For most of us today consciously engaging in learning has become a distant dream. Our busy lives leave us little time to indulge in moments of comfort and peace, let alone find time to step out of the comfort zone and commit ourselves to learning something new. Nonetheless, the mind that stops learning is a mind that starts stagnating. Our minds thrive on the pursuit of learning and the rush of mastering something new. It doesn’t matter if your student years are way behind you, learning should never be subjected to factors like age, for learning is ageless.
But the benefits of consistent learning run deeper than just intellectual development. It has a profound impact on your physical health, social life, economic well-being and general happiness. Here’s how:
Physical Health
Even a small amount of learning on a regular basis can keep you in the pink of your health, adding to the quantity as well as quality of your life. Our cognitive skills tend to decline with age. But learning can offset some of the symptoms of cognitive decline like poor memory. Learning is also said to reduce the stress levels and low stress levels have been linked to a longer, fuller and happier life. If you want to add years to your lifespan, then you’d better get to learning in time!
Social Life
Curious learners make excellent conversationalists. Such people always have something to contribute to the conversation, to keep it lively and going. Interactions with them is engaging since their interests in listening and talking are genuine and come from a desire of exchanging thoughts and knowledge. No wonder, learners are always admired in their social circles, for the insights they offer, for the thoughtful questions they ask and for the vibrancy they bring to the interaction.
Economic Well-being
The more limited are your professional skills, the more limited will remain your maximum earning potential. No matter what field you work in, changes at the technical level will continue to come about one after the another. The only way to survive professionally, and thus financially, in your field of work is if you learn how to keep your learning proportional with the ongoing and anticipated future changes. Skill development via learning is one of the key ways to sustain your value at work and keep pushing your earning potential towards more.
General Happiness
Happiness is subjective, but almost everyone can identify with the feeling of contentment and stimulation that one feels when they’ve acquired a new piece of knowledge. Your mind is designed to consume information and by learning you are giving it just the right fuel it needs to keep on working happily. The next time you read a new book, cook a new recipe or solve a complex problem, focus on the feeling of satisfaction that follows therewith.
Still stuck on excuses, like no time or no resources, for not sticking to everyday learning? Learning is more accessible to you than ever. With widespread educational resources such as books, online courses, podcast and video tutorials, you can’t really complain about not having the requisite materials for learning. As far as time is concerned, that is something you’ll need to carve out every day of your own dedicated commitment. Maybe you can find some time within the first few hours of your waking up, on the commute, or before you hit the bed at nighttime. The truth is that once you set the fire in your heart for learning, your mind will find ways to accommodate it one way or the other.
Learning is a transcendental experience, you can’t limit it to intellectual details and professional skills. You don’t have to be a master of multiple languages or well-versed in several technologies to call yourself learned. A defining characteristic of a learned person is their level of self-awareness, and when it comes to learning about yourself, you can hardly rely on external sources. This kind of personal level learning requires you to tune in with yourself, and journaling is one of the easiest ways to do that.
The thoughts that you jot down, the feelings that you pour out, the opinions that you form, and the decisions that you make, all take you on a journey of introspective learning. This is the kind of learning that AOYL program aims to inculcate in you, how to use your own journal as a tool to gain a deeper understanding of who you are at the molecular level. Journaling with AOYL is an interesting learning experience, one that allows you to uncover one layer of your personality after another as you keep going, until you’ve reached your core essence.
This article was in part inspired by following article by Jessica Stillman:https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/making-time-for-learning-will-make-you-healthier-richer-and-more-popular.html
