The Joy of Learning

Welcome to the first blog post about loving change and all things learning.  I believe we should always give ourselves a high five, and a pat on the back, and celebrate any achievement no matter how small.  Any excuse will do, so let’s celebrate the first blog post, cheers

So why love learning and why is there joy in learning and why should we push ourselves to keep learning something new our whole lives?  O.k. I admit the process or journey of learning can be hard, it can feel like you’re climbing a mountain. It can be painful; the mental strain can feel like your head is about to explode. It can be challenging; we may experience failure and feel like our personal beliefs are being judged. Not to mention the fear of stepping out of our comfort zone and into unknown territory can push our anxiety thermometers into the red.

But, if we push through the pain barrier, we realise the pain is just temporary and the result leads to an expansion of our knowledge, and an improvement of our understanding of the world around us. When we have a better understanding of our world, we can make more informed decisions that benefit us and the people we care for.

The word learning often recalls images of being at school, sitting at a desk, and being talked at by the teacher. It was a common experience for this to be not particularly enjoyable and when we left school in our late teens, we felt free from the arduous task of having to learn. In contrast, life-long learning acknowledges that as humans we have a natural curiosity to explore and acknowledges not all our learning comes from a classroom.  In fact, I have always stated that all my learning in my teens that was of any benefit to me as an adult happened outside of school and through extracurricular activities. Lifelong learning means voluntarily seeking new activities or topics to develop our knowledge throughout our whole life. This could be something that takes a small amount of time such as learning a new recipe or how to cook a different dish through to something more complex like building a website, 😊 yep, I’ve recently been on a learning journey building this website. Or even more formal like studying towards a degree or post-grad qualification.

Lifelong learning increases our personal growth and development which leads to an improvement in our own quality of life. What I mean when I say quality of life, I refer to having the knowledge to be able to solve the challenges you come up against, it means being streetwise in any given area so that you can converse with ease and have empathy with other people. It means you know the etiquette and the cultural systems of how things work so you feel comfortable and can navigate the customs. For example, in Ethiopia when having a meal with friends it is considered good hospitality to feed your friend with your hand. This gesture called gursha, builds trust and social fellowship. In India, it is expected that you show up to a dinner invitation 15-30 mins late.  In Western culture, both these examples can be considered rude.  While these examples aren’t life-and-death situations, they can cause uncomfortable misunderstandings and blocks in our relationships. Lifelong learning helps us to progress in all aspects of our lives such as increased confidence, improved problem-solving abilities, and expanded opportunities. Overcoming the failures experienced in our learning can help us develop resilience and persistence.

Lifelong learning helps us to progress in all aspects of our lives such as increased confidence, improved problem-solving abilities, and expanded opportunities. Overcoming the failures experienced in our learning can help us develop resilience and persistence.

5 ways lifelong learning can help us and improve our well-being:

Employability: It can improve our career prospects. Upskilling in our jobs can teach us additional skills and expand our capabilities making us more employable. Let me tell you a story about one of my friends Emily.  When her children were old enough to go to school, she decided she would also go back to school and studied towards a marketing degree. After three years she graduated and looked forward to putting the hard study and learning into action.  Emily submitted job application after job application, but despite her best efforts, she didn’t have any success. Over coffee, one day she told me that she felt was still lacking some skills and was going to enroll in an online course on digital marketing. She found it challenging but learned new skills such as SEO, email marketing, and social media advertising. She was able to network with other marketing professionals and gained valuable insights into the latest trends and best practices.

Armed with her new knowledge and skills, Emily began the arduous task of applying for jobs again. It was different, Emily noticed that employers were impressed with her proactive approach to keeping upskilling, and after 3 interviews she was offered a job as a digital marketing specialist. Over another coffee, a delighted Emily told me how grateful she was that she had decided to invest in her learning as it had been the key to unlocking her career prospects.

Improvement in cognitive function: The act of learning a new skill stimulates the brain and creates new neuro-pathways. Our brains are a muscle and like any muscle in our body, we need to use it and strengthen it to keep the muscle healthy.  Our brains use neuro pathways to transfer information from one part of the brain to another, the more the same information is used the stronger the pathway. If pathways aren’t used regularly, they disappear. Imagine our brains being like a network of roads that cars and trucks use to travel from one place to another.  The routes used most often are the state highways, less used roads are main roads and even fewer roads are side streets.

As these pathways are strengthened our brains become more capable of creating new pathways in response to learning. This capability is crucial for healthy cognitive function.  We find ourselves able to pay more attention, remember more, and engage problem-solving skills. We can also form new memories and recover from brain injuries or illnesses that affect the brain.

High self-efficacy: When we increase our knowledge, we gain a sense of accomplishment and increase in confidence in our abilities, which increases our self-efficacy.  If we have high self-efficacy for certain tasks the chances of achieving are higher and so the cycle continues.

Please don’t confuse self-efficacy with self-esteem. Self-efficacy refers to a person’s belief in their own ability to succeed in a specific task or situation.  On the other hand, self-esteem refers to an individual’s overall sense of self-worth.   To frame this in a different way, self-efficacy is specific to a particular task or situation, while self-esteem relates to a general sense of personal value.

Self-efficacy is influenced by a variety of factors, including our upbringing and past experiences. For example, if an individual has grown up in a family where parents and/or older siblings have been to university, they will have a higher self-efficacy of believing they can attend university and achieve.

As stated earlier self-efficacy is very cyclic, the more confidence we have, the more likely we will approach challenges with greater confidence and more likely to persist with obstacles that come across our path. As we achieve these tasks so our confidence and motivation grows and we are able to set harder goals and be willing to put in the effort to achieve them. The success we have in achieving personal and professional goals leads to more confidence in our abilities and so on.

Enhances our social skills: Life-long learning provides opportunities for us to connect with others who share similar interests and passions. When we engage in learning new skills or hobbies, we gain exposure to new ideas and perspectives.  Whether these new skills or hobbies involve other people or not our understanding of the world and the people around us is broadened. We become more open-minded, empathetic, and accepting of others.

Similarly, life-long learning increases our own self-awareness.  When we have a strong grounding in our identity, our values, and beliefs we have confidence in interacting with others in an authentic and genuine way. This provides opportunities to participate and belong to communities.  This sense of connection with others brings richness and purpose to our life.

Improves our health and well-being: Our increased knowledge helps us to make wiser choices about our physical and mental health.  By choosing to engage in physical activity we enjoy such as a dance class, running, or sky diving we keep our cardiovascular system healthy. Our wallets are happier because we are not having to visit the doctor as often and we have improved mental and emotional health.  We make wise choices about how to manage busy workloads and reduce the stress and anxiety we all find ourselves having to experience at times. All this contributes to a better sense of well-being.

When we experience the joy of learning it means we are experiencing personal fulfillment. I sincerely hope that as you have been reading you were either nodding in agreement, or thinking wow I didn’t know that. But more importantly, I hope you feel inspired to learn something new today.