Let's Begin to Learn...

Live as if you were to die tomorrow, Learn as if you were to live forever. - Mahatma Gandhi 

It is said that, “When you stop learning you start dying.” Hanging on this statement as true, I believe the next question to ask is, “What is learning?” Most of us have been rigorously taught in schools from childhood and we assume that we indeed have learned a lot, only for us to conclude our schooling and realize, when faced with real life situations that we have been taught to know far more than we were taught to do.

To learn is to regret your former state of ignorance. When some form of knowledge comes to you, you cannot yet say that you have learned anything. You have known though. You begin to learn the moment your new found knowledge creates a regret of your former state. Knowledge is to a mind what light is to darkness – you suddenly can see your way. Learning, on the other hand, is to you what your preference for the light rather than the darkness is. If you choose the former state of darkness then, irrespective of the knowledge, no learning has occurred.

Also, to learn is to change. A lot of folks claim to learn when they refuse to change what they do. Their regular habits are comfort zones – zones they are comfortable in – and they are not willing to let go. I must confess that to change is not as easy as I am making it look but, indeed, it is as important – probably more important – than I am making it look. If you will succeed you must be willing and able to change your mind, actions, habits, and attitudes.

Finally, to learn is to have goals. The human mind is a goal-seeking – for lack of a better word – machine. Goals move you from one state to another. Without goals you cannot be motivated to do more than the ordinary. There is a law in physics called Newton’s First Law and it states that, “An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion at the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” If you are that object, then goals are the unbalanced forces.