Soak Up Opportunities To Learn
Have you ever met someone who wants to learn something new every day?
The question than is how do you set yourself up to learn something new? Well, you have to have an open mind and always be ready and willing to learn something when the opportunity arrives.
Ask Questions
Always ask questions to open the door to people explaining something. It never hurts to ask questions and always be eager to learn.
To be successful in life, business, and relationships, asking the right questions is certainly one way to get there.
How are you helping other people think when you ask the right questions? I remember a story about a friend telling me about a PhD psychology program and the final exam had one question on it. The question was “why?” and gradate students had an two hours to answer the question.
At first, you might think that the correct answer is some philosophical answer to the meaning of life. But the professor was looking for his students to think outside of the box and interpret the question in their own way. The student who got the best grade, how did he answer? He answered with the simple question, “Why not?”
The ingenuity of this response has started many intriguing conversations ever since I heard about this story.
Self Start Learning
Change is hard. People like the easy path. But in order to really learn, you have to start things yourself. Being a self-starter is a quality that those people who frequently learn.
Something I recently had a difficult time with was learning about was SEO and how the major search engines have updated their algorithms for ranking high in search engines. In other words, if I want to search for the best motorcycle review, what determines the first page that I see in the search results after the advertisements.
Google searches only get you so far, so I looked to podcasts. These podcasts, or mini online radio shows, are a great way to learn something new. You can go to iTunes and look up popular podcasts in a certain category. You can even go to an app called Stitcher and find podcasts that might align with your interests.
Listening Helps You Learn
In all areas of life, if you just listen, you will come to realize that you can learn a lot. Just listen to people. People like to talk. After you listen to people, listen more.
Just don’t hear what they say, and focus on what you want to say. Intently listen to what they say, how they say it, and their body language.
If you can’t see them because you are on the phone or listening to a podcast, then hear the fluctuations in their voice and do your best to make an emotional connection to the words they are speaking.
Read! Learners are Readers!
Not that long ago I really didn’t like reading. In fact, during my entire college career I don’t think I read an entire book. (If you are one of my professors, reading this, don’t worry I always listened in class!)
So if you don’t like to read, why is reading still important or what can you do? Well, I also found out about audiobooks. Guess what, you can buy an audiobook and someone will read it to you! Once I found out about these, I became addicted to reading books. Most people have heard about Audible, but if you havent, check them out!
They are a really cool company that host a lot of great books on audio which you can download immediately after you buy the book. You can even subscribe to their membership service and receive an audiobook of your choice EVERY month!
Be Open To New Things
I think the biggest lesson is to be open to new things. Surround yourself with people who like new things and people who always challenge themselves.
Openness is one of the best ways to learn and to lead. Being open to things lets you understand people and ultimately learn more about others and yourself.
Let me know what you think about learning and post some of the resources you use to learn!