Lifelong Learning

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Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient. - Eugene S. Wilson

Learning At School

Learning at school is just the beginning of all the things you need to learn in life, but does school learning prepare you for success in life and the need for lifetime learning?

Learning at school is where lifelong learning starts. It is there where you learn facts, figures and techniques to prepare you with the basic skills for life and for your first job. These basic skills should not be underestimated, but the most valuable skills are the ones you learn when you can see through the facts and figures to reveal the underlying principles behind them, and see how they connect together. This is education.

Learning social skills from parents and friends is also important, and some children and teenagers find this harder than others, but it is an equally important part of the education process.

The trouble is that most schools don't teach you how to be successful in life.

On leaving education most people stop learning. After all they have left school and have a job. They are now 'educated'. They have learned all they are going to learn from school. They know it all. After all, what more can there be to learn? Life owes them a living, and they want to make money without too much effort. For many people this is the starting point of the stagnation of the rest of their lives, for others it is the starting point for lifelong learning.

Learning In Order To Keep Up

Learning just enough to keep up is the minimum that we all need to do to just keep up with life and with our job, because without this effort we will quickly find ourselves out of date and out of a job.

Learning just enough to keep up is what many people do, because the pace of change today is such that whatever skills you came into the job with will start to become outdated in a surprisingly short time. There are no longer such things as a job for life. Most people will change jobs several times. Many will even change careers into different types of jobs. The fact is that nobody can hope to work for 30 to 40 years without updating their skills regularly. Lifelong learning is something that is not now an option, it is a necessity.

Learning is now something you have to go and do, not something that is done to you, because most of your learning will now be 'off the job'. This means taking time on a regular basis to keep your job by keeping up to date with what you need to know. There is no longer such a thing as job security. Your security is now in your own hands. Only lifelong learning will give you the security to need when it is your time to change jobs, because it is based on your own abilities.

Those who seek security are no longer employable - Denis Waitley

However just keeping up with the job won't get you any further. It won't develop you fully as a person. It won't show you the path that successful people have found that leads towards success, or let you in to their secrets of success, because all of this needs a bit more effort. Successful people put in this extra effort on top of the effort needed to keep a job. They are the ones who work as hard on improving themselves as they do on their day job. 

Learning In Order To Succeed

Learning in order to succeed is what successful people do.  This is the best way to use lifelong learning, to not just keep up to date with your life and job, but to constantly move on in order to get ahead.

Learning in order to succeed takes a bit more effort, but is worth it. It is the journey of lifelong learning that allows you to grow as a person; to reach your true potential; to become successful at whatever you want; to define success in your own terms, and to achieve your own dreams.

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young - Henry Ford

Success takes time and effort.  Most successful people take at least an hour a day to improve their skills. Not just to work on the job in hand, but to develop themselves for the future. Such lifelong learning pays off and separates those that do it from those that don't.

Becoming an expert in your field is a key to success, whether this is your job or your hobby. It is only then that you can bring the full force of this knowledge to help you succeed in life.

We are now in the information age where wealth is now measured in terms of knowledge, information and intellect.

Today, if you don't understand that your chief capital asset is what you carry between your ears, you are in very big trouble - Scott Mattineau

Make the most of learning opportunities to widen your knowledge and skills, and help you to take on new ideas.

Books are the most popular resource for lifelong learning. You can learn from people who have succeeded in any field and a good book can contain the concentrated wisdom of a lifetime's experience. Reading a good book can put you years closer to achieving your goals and can help you avoid the problems that others have found along the way.

Don't read a book and be a follower; read a book and be a student - Jim Rohn

Audios and videos are great for letting you listen to the actual voice of the author. Through this media their personality comes across and lets you get into their mind even more effectively. Audios such as tapes, CDs or downloadable MP3s are great for listening to while you are driving, travelling, jogging or doing the garden.  Make the most of these times. TIt also helps to listen to them several times, so they really sink in.

Internet resources can be a wonderful source of information with newsletters and live content. We would love to recommend that you subscribe to our own SuperLiving Newsletters in order to receive our monthly e-mail newsletters on health, happiness and success.

Choosing the right resources can be a bit daunting because of the sheer volume of things available. We have added health resources, happiness resources, and success resources, to help you choose the best  to help you on your way with your lifelong learning.