The Art of Learning
Be a life-long learner. Quote possibly you have heard that before. Develop the habit in your life of learning from everything. Don’t assume you know it all. The basis of learning is the personal humility to recognize that you don’t know something, or could be wrong about it. That spirit, coupled with the motivation to seek clarity, ask questions, and alter your own understanding is the grounding of being a life-long learner. As Ted Lasso would say, “Be curious, not judgmental.” And no, Whitman is not the source of the quote. Ted is. So, what is the art of learning? Not to say that these are the only habits of learning out there, but they are a great start to developing your own system of being an ongoing learner.
Make mistakes not failure
All failures begin with a mistake, but not all mistakes are failures. That choice is up to you. A failure is a mistake you didn’t take the time to learn from. Mistakes can be expected in life, work, and family. Failure doesn’t have to happen. Everyone, despite great effort, makes mistakes. They happen to the best of leaders and people. Sometimes the idea sounds great, looks great, but just doesn’t fit with the target, the circumstances, or the timing. Even if there is great execution of the idea, there can still be a mistake in the mix. It is important to identify what led to the mistake. Was it a bad judgment call? Wrong timing? Emotional reaction to something? Poor leaders assume they are right and make everyone else prove them wrong. Great leaders recognize they could be wrong and work with the team is see if they are right.
Seek the “Why”
Examine the factors, environment, and emotions leading up to the decision. The good thing here is that it doesn’t have to be your decision you evaluate. You could look at other groups, leaders, and organizations that made mistakes. You can learn from others. Evaluating mistakes in which you have played a part gives important insight into your own personality and leadership makeup. Don’t just seek the reasons behind other people’s choices. Spend a greater time looking at your own. Looking at the deeper factors in your own decisions-making will help you understand your own “why” in life and let you see where you need to grow, adjust, or deal with past baggage.
Eliminate the “Yes” people
It is easy and tempting to surround yourself with people that agree with you and never tell you what is wrong with an idea. But that is cancer to success. You need people around you that can tell you “no.” Or disagree with an idea. Create healthy conflict. A small group, or even an individual, who you trust to tell you the good and bad of you is paramount. Can you handle someone telling you that you are making wrong assumptions about something? Can people disagree with you? Who in your life can challenge you? Not harshly, or as an attack. But someone who really knows you and can work through things with you. That person is the truest of friends. A real friend can lovingly stab you in the front. Everyone else is noise.
Let go and forgive
When you make a mistake take the time to evaluate and learn from it. Then let it go. Forgive yourself. Incorporate this new base of knowledge into your overall system of intuition and move forward. Dwelling on the mistake for too long will cause you to lock up and struggle to make new decisions. You are not going to eliminate mistake making from you life. That does’t mean you should deliberately make mistakes in life. That isn’t the point. But give yourself the mental space for mistakes to be a part of the learning process. Try things. Take risks. When mistakes happen, be intentional about learning from them. Process it. Then let it go. You can’t afford to ignore them, or to shove them down somewhere internally and try to forget them. It won’t work. Learn how to forgive yourself.
These are the beginning of developing a habit of learning in your own life. While these apply largely to your own mistakes, you can apply them to learning from other people’s mistakes as well. The foundation of learning through these principles is a spirit of humility in your life. If you can’t ever be wrong in your life then you will never really gain the chance to be right about things. Recognize that you have limits, gaps in knowledge, and that you too can make mistakes and bad decisions. That will put you onto the path to real wisdom from God.