Learn at least one new thing every day

Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash

As a kid, I remember being told that I should learn at least one new thing every day.  While I was in school, I was an overachiever in that area (weren’t we all – we didn’t really have a choice), but every summer break this seemed like an unrealistic expectation.  The only thing I was interested in learning was whether the pool chlorine would turn my hair green.  Again.  Not to mention, I averaged out ahead of my “1 thing per day” expectation over the course of the year, so the learning could commence again in August when school and classes began.

After graduating and joining the workforce, I saw that I was still learning something every day.  Plus, I wasn’t getting the summer off, so the learning continued year round and I was still overachieving.  Until I got accustomed to my job.  Once it started to feel like I knew what I was doing, maybe I wasn’t learning my one thing a day anymore.  I started to feel bored and like I wasn’t being challenged.  I expected that new information would come from my manager and if I wasn’t getting it, that my job wasn’t challenging or interesting.  I expected there to be an established path that I was supposed to take to learn the next thing I needed to know.  Nope.  There was no prescribed path and my manager wasn’t responsible for teaching me something new every day, and that realization upended how I think about learning and work.

I realized I was thinking about this all wrong.  It wasn’t my manager’s job to help me learn something new every day.  It was mine.  I had the responsibility for seeking out new information, testing new ideas, expanding my networks, reading something new, and finding experts I trusted and mentors I wanted to emulate.  But who? What? Where? When? How?

See, in my then role as an instructional designer and classroom facilitator, if I was bored, it showed in the reaction of learners to what I was delivering.  Ever take a class from a facilitator that is bored?  I had.  You know it because you feel it.  I knew I had to do something quickly and that meant I had to starting thinking about my own path, planning out what I wanted to learn and how I wanted to learn it.  I found that starting anywhere was better than not starting and over time I could build a long term plan and vision. 

Now with a few more years of experience behind me, I can look back on the plan I built during that first job.  It didn’t get me to where I am today.  I never could have foreseen the curiosities that lead  down unexpected pathways to unanticipated opportunities.  What that initial plan helped me do is recognize that I need to own my personal path and make choices to shape it.  That original plan helped me realize that each new learning opened a doorway that I could choose to explore.  The original plan taught me waiting for a class to open up or be the right topic, was a waste of time.  

If I want to learn something, there are so many other ways to acquire a new skill or new knowledge: talk to someone who does the thing, ask to shadow someone, read a book, teach someone else, find an expert, read a scholarly article, engage in a professional forum, get a mentor and the list goes on and on.  And – that plan evolves, over time.  It never stands still, because if it does, I’m not doing what I need to be doing to be successful.

What about you, where should you start?

1. Start with the idea. What is it that interests you? What could you learn that would make you better at your current role or that would set you up for a future role?
2. Do you want to become a novice or an expert or something in between?
3. Research it. What is interesting about this idea? What should you know?
4. Build a SMART goal.
5. Identify the action steps you’re going to take.
6. Go for it.

It’s these last two that trip folks up.  Without the goal, you won’t know when you’re done.  Every idea is a potential rabbit hole of new information.  You don’t have to become a master of every idea that jumps into your head.  Maybe you want to investigate something to determine if you’re interested in pursuing it further or maybe you know you need a deeper understanding of a concept you already understand.  Setting the SMART goal helps you set this expectation for yourself.

But then what?  What to do next?  This is the piece that lets you create the learning experience that will keep you most engaged.  Do you love to read and research or would you prefer to talk to an expert?  Do you want think about the theory or do you want to jump in and try something new?  We live in a time where you can get your hands on the information taught in the classrooms of major research based Universities.  Or you can watch a five-minute video.  You pick what works for you.

Wonders of the Week*
Time to share something that inspired me, made me curious or encouraged me to take a risk.

My latest wonder is the TED website and mobile app.  These are tremendous resources to learn something new and to think about something you haven't thought about before.  If you're not familiar with TED this is an organization that started by bringing together presenters from all walks of life to share their thoughts on ideas of Technology, Education and Design in short format, story like presentations and has evolved to a forum to express almost any idea imaginable.  Most are 15 minutes or less and they are inordinately engaging.  They will introduce you to new people and new ideas.