Mahatma Gandhi once said, “live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live
forever.” This statement of immense wisdom has been echoed by many great minds throughout history.
We read it in children’s books with Dr Seuss saying, “the more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
We hear it from legendary inventors with Einstein telling us, “the important thing is not to stop questioning; curiosity has its own reason for existing.” We even heard it from the original entrepreneur
himself, Henry Ford, who proclaimed that “anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”
Learning is absolutely crucial, we should never close the book on it. So, you may ask yourself, how do you keep learning once you’ve finished your formal education?
Read
Read voraciously. Read everything you can get your hands on. Read the great novels. Read poetry. Read authors from different backgrounds and seek to understand contexts different than your own. Read history so that we’re not doomed to repeat it. Be actively engaged with the world around you. Download a reliable news app and at the very least read the daily headlines and try to stay informed.
Enrol In Online Courses
You may have graduated high school or university already but that doesn’t necessarily mean that your engagement with structured learning is behind you, however, there are many short courses you can enrol in that will help educate you and furnish you with qualifications you can use if you later wish to work in that field. Many online courses, such as those offered by site like Courses offer government-assisted learning opportunities including subsidised tuition making them accessible to everyone.
Be A Teacher
One industry you can qualify for thanks to online courses is education. A rewarding industry and one in which you really have the opportunity to make a difference. These courses are nationally accredited and if you have a passion for education you can become qualified as an early childhood teacher, childcare worker, nanny or even a teacher’s aide.
Teach
It’s been said many times and far more eloquently (notable by Tim Minchin in this epically educational graduation speech) but, even if you’re not a teacher, be a teacher. Learn as much as you can and then share that knowledge with those around you. Teach your kids about history, tell them about the social movements that mattered to you when you were young, teach them to be inquisitive - to question everything and to stay hungry for knowledge and the truth. Teach your grandparents about the things that matter to you now, teach them about how things have changed and remember to learn from them as they are a valuable resource they’ve surely seen more, done more, learnt more in their lifetimes than you have.
Be wrong
If you’re learning you have to accept that sometimes you’ll be wrong. Never close yourself off to the possibility that learning more about a certain topic could lead you to change your opinion. Journalist Bill Vaughan wrote, “people learn something every day, and a lot of times it’s that what they learned the day before was wrong.” If you’re not closing yourself off to learning then you have to welcome the possibility that you will have your mind changed!
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