The Learning Principle

Published in Associated Content
If there is one faculty that we are born with then it the ability to learn and discover the world. As a child we are extremely fast learners observing, listening, feeling and reacting to everything that happens to us. In the early years our skill in being able to absorb new things is truly on overdrive. But as the years pass by we slowly lose this very important quality. We start to run into a lots of issues. We start to have difficulty in registering, absorbing and assimilating new information and experiences. We no longer understand people. We find it hard to pick up any new skill. We struggle as we grow. The problem is that, as we grow older, we unlearn some of the aspects of learning. We generally try to take the easy route and try to memorize things and learn by rote. We equate memorizing to learning. The two are not the same. Anything learnt stays with you forever. Anything memorized will vaporize as time goes by.
All learning must be assimilated and absorbed. Consciously or unconsciously we have to question ourselves as we try to learn something. We have to periodically check out progress and honestly assess our improvement over time. This is extremely hard to do. We generally assume that we are getting better at something when we are able to - repeat a musical piece, answer some questions mechanically, or recall facts from an overstuffed brain However, such attempts one will not ensure progress. We must be able to objectively assess our progress. If we are seriously interested in learning anything the single most important thing is to be passionate about it.. We need to consciously monitor our progress as we attempt to absorb the new skill, providing ourselves with the feedback as we progress. It is only if we consciously check our progress will real advancement be made. This is the key to learning. We should never let our interest flag. We could take the opinion of a friend to give his honest opinion of us.

In any case, in order to truly live in this world we constant need to keep our minds active and young by learning new skills. We could learn a new language, fine-tune our approach to making new friends, learn a musical; instrument or pick up any subject. There are so many avenues to upgrade ourselves. We can a learn an whole lot from ourselves. We can learn from our mistakes. Our past experiences are a rich storehouses of useful insights. In reality, the map of the future lies in our past. We only need to look deep into ourselves and learn from both our successes and failures. Once we involved we will naturally get more and more passionate about it. The mind is kept supple when it is constantly in use. We live only if we learn. If we cease to learn we can only exist. Our motto should be "Live to learn and learn to live". We need to ensure that our approach to learning any new skill is proper and that we putting in our best effort to do so.

In fact, the most important thing is "learning to learn". That is the greatest lesson of all.