Learn more to do greater things

14 Apr, 2019 - 00:04 0 Views

The Sunday Mail

Hunt for Greatness
Milton Kamwendo

If you cannot learn you are crippled in the most important area of your life. Think differently if you want to do things differently and achieve different results.

Learning is more than just getting a certificate, attending school or college. When you have a deep hunger to learn you will always find ways and means to learn.

Learning is your primary navigation tool through life. It is lifelong and ongoing. Learning is like breathing, it can only start but never stops unless you are dead.

When you stop learning you stop leading and moving forward. Learn more in order to do more and be more.

Unless you can learn, change becomes difficult and your actions become even more absurd.

 

Stop complaining,

start learning

You may have met people that are bitter with their parents because they did not take them to school or provide the learning opportunities they thought they deserved. You may have heard this type of murmur from 40, 50 and 60-year-olds or much younger people.

Learning is your personal responsibility. It is not just about the school you attended or failed to attend or the books that were given to you.

Learning is an attitude and posture that you maintain to help you shoot for greatness. Be alert to learn and learning opportunities will look for you and find you.

The opportunities to learn are abundant and everywhere; just looking for willing minds and open hearts. The world is a giant library filled to the brim with learning opportunities for hungry and willing minds.

Do not talk too much, learn so much through listening. Do not let the past missed opportunities for learning be a prison for your dreams. If your parents did not send you to school, send yourself to school or expose yourself to vital learning experiences.

 

Knock down

learning barriers

Break through every learning barrier on your way in order to learn and keep learning. If you do not have money to purchase books, borrow some. A little good relations will help you access the books and resources you need. If you do not have time, try audio learning. You can now take courses that are delivered as audio content.

Turn your car from just being a mere vehicle into a learning university and laboratory. Every time you are burning fuel, burn some insights into your mind. If enrolling for a course is expensive try online learning experience.

Websites are teeming with insights, if you are willing to just invest time. Take online courses. You can now even earn degrees this way from reputable universities. Check out YouTube Videos and TedTalks in your arena of interest.

If you do not have internet access (even if you do) find people that know what you do not know. Ask them questions, serve them and do errands for them.

Earn your learning time! You will be amazed what you learn working with and for people who are more competent and talented.

Seek out mentors and coaches. If you do not have friends or relatives that can teach you do not despair. Join communities that have a bias for learning and are passionate about what you want to learn.

Have clear learning goals and these will be a torch that will guide your learning attention. There are clubs that cater for many interests.

You will never find them if you are not looking for them. You could also seek our WhatsApp, Facebook and other groups that share vital information in your areas of interest. Learn daily and keep learning. Break every learning barrier that stands in your way and be a learning activist.

 

Be open for learning

Be open to learn and learn all the time, by all means available. Formal learning gives you access to structured learning programmes and competent teachers. Sign-up for a course, a class or a webinar.

Attend meetings, workshops and conferences. Take classes in your area of interest. The key is to be intentional and deliberate. Keep building your knowledge base and investing in yourself. Consider some self-study areas as well. Find an area of interest or focus and look out for everything you can find in that area.

Make it your passion and seek to master that area. Do not be content with just surface insights and rumours. Sink your teeth deep. You will be amazed that if you invest just an hour everyday towards mastering a subject within 18 months a lot of people will be asking you to teach them what you know.

Also consider informal ways through which you can learn. It is not just the certificates that should matter to you. Consider reading widely in your areas of passion and interest. Treat with suspicion people that do not read and discourage reading. Visit less people that have big TVs and no personal libraries of books, you may catch their bad reading habits.

Seek out people that can coach or mentor you. Be willing to invest in your own learning and you will many times have to go out of your way to learn. At times you will have to pay for coaching sessions.

Whatever you invest in learning is always paid back to you in generous multiples. Join learning associations, communities and clubs. Learning does not need to be an agony. It is and can be fun and fulfilling. You can also learn through games and sport. Just keep an open and learning mind and exercise it regularly.

 

People are a great

learning source

People are a great learning resource. Take an interest in people. Observe, copy and model those who are producing results in an area that you want to master. Look at how they do what they do. You learn a lot through observation.

Do not fear great people, get close to them and learn from them. Lot out more for people whose success intimidates you. Learn the habits of great people and how they structure their time and work.

Great people have cultivated great habits and honed certain ways of doing, thinking and acting. If you do what great people do, you will also become great.

Find experts to teach you. Some experts have mastered some hacks and easy ways to do things that you may be struggling with. Do not be afraid to confess that you do not know.

However, do not end there; do something to transform your position and power yourself to new levels. Sometimes you have to travel in order to meet people who know what you do not know. This is part of what makes learning exciting.

Speak to the elders, they have seen things that you may not have seen. They may have heard and participated in things that you can never guess. Stand at attention in the presence of elders and do not despise people with grey hair. Old people are mobile libraries, with stories and wisdom that will enthral you and anecdotes that will never leave you.

Speak to children and listen intently to their musings. They have dreams, hopes and perspectives that will illuminate your world. They know things that you may never know and they can do things that you can never do. Stop struggling with simple things and ask children to help you. They are things that children master so easily and you wonder how. Children are a valuable source of learning and insights.

When you travel, speak to strangers and you will learn something you never knew. Speak to locals, they will share insights that you could have never gleaned. Do not let language barriers discourage you. Learn other people’s languages and you will learn their world view. Each language has its wealth, wisdom and attitudes embedded in it.

When you attend a conference or meeting, do not just speak to the people from your organisation and those that you know. Find new people, they will connect you to new learning opportunities and teach you something you could have never known. Ask questions and listen. Be interested in other people and they will be interested in your learning.

 

Committed to your greatness.

Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, author, and executive coach. He is a cutting strategy, team-building and organisation development facilitator and consultant. His life purpose is to inspire and promote greatness. He can be reached at: [email protected] and Twitter: @MiltonKamwendo or WhatsApp at: 0772422634. His website is: www.miltonkamwendo.com

 

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