Learning and Renewal – The Theme for 2022
If there is one change to commit to in 2022 – I would suggest – Learning and Renewal. It renews you like none other. You change not just mentally but physically as well. As you learn, you will find renewed energy, the world will seem less frightening, and the sun will shine brighter for you. Of course, it also gives a new boost to your career, improves your self-worth, and leads to prosperity. Can you ask for anything more for the new year?
What should you learn? It could be anything. You have choices. You could decide to learn something connected to your profession. It could be a new software language. You could sharpen your Excel skills; you may want to brush up on your knowledge of statistics. You may decide to do a course on Project Management – It could even be brushing the dust off your old engineering books and learning mechanics or structural engineering once again. It is the act of learning that is important.
Your learning could be in a completely different area. You may be finding it difficult to understand some of the stuff you read in the paper related to the economy- so you decide to learn economics. Or you could be a techie who chooses to learn management. Or it may be completely unconnected to your work – you may choose to learn Japanese or classical dancing.
Understanding the process of learning
Humans are born learners. We are different from animals. At birth, our brains are far more ‘plastic’ than that of other creatures. It means that it (the brain) is still unformed in terms of learning, unlike that of other creatures. A puppy can fend for himself within about a week of birth. Most skills a dog needs to have to survive on the earth are hard-wired into the brain. It cannot learn very much more. But not so the human baby. The human brain is plastic at birth and retains this plasticity as long as it keeps learning new things.
The human baby comes with a brain that is almost a clean slate, waiting for new learning to be written on it. Every new experience the child has, every sensory input, every event it encounters – etches a neural path in the brain. These neural paths are like lines of code that empower and empower the supercomputer, our brain. The more the lines of code, the greater their complexity – the more powerful, the computer. So it is, with the brain.
What is the Human Brain?
Let us understand this in greater detail. Our brains are made up of brain cells, called neurons – about 86 billion of them. Each neuron can send out and receive a signal. When a signal passes through a set of neurons, it is called a neural path. When we get a sensory perception, a neural path is created.
For example, when I smell a rose, the nerve at the end of the nose senses the flower. A message is carried to the neurons in the brain, which create a path, that compares this sensation with an earlier memory and decides that this is a rose. Thus, every encounter creates a path. Every thought is a neural path. The higher the number of neural paths and the greater their interconnections, the greater our knowledge. Learning reinforces and enhances our brains by creating new paths.
The human brain, from birth, keeps increasing the size, complexity, and nature of the paths in it. A wiser man is the one who has a higher number of such neural paths, with more linkages and the ability to recall the needed path at his will. Learning, therefore, is supercharging our super brains. When you stop learning, you start to decline.
How to learn
To be a learner all your life, here are some tips:
Curiosity
Curiosity fosters learning.
A child is curious. She lives through her life with a sense of wonder and curiosity. The world is a place to de discovered. When one loses curiosity and wonder, they also lose the ability to enjoy and learn from every moment. So, be a learner for life, preserve the curiosity of a child.
The mind of a curious person is like a sponge, eager to lap up the last drop of water- (of course, the sponge sometimes gets full and needs to be squeezed of unwanted stuff occasionally. What needs to be squeezed out is the dogma, false beliefs, and negativity). Continue to have a mind that is always like a sponge.
Do not pre-judge
“I cannot learn algebra. I will learn about my religion, but not your religion. I cannot understand any technical stull.” These are negative and anti-learning thoughts. Do not let others limit your learning. You are gifted; you are capable. You are as good as everyone else. Hold on to this belief fiercely.
Go through life with a positive thought that – I am smart enough to learn anything. Once you have this frame of mind, you will learn – anything.
Enjoy Learning
The problem with formal learning is that it sometimes takes away the joy of learning. A child who loves to read stop reading it when it becomes a subject in her class. Just as kids learn through play, adults too should try to incorporate an element of play as they try learning. Learning vocabulary by playing Scrabble is far more effective than memorizing a dictionary.
It is a challenge to make all learning play, but the idea is to enjoy and not get stressed by the chore of learning.
Let 2022 be the year of learning and renewal for you!