Yesterday I flew to Florida to start an intensive week of training, one which I have been looking forward to for quite a while, and which I know will be of tremendous value to me.
I was explaining this to a friend, who then said to me, ‘so you’re receiving the training, not giving it?’.
I was surprised at my friends comment, because I am a strong believer that we all have so much to learn and when we give up learning we have effectively given up, and I for one am not ready to be giving up.
There are many quotes on importance of learning, and my favourite comes from Gandhi ‘live as you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever’.
Life is learning and I believe we owe it to both ourselves and others to continue a passion for learning as long as we can.
When I discussed this with my friends, they said ‘yes, but look at what your are doing in leadership, look at all the articles you’re writing, surely you have now moved from the role of learning into that of teaching’.
What’s interesting about that is the more I write, the more I share, the more I actually learn. With every article that I write, and look to share experiences, thoughts or ideas, I have to understand them better myself in order to be able to share them in a manner that is clear so that others can understand, which then increases my learning.
During this weeks training I am looking to increase my skills, picking up some new ones, improving some old ones. There is always something new to learn, and the more we learn the more impactful we can be.
I always try to set aside time for learning, either through reading new articles, writing to increase my own understand, or through classes either online or face-to-face.
I also find that the more I learn the more I realise I don’t know, which just makes me want to learn more.
Learning is a life long exercise, and if we stop, then we have given up on improving ourselves.
Do yourself a favour, don’t do that.
Go out and learn something new, maybe start a new language, or a new skills, anything to get back into the habit of learning.
The more we learn the more we can contribute and the better we can me our lives and the lives of others.