Be a Lifetime Learner

When you were growing up you went to school to receive an education; pre-school, elementary school, middle school, high school and possibly college. But once you left the formal education system you likely shifted gears from learning to living your life. The thing is though, part of living a successful life includes continuing to learn. You are responsible for your personal education; you need to keep learning throughout your life. If you stop learning you stop growing. If you stop growing you become stagnant, and there is nothing worse than wasting all the gifts you were born with. You were born to do great things, but you cannot possibly find or fulfill your destiny if you do not continue to fill your mind with new information and fresh ideas.

Knowledge gives you options. Knowledge provides a pathway to success. Let me share the following with you to help illustrate my point.

Several years ago I was reviewing the feedback forms I had collected from my store managers after conducting a training session. At this particular event I handed out a listing of books that I felt could help my folks to be more successful. One of the comments I received stated “The last book I read was in the 8th grade and I see no reason to read another” (Clearly my words had fallen on deaf ears).

Since the direct approach did not work I needed to adjust how I was working with this particular individual. Over time the walls came down and low & behold he borrowed some books from me. The book “Fish” struck a chord and the back room of the store became decorated with signs that read “Choose your Attitude”, “Play”, “Make their Day” and “Be Present” (Read the book to find out why). This same manager and his team recently broke the company record for the longest streak of days over their sales budget. The old record had stood for many years and no store had been able to even match it. Once he decided to be open to learning and trying something new he and his team found even more success.

Read, Ask, Listen and Learn every day. Become a lifetime learner and enjoy a richer and more fulfilling life.