Cultivating Curiosity: Proactive Methods to Foster Lifelong Learning.

Team IIBP Business Psychology, General Psychology, Issue 41, Mental Health, Mental Health Champions, News Corner, Uncategorized, Volume 4

Do you have the confidence to ask silly questions? If yes then you are a curious person who wants to learn & grow in life. From our childhood days, we felt that if we asked questions to our teacher in class, we might get judged by the class fellows or they make fun of us because we showed them that we were stupid & we unconsciously carry forward this trait with ourselves further in life & this directly, indirectly used to suppress our curiosity to learn but people who dare to ask, know & argue are cultivating learning skills in themselves with the help of this curiosity.

The other reasons could be, losing interest in learning with ageing, lack of self- awareness, unwillingness to invest time & money, overconfidence, and unawareness of “Need of the Hour”. The ultimate truth is – “If you are not learning so you are not growing” as “Change is the only constant” & to be successful we need to keep on updating ourselves as per the trend that comes with learning through training, coaching, mentoring, counselling or self-paced learning.

The mundane task should include a few “Proactive methods to foster lifelong learning” If you lack willingness to learn then the below methods would help you to cultivate curiosity.

  1. List out the past setbacks – Sometimes we forget the setbacks we have faced in life because we get comfortable & satisfied in the present situation which leads to an unwillingness to learn & that leads to an insecure future. Once in a while, we need to make a list to recall past setbacks with their reasons, which works as a trigger to be careful & to take needful action steps to enhance our skills via learning to sustain & thrive in life.
  2. Exploring & Observing – I have seen people making life-changing decisions after getting inspired by someone else’s story & that happens when you pay attention to your surroundings, like what courses your colleague is pursuing, what skills your friends are learning, what trending & demanding learning domains are there in the market & how it is helping people for their professional & personal growth, then we have to do our own R&D if it suits our requirements. So, start paying attention to successful people online & offline & get the inspiration doze to learn.
  3. Keep the student alive inside you & let go of the ego- We need to recall that we are still a student we will be till the end of our lives, “I know everything” is the ego that creates this sentence in our minds & again it suppresses the learning curiosity, emerging technologies have the power to teach us the new things & changing technologies are the reasons to foster learning within us to sail equally with the new generation. Cutting the ego down will help to create a space for learning.
  4. Take breaks & reflect – In the race to get placed in a desired position we often forget to take breaks, this tiredness packed schedule doesn’t give us time to reflect on our shortcomings & the improvement areas, a vacation, good food & sleep, pursuing hobbies, spiritual practices & solitude helps us to think beyond the boundaries & to cultivate the zeal to learn for our improvement.

“Learning is an incarnation of ourselves in every phase of our lives, curiosity is a boat to thrive in the ocean of knowledge” Make it happen!

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