Learn to Improve

Learning is the path to improvement! Making mistakes is one way along that path because we then don’t get confused with education being the only way. Albert Einstein suggested that education in fact had got in the way of his learning. That coming from one of the brains of the 20^th century needs to be acknowledged and understood. We learn best by making mistakes, so within reason… make more mistakes! I know this flies in the face of most schooling systems, which punishes those who would proffer an answer, only to be put down if that answer in not the ‘correct’ one.

George Bernard Shaw is reputed to have said that if you teach a man anything, he will never learn.

Be curious and fascinated as most of us were when we were growing up. Never be afraid to say you don’t know if you truly don’t. It’s OK not to know some things ‘cos nobody knows everything.

What I am encouraging you to do is to be willing to step outside you own limitations and experiment with new ideas, new ways of doing things and see what results. At worst, you’ll probably find a way that doesn’t work, and at least that’s positive! Thomas Edison found thousands of ways that his experiments didn’t work, and ended up inventing the light bulb. Thanks to him we simply flick on a switch and we’ve got light!

Personally, I find the social media somewhat overwhelming and boy have I made many mistakes. However, through the mist of my errors I am coming to grips with little bits here and there. It helps me to write down appointments and add a few notes as reminders, and I still use my Franklin Covey Planner to keep abreast of important happenings.

So, I don’t know what methodology you have, but would like to ask if in fact you are interested in self-improvement. Do you believe that there might be better ways? If so, you need to forget the old trite sayings that can cause stagnation of the mind. One such that you might have heard or even used is, “why change things, that’s the way it’s always been done?” I’m suggesting that by trying new approaches you might surprise yourself and find a better way. If not, then at least you will have found out for yourself rather than have relied on the word of your predecessors.

Change is so rapid, and when I look back on mobile phones and fax machines being introduced, not too far in the distant past, and look now at app machines, head phones seemingly glued to ears, nobody speaking to each other face to face, it startles me, and I realise that giant strides have been made, which would not have been possible if positive minded people had stood back and said, ‘leave well alone, it’s always been done like that so it must be right.’

I’m not knocking our forebears, because they did the best they knew how with the limited information at their disposal. However, they learned and improved their lot and so can you.

Feedback is welcome if you have any comments.