One of my favourite things to do as a child, was to sit under our staircase and plow through as many Encyclopaedia Britannica’s as humanly possible. I would sit there for hours, devouring every morsel of information that I could come across. It was the best buy my parents ever bought from a door-to-door salesman. We won’t mention the carpet steamer, or the 48 piece Tupperware set. Who needs 48 pieces of Tupperware?
As I progressed through school, my learning became more selective. In a nutshell, I only did well in the things I enjoyed. I only enjoyed the things I genuinely wanted to learn. My mind would not open itself up to subjects that did not interest me; maths, physics, chemistry! And so I didn’t do well in them.
And now as a fully-fledged, bill-paying, child-rearing adult, my thirst for learning is unchanged, as are the subjects and things that I want to learn about. And this is what I love about learning and its power to arm you with all that you need to know, opening you up to opportunities and taking you to places (physical and metaphysical) that you never imagined. You can literally learn anything that you want to nowadays. Anything that takes your fancy, anything that you need to know for your business, any self-improvements, you can learn it all.
As adult learners and business people, learning should be as high up on our lists of priorities, as making money is. As adult learners, we are free to learn all the things that we want to learn which can enhance us as individuals and empower us a business people. There’s no curriculum to follow, no compulsory summer reading list or books which need to be studied, just our desire to better ourselves and to be the best that we can be in the areas which we see fit.
I try to dedicate a few hours a month to learning something new, which will enhance either my business, or me as a human being. I love learning. I need to learn. I want to learn. We should never think that we are beyond learning.
One of my favourite expressions is this,
A true sign of success is the honest recognition that there is always room for improvement.
No truer word, right? That is the power of learning encapsulated into one sentence. Our improvements as humans and business people can be attributed to what we learn. The new ideas that we take on board, new discoveries, new ways of doing things, new visions, new concepts, learning through trial and error, new ways of looking at things. This all comes about through the process of learning.
So don’t shut yourself to learning new things, or even, re-learning old things. Read, watch, listen, learn. Attend workshops, join mastermind groups, buy books, listen to podcasts, go on retreats, join learning-orientated Facebook groups. Whatever there is that can help you learn, sign up to it!
And if you’re anything like me, don’t learn things which you don’t enjoy. Don’t learn things which don’t interest you or won’t enhance you. However, if you’re in tune with your needs, you’ll be drawn to the things that you want to learn about.
So there you have it. Open your mind, and the rest will follow.
Natasha has worked on the ground in the wedding industry for over a decade, as a Wedding Celebrant. This sees her working with many amazing wedding professionals, from Wedding Planners to Photographers at the top of their game. These daily experiences have helped Natasha to shape her expertise and knowledge of this industry to help not just wedding clients but other wedding professionals too.