Continuous Learning

Actually, everything you are exposed to every day has educational value. Every conversation that you have with peers, coworkers, friends, colleagues, customers, and even strangers offers you an opportunity for you to learn and to compare what you learn to what you know. As for strangers, every encounter you have with a stranger has potential unless the stranger is just not approachable or just undesirable.

One mistake that we must avoid is that we have learned enough up to this point to get us through the next year, next month, next week, or even next hour. We always need to grow and learn. With each passing year, it becomes clear that I really don’t know as much as I thought I did. I am amazed how much I can learn from younger people.

School-aged people are still in a maximum learning mode and they grasp things quickly. We adults often make the mistake that kids are not grasping what we want them to. Sometimes, they are grasping the right things even before we comprehend what the right thing is. Be careful of that. There is a fine line between looking out for and instructing younger people versus imposing the wrong information on them simply because we are out of date.

Here is a real example. Many years ago (over 25 actually) a young relative of mine asked me for advice on basketball shoes. He was in the eighth grade and trying out for the basketball team. Of course, I advised him that the only shoe to wear for basketball was the Converse All-Star. After all, 15 years earlier, we all wore those.

So, we went out and got him some to wear to the first day of tryouts. Guess what, he was the only one wearing such a shoe. Everyone else must have gotten advice from a more up-to-date adviser because they were all wearing the more modern, leather Nike and Rebok shoes. Time had passed me by quickly in the basketball shoe department. I should have asked advice from someone more current in this field.