29 May Why I’m passionate about learning
I’m no postcard uni student. Studying is driving me crazy, nuts in fact. I’ll be 42 0r 43 before I finish and I think about quitting every day. I’ve been studying by distance on and off for the last seven and a half years. I’m not sure my precious child free hours couldn’t be better spent and more enjoyed working and t think it’s fair to say that at times I really severely dislike it (read much stronger word here) but it hasn’t stopped me from being passionate about learning. I see the results of learning every day in my two terrors.
The other day my almost two, Max said to me ‘Stop it Mum.’ The week before that I found Max behind his door where he’d fallen asleep after climbing out of his cot. Ruben can also get Max out of his cot, (there may or may not be a bit of a thud involved when he hits the floor), he can make his bed (with the smallest amount of protesting and little bit of help), buckle himself into his car seat and ride a two wheeler bike. Why wouldn’t you be passionate about learning and self improvement when you see little things like that happening around you every day? Seeing your kids grow and learn and become little people is something to be passionate about all on its own. Then when you think of how we came to be adults and what we have learnt along the way the passion increases even more.
For me I am passionate about learning when I am passionate about learning and self development every time I open my blog and write another post and I think back to how I came to blog. First reading about blogging in the Queensland Writers Centre monthly mag, then figuring out how to set up a blog, getting a logo, writing for my blog. I get a kick out of using something that I built and mostly understand. Then its pretty cool when you get other people who have learnt even more to make it even better.
I am passionate about learning and self improvement when I feel the thrill of finally managing to get my feet off the floor in crow pose. Or when I take up a hem, or cook a new recipe.
I am passionate about learning and self development when I get to do another course like how to write chick lit or writing for magazines and newspapers or Byron Yoga Teacher Training, or Blogging with Joanna Penn, or travel writing with Claire Scobie or Project management for writers. I love it. I love learning new stuff and knowing more today than I did yesterday and I love the like minded people you meet when you go to a course.
I love following the media to learn about what’s going on in my community, the state, the country and the world around me. I love learning about what my IBSD partner Susan K Mann is doing on the other side of the world in chilly Scotland. Learning that people have the same problems, fears and worries as me and that they get by.
I love to read a noticeboard and find out about the fete that’s coming up, the yoga classes that are on, fitness with Eager down at Thirroul Beach, the little kickers session at Austi, the Savvy Bulli Burn that’s coming up. I think that it’s that feeling of connectedness that you get from know what’s going on around you. It could also be just a little bit of not wanting to miss out on anything!
I love to read a good self improvement book. Mind mapping, How to speak so your kids will talk and listen so your kids will talk, 40 days of yoga, Story Engineering, Four Hour Work Week, On Writing. It’s a great holiday when I get to read one cover to cover. And the information you can find now is not just on a noticeboard, in a book or in the media, now more than ever it’s online.
We live in a changing world. I’ve said it before, we are exposed to around 70 billions pieces of new content each day on Facebook alone. Multiply that by the amount of blogs that you read, online newspapers, university research papers and we are looking at a phenomenal amount of information that we have access to right at the touch of a keyboard. Information is now more accessible and and increasing in volume quicker than it ever has been before. Mind you we can still make excuses not to learn.
Sometimes it can feel like there’s lots of obstacles to learning like it’s too expensive, I can’t get to classes, I won’t understand, I’ll feel dumb, I’m too old, I don’t have time. I’ve used all of those excuses and sometimes I still do but so far I’m still plugging away.
I’m passionate about learning every time I pass another uni assignment or test from what feels like the never ending nine year degree. I study online by distance through University of Southern Queensland. I deferred my Uni fees and somehow I manage to find the time and the motivation to keep studying and keep passing. But there are some days when I think it’s not to strong a sentiment to say I really hate it. I think what keeps me going is the sense of achievement will give me when or should I actually finish and the new things (even though sometimes they feel like useless things) I will have learnt. And you don’t have to pay for a uni degree, there are a lot of free tertiary institution courses too.
You can study free through some of the top universities in the world, Stanford and Harvard and right here in Oz Uni’s like Melbourne Uni offer plenty of free online courses.
Not interested in Uni? Then there’s free courses on blogs. How to manage your time, how to write a novel, how to fix your dishwasher. The list is endless.
If you think you’re not going to get it when you study or take a course don’t. What’s the worst thing that can happen if you give it a go? You fail, so what, try it again.
When you try again and you master it, then you’ve got something to share with the community around you. You can teach your kids soccer, teach a yoga class, get a new job, meet new people.
While your learning you’re brain structure is changing becoming open to receiving even more information, then you can keep learning.
Knowledge is power and we live in the age of knowledge. The more I learn the more connected I feel to the world around me.
You should try it, you’ll be surprised how good it makes you feel.
Five reasons to be passionate about learning and self development
- Learning boosts your confidence and gives you a real feeling of achievement
- How cool is it too learn something today that you didn’t know yesterday
- The more you learn, the more you have to share, teach, help the community around you
- Learning changes the structure of your brain and make it more open to receiving even more information
- The more you learn, the more connected you can feel to the world around you.
