Lifelong Learning: A Commitment

Wikipedia defines lifelong learning as the “ongoing, voluntary, and self-motivated pursuit of knowledge for either personal or professional reasons.”

Soni (2012) states that, “Lifelong learning is more than adult education and/or training — it is a mindset and a habit for people to acquire.”

More than anything, I believe that intrinsic motivation plays a very important part for learning to occur. Over the course of our lifetime, we would be bombarded with a lot of information – some we will absorb, some we will disregard. Continuous, or what we formally call as lifelong learning, relies heavily on the person’s willingness to understand and absorb new information. The primary key in order to achieve this is to keep an open-mind. Transmission of knowledge would never be possible if we are not willing to receive such.

Some of the factors that impede learning include:

  • Limited opportunities (time and resources)
  • Personal priorities
  • A know-it-all perception
  • Interest on the topic
  • Motivation
  • Fear of the unknown

People would probably have different considerations but I usually see the above as prevailing factors that hinder a person to acquire new information, idea, or skill. Sometimes, even when a person displays enthusiasm on learning, there is no opportunity to do so. In some instances, priorities are needed to be weighed and evaluated. Take my case for example. With the demands of my work, it is often difficult to find time for other things. I handle real-time pricing and news information updates that clients monitor closely. A delay for an hour or even a second would cost us a breach in data quality. A lot of times I would take my meals on desk or in-between calls and meetings. With this, signing-up for special classes, trainings, and seminars is not among the priorities.

There are also some people who have the know-it-all attitude. These people believe that they are smart enough to know all things and do not consider the need for further learning. Sometimes, interest on the topic influences one’s motivation to learn. If the person does not find the subject interesting, he/she will not put any effort on understanding and learning the presented information. The fear of the unknown is also one interesting area that stops a person from discovering new facts. The phrase “ignorance is bliss” can be well related to this. There are people who do not want to step outside their comfort zones and would rather keep things as is and stay where they are.

With the different considerations presented above, I therefore conclude that lifelong learning is indeed a commitment. In order to gain something, there might be some things that should be traded-off. With me facing some issues on time, I opted to give-up some of my personal time to accommodate my notes and modules. It entails sacrifice in a way, but I know that all of these would bear fruitful rewards someday. 🙂

References:

Soni, S. (2012). Lifelong learning – Education and training. FIG Working Week 2012, Rome, Italy. Retrieved March 29, 2015 from https://www.fig.net/pub/fig2012/papers/ts05i/TS05I_soni_5945.pdf

Wikipedia: Lifelong learning. Retrieved March 29,2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifelong_learning

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