Learn, Share, Grow - Make Learning a Lifelong Habit

October 26, 2020

Below is a lesson from Harvard Business Review creating a habit of learning, as well as our key learnings.

The Blue Courage team is dedicated to continual learning and growth.  We have adopted a concept from Simon Sinek’s Start With Why team called “Learn, Share, Grow”.  We are constantly finding great articles, videos, and readings that have so much learning.  As we learn new and great things, this new knowledge should be shared for everyone to then grow from.

Make Learning a Lifelong Habit

by John Coleman

January 24, 2017

I recently worked my way through Edmund Morris’s first two Teddy Roosevelt biographies, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex. Roosevelt wasn’t without flaws, but he was by nearly all accounts fascinating and intellectually voracious. He published his first book, The Naval War of 1812, at 23 and continued to write on everything from conservation to politics and biography. According to Morris, at certain periods he was rumored to read a book a day, and all this reading and writing arguably made him both charismatic and uniquely equipped to engage the host of topics he did as president: national conservation efforts, naval expansion, trust regulation, and a variety of others.

Roosevelt was what we might call a “lifetime learner.” Learning became, for him, a mode of personal enjoyment and a path to professional success. It’s a habit many of us would like to emulate. The Economist recently argued that with all the disruptions in the modern economy, particularly technology, ongoing skill acquisition is critical to persistent professional relevance. Formal education levels are regularly linked to higher earnings and lower unemployment. And apart from its utility, learning is fun. It’s a joy to engage a new topic. Having an array of interesting topics at your disposal when speaking to colleagues or friends can boost your confidence. And it’s fulfilling to finally understand a difficult new subject.

But this type of continuous and persistent learning isn’t merely a decision. It must become a habit. And as such, it requires careful cultivation.

Continue reading here.

Key Learnings:

• With all the disruptions in the modern economy, particularly technology, ongoing skill acquisition is critical to persistent professional relevance.
• This type of continuous and persistent learning isn’t merely a decision. It must become a habit.
  1. First, developing a learning habit requires you to articulate the outcomes you’d like to achieve.
     • Picking one or two outcomes will allow you to set achievable goals to make the habit stick.
  2. Based on those choices, set realistic goals.  App called momentum — allows you to quickly and simply enter completion of your habits on a daily basis and monitor adherence.
     • These goals turn a vague desire to improve learning into a concrete set of actions.
  3. With goals in hand, develop a learning community. (Ex: groups, organizations focused on the topic you’d like to learn, formal class or degree program.)
     • These communities increase commitment and make learning more fun.
  4. To focus on your objectives, ditch the distractions. Multitasking and particularly technology (e.g., cell phones, email) can make the deep concentration needed for real learning difficult or impossible.
     • Set aside dedicated time for learning and minimize interruptions.
     • Apart from physically eliminating distractions, consider training your mind to deal with them (such as meditation.)
  5. Where appropriate, use technology to supplement learning. While technology can be a distraction, it can also be used to dramatically aid a learning regimen.
     • Podcasts, audiobooks, e-readers, and other tools make it possible to have a book on hand almost any time.
     • Combine these tools with apps that track your habits, and technology can be an essential component of a learning routine.
• The demands of work and personal life often diminish our time and will to engage that natural curiosity. Developing specific learning habits — consciously established and conscientiously cultivated — can be a route to both continued professional relevance and deep personal happiness.