by Rick Baker
On Oct 19, 2012
People are born with a natural talent for learning.
We learn by:
- understanding self (starts with our body parts and how they interact with surroundings),
- observing other people (our parents having a huge initial impact),
- observing our surroundings (identifying patterns, posing & testing hypotheses)
- perceiving (creating unique & personal explanations of the vast array of stimuli that 'hit' our senses),
- memorizing knowledge (short-term & long-term memories of manifold experiences and perceptions),
- imagining (holding images in our mind's eye...remembering past events and envisioning future events)
- practicing skills (so they get hard-wired into our brains), and , of course,
- interacting with people and things around us (from mirror neurons and Theory of Mind to mentors, trainers, and championship teams).
Born to learn: that's the way we are born.
Our learning takes the form of a life-long series of self-corrected behaviours coupled with a life-long series of successful outcomes and not-so-successful hard knocks.
People are created with a remarkable capacity for learning.
All people are created that way. Then individual experiences affect the duration and extent of learning. Also, individual choices affect the extent and duration of learning.
Here's an example of a string of thoughts about learning:
- I was born to learn.
- In the past, as I went about my learning, some people encouraged me and some people put me down.
- Now, I see learning as my responsibility...I don`t seek encouragement and I am not put off by put downs.
- Now, I see introspection as the ongoing starting point for learning...as the ancient Greek aphorism states - Know Thyself.
- Now, I see individual strengths, wisdom, self-control, and positive attitude as the key ingredients for success in any endeavour...and each of these is the substance of life-long learning.
- I know, to succeed in a business role, I must combine my talents and specialized knowledge with life-long practice and exploration of new things. That is the only way to master business work.
- I know, because I have seen it first-hand, the capacity for learning does not have to wither with age...it is the one blessing that remains with us as long as we want it to and are prepared to do the brain work that self-feeds.
The capacity for life-long expanded learning is our unique blessing.