I believe learning = living. We learn to live, learn from life, and life is so important in our learning. Lifelong learning is vastly more pervasive than students enrolled in university courses or employees attending training sessions.
The love of learning is my fourth signature strength and the second last profile of my five signature strengths derived from the VIA Signature Strength Inventory at www.authentichappiness.org.
The love of learning is defined as: mastering new skills, topics, and bodies of knowledge, whether independently or formally. Learning is often defined as a change resulting from experience and I love experiences that I learn from and that change me.
Marshall McLuhan, the great Canadian thinker, once said: In the future, we will not earn a living we will learn a living. That future is now.
Learning contributes to my overall happiness, fosters my engagement, and is a huge strength I bring to my work. Here are a few examples:
I love to learn and often take on projects, consultations, or teaching because I know that I will be motivated by how much I will learn from the work.
I have been a university and corporate educator for over 25 years. One of my biggest rewards is learning the material to be able to teach it. I also am energized by learning about my participants and learning from my participants.
I teach in the (CACE) Certificate in Adult and Continuing Education program for 4 Canadian Universities. I wrote and developed two courses. (1) Adult Learning and Development and (2) Advising and Counselling Adult Learners. I love to teach and coach other people involved in fostering adult learning
In addition I am hooked on books. I never met a book I didn’t like. Last week the librarian at Louis Riel Library, my local library in the Winnipeg Public Library system, declared that I have taken out 6701 books since they started to track borrowing on their computers.
I like blogs and learning from them. If you have not visited some of the blogs referenced on the right hand side of the page I encourage you to click into them. You never know what you might learn. For example, I have learned about blogging communities from Rosa Say, enterprise dashboards from the dashboard spy; leadership story telling from Stephen Denning; great resources from Phil Gerbyshak; and the inside on Dilbert from Scott Adams. I could keep going as there are so many wonderful writers and posts on the variety of blogs I continually monitor.
Learning is pervasive and I learn from experiences, stories, reflection, action, errors, and failures. I gather strength from learning and learning is a strength.
What is your fourth signature strength?
What have you learned by engaging in your strength?
What do you need to learn to foster your strength?
Take the time and effort to outline your strength like I did above. This reflective practice will help you to appreciate your strength, be more focused on your strength, and determine additional action you can engage in to leverage your strength at work and home.
Next issue: Spirituality: A Sense of Purpose.
Technorati Tags : leadership, signature strengths, learning, authentic happiness
I have just read “Learning=Living” three times. This is my first response to a blog – which I am learning about!
I have just returned to learning, at the age of 62 (to do Year 12) as I only completed part of year 8 before beginning my working life.
I love it. I feel as if my brain has come to life again and I can’t cram enough in. Being on school holidays at the moment, I decided to learn about web sites and, consequently, blogging. Tell me to return to my set work!
Your blog has inspired me to look even more into the future.
Thankyou
Rene,
I am very pleased that you left a comment.
Good for you to carry on with life long learning and all the best in your learning future.I’d encourage you to complete the VIA signature strength inventory. Let me know your strengths.
Take care and carry on caring,
David
I agree totally, learning is crucial. In fact, I’ve noticed that learning is a crucial part of all happy workplaces.
Which is hardly surprising – no matter how much you like your job today, if you never learn anything new and keep on doing the same stuff in the same ways, sooner or later it will become boring.
People love to learn and to feel that they’re growing.
Alexander:
Thanks for the comments from the Chief Happiness Officer. I was at your site and looked at your 10 top books.
I love your reading list. I was reminded of a story about Richard Feynman’s mother. Everyday when he came home from school she did not say, “What did you learn at school today Richard?” instead she said, “What did you ask today at school?” Questions can be such valuable learning tools —especially the right question.
Carry on caring,
David