Ep 61 – One life building mindset for anyone seeking success

There’s one non-negotiable I’ve had in my routine for years now. One that keeps me on my toes, piques my curiosity, helps me stay relevant to changing times, and most of all stay humble throughout my peaks and troughs. Curious to know what this life-building skill is?

Well, it’s none other than learning.

Hi, you’re listening to Own your every day in the Being Meraklis Podcast and I’m your host and self-awareness coach Shwetha Sivaraman. Today we’re going to talk about a non-negotiable mindset every individual who aspires to be successful and live life to the fullest must imbibe – the learning mindset.

Many of us associate learning with schools, colleges, educational institutions, and online courses. We go through the academic rigour and throw in the towel once done saying we have completed our studies. But, learning does not come to an end with formal education.

One of the common misconceptions with modern science for the longest time was that the development of the brain stops once the brain has matured post our teenage years. Not any more. Scientific inquiries today have revealed that our brain cells are continually growing and evolving throughout our life. New neural pathways can be created and broken at any age. That means we have the power and control in our hands to open up our minds, to know new things, and to keep learning and growing as we age.

Why even when we are sleeping, our brains are actively learning, assimilating, and building stronger connection between cells.

Here are a few myths that are untrue about learning:

• Learning doesn’t have to be formal

You don’t have to sign up in a college to learn, definitely not in today’s world. Learning can happen anywhere you choose for it to happen.

• Learning doesn’t have to be expensive

The best of my learnings have come from sheer observation of people and situations around me and myself. Learning does not have to be expensive. Observe a tree, your own emotions, or use Google! There’s a treasure trove of information waiting to be discovered in today’s internet era.

• Learning doesn’t happen automatically

A common misconception is that learning happens automatically as you age and have newer experiences. Some obvious ones, yes maybe. But learning has to be a conscious effort to support in our growth. That cannot happen unconsciously. We must deliberately choose to open up our minds and make consistent effort to learn a new skill or build a personality trait.

• Learning helps in many ways.

It boosts our self-confidence, helps us be more successful at work, gives us peace of mind, gives us something new and challenging to look forward to, and lastly helps us stay humble to be open to things we don’t know. In this magnanimous universe only a fool can believe he/she knows everything they need to know. For others a periodic reminder of what we don’t know is greatly humbling and helps us keep our successes in perspective.

How to build a learning mindset?

Read – The first and foremost practice for lifelong learning. Read. Read as far as you can as wide as you can, there is no right or wrong book. The purpose is to broaden the horizons within our minds by reading more and more takes on subjects that matter to us.

Observe – Observation is one of the key pillars towards building a learning mindset. To observe you have to first get off the high horse that you know a lot and two learn the art of watchfulness which in turn pays huge dividends.

Reflect – Don’t just gather knowledge and let it be. You must reflect on them, understand what you’ve learned, assess how much you concur with, question what you don’t agree, and experiment with the new knowledge otherwise it’s just another useless factoids

Converse – Talk to people. Talk to people with similar views. Talk to people with contrarian views. You build knowledge and try to understand other’s take on similar situations which helps you learn and grow too.

So here’s your Own Your Everyday Tip this week – Create learning goals for yourself, every year, and review once in a quarter if possible to evaluate your progress. And eventually make learning a way of life. Keep looking for ways to improve, to do things better, to be better, and live a fulfilling and enriching life.

If you’re interested to know more, I’ve assimilated an e-book that brings together years of my learning about life and living. If you’d like to access 11 principles to live life to the fullest, go to www.beingmeraklis.com or visit any of our social media links to purchase this power-packed book right away.