Your goals are deeply connected to your social circles. All of us get inspiration and motivation by the example set by our friends, family, and other important people in our lives. Their actions, their way of thinking, their attitude, all of that affects us. Many people wrote about this, and it seems 100% true. We need to be wise about the people we spend a lot of time with. Why? Because they’re going to influence the course of our life.
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Attitude and Learning
The state of our mind has a lot to do with the results we see in the world. It’s not that our actions come from nowhere. They originate from our thoughts. Eventually, the thoughts become actions. Our actions involved in learning anything are thus connected to our thoughts and attitudes. Having the right attitude is key to have good learning results.
A good attitude
In order to be able to learn something, we need to believe it’s possible for us. Only when we believe we can do something we give it a fair try. Otherwise, we might not even give it a chance. Why would you spend serious time playing soccer if you think you can’t improve and get better? Or why would you commit to studying chess for hours if you think you don’t have any talent for that?
[Read more…] about Attitude and LearningLong-term Skill Investments
When we think about financial investments, long-term is usually better than short-term. The longer we hold to our assets, the higher the interests/benefits we might potentially earn in the future. As long as we learn and get educated about the investment instruments we use, most of the times we will be better off sticking to a ‘buy and hold’ strategy. We can think of skill-building in the same terms.
There’s a difference in learning something and using it during the next few weeks or months, and learning something and using it for years. Of course, many skills are not worth spending years with. We just learn the basics, get the job done and put them aside. But these are not the most important, meaningful skills.
[Read more…] about Long-term Skill InvestmentsActive and Passive Idleness
The pleasures of urban populations have become mainly passive: seeing cinemas, watching football matches, listening to the radio, and so on. This results from the fact that their active energies are fully taken up with work; if they had more leisure, they would again enjoy pleasures in which they took an active part.
In Praise of Idleness, Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell wrote on the use of idle time in 1932. Back then there wasn’t even television or the Internet. Nevertheless, people still seemed to find plenty of ‘passive’ activities to fill their time. What would Bertrand write now? Almost 90 years after In Praise of Idleness, the options of ‘passive’ activities to spend our leisure time have grown exponentially. We watch reality shows, read status updates on social media, follow influencers, read about the lives of celebrities, and so on. Passive pleasures. We are mere spectators of what other people are doing and creating. We are professional watchers. [Read more…] about Active and Passive Idleness
Online Learning Is Here to Stay
Online learning is not the next big thing, it is the now big thing.
Donna J. Abernathy
As many other authors and specialists, Abernathy claims that online learning is here to stay. But, what is exactly online learning? And, is it as effective as offline learning?
In this post, I’ll try to answer these questions and share my position in favor of this new way of learning.
A Species of Learners
First of all, let us put this clear: the human species is a species of learners. One of our unique traits is our ability to learn and master different skills. We enjoy learning, and we’re always looking for ways of doing it faster and better. That’s exactly what makes us explore new creative ways of learning, sharing, and teaching.
We’ve been improving and refining our educational methods since always. We can’t help it. As soon as we create something new or develop a new technology, we use that to improve our educational efforts. [Read more…] about Online Learning Is Here to Stay
How to Become a Genius
Imagine you had a superpower to learn and master anything you want: a language, a musical instrument or any other skill. What would you choose? Think for a moment. What would you learn if you were talented enough if you had whatever it takes to get really good at anything you choose? What if it were possible for you to become a genius?
We’ve been told that geniuses are born like that. We’ve heard so many times that talent is innate: you either have it or you don’t. Is this really the case? Many learning specialists affirm it’s quite the opposite. They say that talent is the result of a lot of hard work and good practice throughout many years. In this article, I will share with you some facts and data to prove this point: that it is possible to become a genius. [Read more…] about How to Become a Genius