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EMERGING SKILLSET FOR LIFELONG LEARNERS
Learning is a difficult process. The difficulty in learning arises from the mental framework of procrastination, lack of interest and boredom. But this difficulty is destroyed, and learning becomes a passion for lifelong learners. How does this happen? Learning new information is always a challenge. And with every challenge there is a chance of failure. Some people see failure as something to get stranded up while other people see it as a footprint to grow. How do you see failure? People with a fixed mindset strive for success because this affirms their intelligence. They perceive failure as eroding their skills and intelligence. A growth mindset is one that allows us to thrive on challenges and see failure to learn and grow.
What is a growth mindset?
- Why waste your time proving over and over how great you are when you could just be getting better?
- Why hide deficiencies instead of overcoming them?
- Why look for a friend or partners that will shore up your self-esteem instead of ones who will also challenge you to grow?
- Why seek out the tried and true instead of experiences that will stretch you?
The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even works especially when it is not going well is a hallmark of a growth mindset. If you see a challenge to grow versus potential defeat, you'll crave a challenge. Growth mindsets can help you to continue to be a life-long learner. If your mindset is fixed and you want to change, here are some things to think about. Changing a mindset is changing the belief about yourself, which takes time and effort.
This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during the most challenging times in their lives especially in a situation like this, pandemic. Our mindset begins to take shape when we are children. If we are told we are smart, intelligent, or brilliant, a fixed mindset can begin to take hold. On the other hand, if we continue to have this praising effort, comprehending the efforts that we had made, it may lead to a growth mind set. If we contemplate on an activity with children and jigsaw puzzles, some children were told, wow, you got a good score. You must be smart at this. Others were told, wow, you got a really good score. You must have worked really hard and this, makes sense and difference.
A house, however enormous and complex requires a moderate lock to close it. And a lock requires a much smaller key to open it. The key to lifelong learning is the growth mindset.
At work, school, and in your personal life, technology is significant component of what you do. No matter what you have learned in school or college, in a few years, the technology will change. We need to be agile and adjust to a new technology whether it is using a new app, replacing a discontinued app, or dealing with changes to an old favourite. To successfully navigate these emerging technologies, we all need a system to evaluate the usefulness of our digital tools.
Our first step in creating that system is to adopt the strategies and mindset of a lifelong learner. One way to be a self-directed lifelong learner is to know where to get help if you need it. Learning from experts is now just a few clicks away. You can learn just about anything from watching videos on sites like YouTube. Also, in every aspect of your life, you should build networks of friends and colleagues who you can share ideas with and reach out to for advice.
The emerging skillset of lifelong learners starts from the growth mindset and leads to a passionate learning process. In my next article, I will introduce to you the 71/2 habits of lifelong learners. Till then, let us try to cultivate growth mindset and evaluate our learning process. As mentioned at the beginning of this article, it takes a lot of time and courage to move on and to move forward.
To be continued……………
God bless.