Learning 2.0 - Lifelong Learning and Blogging (Things 1, 2, & 3)

7 ½ Habits of Successful Lifelong Learners

1.     Begin with the end in mind.

2.     Accept responsibility for your own learning.

3.     View problems as challenges.

4.     Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner.

5.     Create your own learning toolbox.

6.     Use technology to your advantage.

7.     Teach and mentor others.

7½ Play!

When I think about the habits of lifelong learners, it’s a bit difficult to pin down which of the habits I feel I do a good job of following and which I struggle with doing.  A lot depends on the familiarity I have on the subject I’m studying as well as my interest in developing my skills in that particular area. 

However, in general, I’d say that one of the habits I struggle with the most is Habit #4:  Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner.  When trying something new, I will quite often feel fairly incompetent and not up to the challenge of completing the task, especially if it is a subject with which I have little familiarity.  However, this is usually just an initial stumbling block for me.  The more I study a topic, the more interested I become in finding out more about it.  Delving deeper usually pushes me past feelings of inadequacy and quite often makes me want to push myself harder to learn more. 

For this reason, I’d say that I am pretty successful in regard to Habit #2: Accept responsibility for your own learning.  I know that my success or failure largely rests upon my own shoulders, and I also accept the idea that what I get out of a project is directly related to the amount of effort I’m willing to put into it.  However, although I understand this idea pretty readily, putting it into practice is more easily said than done!  I love to play (Habit #7 ½), find resources to help build my learning toolbox (Habit #5), and share my learning with others through teaching and mentoring (Habit #7), and I think all of these are great indicators of how much success you’ll have with your learning.  Sadly, time constraints often hold me back from accomplishing all that I’d like to do.  Life has a way of pulling us in a lot of different directions at once, and there always seems to be a plethora of things competing for our attention.  It can quite often be difficult to find time to dedicate to learning new things, but as I think about it, this is a pretty good example of Habit #3: viewing obstacles as challenges! Instead of viewing lack of time as an obstacle, I should see it more as a challenge to overcome.  I suppose Habit #3 is one I need to work on!