Studies define lifelong learning as the ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons. A lifelong learner is someone who voluntarily takes on this pursuit of lifelong learning.
Benefits of Lifelong Learning
People who engage in lifelong learning generally learn information outside of their areas of study and also their day job. Overall, learning outside of their daily life helps them enhance their social inclusion, makes them more active in their community, makes them more self-sustainable, as well as more employable. Beyond these reasons – being a lifelong learner has very tangible benefits.
1. Higher Wages
In a study of people in the UK who pursued degrees of certification, the economists also rated the participant’s degree of lifelong learning interest. Those who received the highest level of certification received the highest wage rate and lowest employment.
What is interesting, the those who received no certification but were lifelong learners performed better than those at their same level. Outside of the certifications, it is almost like the employers could see those who were more interested in learning the job and rewarded them for it.
2. Sharpens the Mind
Being a lifelong learner fends off the mental fog of getting older. Continuous learning helps to keep the mind sharp and improves memory. It is a known fact that learning, in general, has beneficial effects on the brain. Research has shown that people with more education are less likely to have dementia in old age.
3. Sharpens Confidence
Sometimes, when someone has not stepped out of their routine for a while, they haven’t taken on a new challenge or applied themselves to learning something new, they may find the experience a bit daunting. With Lifelong learning, this fear is more easily overcome. Life-long learning helps to gain confidence inability to learn and to share the information with others; gain confidence in who we are and what we have to offer.
4. Create a Curious, Hungry Mind
The more we learn, the more we want to learn. Our drive and desire to learn to keep us going, constantly looking for more to feed our hungry minds. Life-long learning opens the mind.
5. Gives Back the Community
When people learn more, there is a desire to share their new knowledge and experience with the community. Through this form of mentorship, the entire community benefits from the learning.
Characteristics of Lifelong Learners
1. Curious
When you want to be a lifelong learner, you have to be interested in a variety of different fields and naturally seek new learnings. It goes back to feeding a hungry mind.
Need help being more curious and innovative? Check-out our guide about Da Vinci to learn how to be more innovative.
2. Open to Change / Flexible
Being flexible is imperative to being a lifelong learner. If you worked in the IT space since the 70s, you would see a drastic change in just how data was stored.
In the 1970s they had punch cards holding all the information, then in the 1990s the floppy disk became the storage method, then USB Flash drives in the 2000s, then Solid State Drives (SSD), and now data is stored “in the cloud” on server farms.
Leaps in data storage in just several decades. Those who stayed flexible evolved their careers with the technology, while those who didn’t were left behind.
3. Humility
It takes courage to admit you do not know everything. Sometimes learning is hard – especially when you see much younger people doing the task better than you. However, admitting you do not understand something and seeking guidance is imperative for learning to be a good learner.
4. Resilience
Learning isn’t easy and often is met with many failures. The below diagram describes organizational failures. For yourself, especially when you are simply learning new hobbies or skills, focus on framing the temporary failure as exploratory learning. Become resilient by knowing you don’t have to become a master in one day.
5. Positive Attitude
In studies aimed at “creating lifelong learners” – a meta-study found that people who exhibited motivation were those who benefitted the most from the teachings. That motivation was usually tied internally – these people wanted to learn for themselves. Having a positive attitude makes the lessons stick and makes it easier for people to tackle the challenge of new disciplines.
Habits of Lifelong Learners
Lifelong learners tend to exhibit similar habits and strategies. If you are looking about how to be a lifelong learner – these will help share some insight.
1. Take Responsibility
Lifelong learners take responsibility not only for their actions but for their learnings as well. They acknowledge that even if they are in a formal schooling situation – it is up to them to make the most out of each learning opportunity.
2. Push their Comfort Zone
Your comfort zone is
“a psychological state in which things feel familiar to a person, and they are at ease and perceive they are in control of their environment.”
Alasdair K White, “From Comfort Zone to Performance Management”
Those who are lifelong learners constantly get uncomfortable by stepping outside their comfort zone. However, by doing so – they expand it little by little each time. Soon tasks that seem impossible seem to be probable because they’ve pushed their comfort zone along the way to get there.
Need help pushing your comfort zone? Check-out our guide on how to expand your comfort zone.
3. Make a list of What They Want to Learn
Take a quick five minutes and write down a list of all the things you have ever wanted to know. Why do coral reefs form? How do you keep Koi? What is the largest mountain in America? How do I draw? How can I solve a Rubick’s cube? Why are the domes in Santorini blue?
It can be anything big or small. Foster curiosity by doing this exercise of brainstorming what you want to learn.
4. Make Time for Lifelong Learning
Just like with daily obligations, lifelong learners make time to learn. Whether that is twenty minutes of reading a night or taking extra classes on the weeknights. Lifelong learners set time for it. Making a habit of taking the time to study.
Need help forming life-long habits? Check-out our guide here.
5. Interested in Diverse Passions
Everyone can have diverse interests. It is about allowing yourself to explore new areas and be a novice in them.
6. Make a Learning Toolkit (H3)
How do you learn best? Through books, instructor-led courses, Podcasts, research articles, by doing something else, or a mix? When learning new disciplines or new items – make it so the learning is fun and beneficial to you!
Just because learning is in the title does not mean that you have to treat it like a formal classroom. Do what works for you!
7. Develop Hobbies
On the diverse interest note above – what is one thing you always have wished you could do but never have tried it or did not give an honest shot? Take time to experiment and try new hobbies. You might find you hate painting but love gardening. Keep your hobbies small at first and then expand on the ones that enrich your life!
Need help learning new hobbies? Check-out our guide here!
8. Set SMART Goals
Setting goals helps you define what you are working on and overcome your tendency to procrastinate.
SMART stands for – specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-based. Setting your goals in such a manner makes it easier to achieve your goals and work towards your objectives.
How to be a Lifelong Learner
Practice fostering those characteristics and implementing habits like those above.
Key Take-Aways
- Being a lifelong learner starts with fostering characteristics that encourage openness, flexibility, curiosity, and a resilient mind.
- Developing habits and making time to learn is how to develop into a lifelong learner.
Action Item
Spend ten minutes making a list of all the things you want to learn. It can be skilled to develop, fun-facts to learn, cultures you are curious about, or anything under the sun. Then, for the next week pick one item a day and investigate it. It does not have to be anything crazy – even 5 minutes will work. Simply focus on making the effort to learn new things that are outside of your day-to-day life.
