TIME TO BUCKLE DOWN AND STUDY
Thursday Nov. 8, 2018
Learning is just for the young, right?
They are learning all the time. From toddlers with sponge-brains, soaking up ever experience in every play day to school-age kids soaking up socialization skills, to college, to career, to life – before we know, mid-life is upon us and baggage tends to slow us.
Clichés like ‘life long learning’ fit easily – if we are talking about ‘other people’.
But self-viewing tends to be more defensive, less open …
What are we learning, and why?
How well, how deeply, are we exploring this new information?
Is it fun, for fun, for work, to fill time or for the joy of learning?
All of those if we are lucky.
Better if we volunteer rather than being forced or coerced.
What new learning do we seek, or need?
What is incidental, simply a byproduct of our curiosity?
If we aren’t trying to learn we shouldn’t be surprised each time some new thing, idea or social trend blows past us – completely ignoring our station in life or our experience, because we are not required to miss-out on anything new. But if we don’t pay attention or see it as important that we are, with increasingly little relevance, simply recording the pace at which we are falling far behind …
Reader feedback:
MISSION IMPROBABLE
As a lifelong insomniac, I was forced to take the problem more seriously a few years ago when I became afraid to drive through sheer exhaustion. All the rhetoric around good sleep hygiene I finally took to heart (keep a cool, clean, quiet, dark bedroom, get rid of ALL screens and electronics from the bedroom, and spend an hour 'winding down' before bed...) It made a huge difference, and gotta say - I am part of generation that was raised sleeping a full night, eating well and exercising daily by my parents. Why on earth did I ever abandon the basics? Just sayin'..... this isn't rocket science, JB, Edmonton, AB
