There aren’t many people who can say they enjoyed getting their educations. From elementary school to college we HAD to learn. We were taught many tricks to remember and we learned shortcuts to help us survive and get the grade, but to keep learning and teaching yourself even after your “education” days is the smart way to stay ahead of the learning curve.
We have all heard the old adage “work smarter not harder” and as we get older this seems to become a way of life. But really we should never stop learning. The only way to better yourself is to retain at least one new thing every day. If you can do this then you to can be the wise old person everybody wants to become.
Nobody wants to be left out but in today’s world of technology it is almost impossible to keep up with everything. By the time you become a pro at one thing there is always a new and better way to do it. So can you teach yourself to learn again? Can you teach an old dog new tricks? Maybe the new trick is attempting to teach the dog anything at all.
Books and self help programs are designed specifically to allow your mind, body and soul to overcome and relax, then when you are relaxed you can’t help yourself but learn. Constantly reading and writing keeps those skills alive and working but are you improving them as time passes. Are you drinking in your surroundings one at a time or or you drowning in a sea of self improvement attempts that will never work. This is where you have to practice what you preach and if you can do that then half the battle is won because improvement in itself is learning too.
Do your homework. Pick the best way or atmosphere that allows you to teach yourself at least one new thing every day. Maybe it’s dressing up in your finest jewels and going out into the world to educate yourself or maybe it’s finding your zen inside a quiet calm place that frees your mind enough to learn something new. Either way make yourself take the time to do that if not for others then at least do it for yourself. Every diamond started as a piece of coal so the only way to eventually shine is to keep polishing. Keep learning.
Improving yourself can only benefit you in the long run so make sure what you learn is what you are interested in. You can read as many books on cooking as you want but if your passion is in dance you will never love to cook so as you become “older and wiser” learn the things that keep your inner sparkle alive. You can always teach yourself new things and fall in love with them too but don’t try to be smart and know it all about it all. Just be you and have fun with that. Allow the student to become the teacher with everything that you do never stop doing. When you slow down as you age that is never a reason to stop everything.
What you have learned will always be reflected in what you leave behind. The good habits, the nightly rituals, the proper grammer these are the things that you want to be remembered for and what you want to be able to teach others be it children or even grandchildren. Sometimes we forget to slow down and learn so teach yourself to remember that and that alone will be enough insure that you are indeed learning something new each and every day.
