseases and no medicine worked. Up until then, I had resisted meditation.

My past challenges with Math and how I dealt with them came back to me as a timely reminder! I knew that I had to continue learning new ways to deal with my diseases with a goal of curing them. With that refreshing memory, I went headlong into learning new techniques of meditation until one day I settled on one which helped me tide over health issues to a large extent.

I found more value and evidence of new learnings!

So, how does one keep at it? One finds inspiration to learn and to be curious everywhere, only if one looked around! In the simple yet powerful words of Indra Nooyi, the CEO of PepsiCo:

“Remain a lifelong student. Don’t lose that curiosity.”

If there is anything one should cling on to, it is lifelong learning – the curiosity that makes us socially aware, the learning that we seek from experiences, the learning that invites skills and wisdom, the learning that helps us adapt to the changing world, the learning that keep us enthusiastic about life on a daily basis and much more! The more we learn, the more we remain curious, focused, tolerant, interested and excited about what’s coming up in life!

So, what does lifelong learning mean to you?

If you are looking for something new to learn today – observe any one person’s one good quality and learn to adopt, pick up an instrument and learn it for even a minute, learn a new recipe to cook, learn to use a new application on your phone, learn new make-up skills, learn about a new religion, a new language, a new subject, learn to smile at the things that you would usually frown upon, learn just about anything that makes you feel contributed to and value added before you go to bed tonight! And do this, every single day!

If you feel the need to be supported to start this journey of learning, re-learning or even unlearning and beat your resistance to any of it, come along and I shall be happy to help as your coach!