I Can Learn Anything
(1000 Things to Learn)
Who could you be? What could you learn?
Make a list of what you would like to learn. Everything. Focus on Quantity. Don’t bother to organize the list at this time. Use post-its if you have and write one idea/post-it. Don’t worry if it’s feasible or not right now. Don’t limit to school or academic subjects. Learning is about the very personal, like polishing your sense of humor, having a better sex life, knowing the best places to hang out in your city, improving your relationship with your family, throwing the best parties (see resources for a longer list of suggestions)
Here are some guiding questions:
• Think of the challenges of the present: what do you need to deal with them better? If you don’t know right now, just write “deal with problem X” or “be able to follow dream Y”
• What do you do 1.000.000 times a day and you could improve? Just a small improvement of what you do all the times could bring a worthwhile improvement to your life;
• In each of your roles (like sister, daughter, girlfriend, student, employee, volunteer, etc), what skill/insight/awareness could make a big difference?
• Where have you always been lacking? What “fixed” part of yourself could you challenge?
• Where you have always be strong? Can you polish that even further?
• Think of the people you admire: what qualities of theirs would you like to nurture in
yourself?
• And if happiness was not something to come from outside, but is created from
inside with a bundle of skills, what skills/insights do you need to be happy today ?
• What would make you admire yourself?
• Think of your dreams for the future: what do you need to make them happen?
• Unlearning is also learning (credit: Open Masters). What was handed down to you through your parents, context, life experience, school or work that you don’t want to carry any further? What addictive habits and patterns get in the way of doing the work you are really called to do?
• How does it gen any better than this? What other possibilities exist?
If you have a list that is long enough, “wide” enough and exciting enough, you can move forward to the next temple where you will organize it and choose a direction for your learning. If you can’t make an exciting list right now, you can go back to the Wayfiding Crossway.
Master this micro-skill:
Growth Mindset – Confidence; “I’m not good at math”
1.1.2-1 Tick THE LIST
We are working on a list of 1000 ideas of what to learn. [not available yet]
1.1.2-2 Brainstorming
Check this brainstorming rules from IDEO.
1.1.2-3 Browse other lists & interview close people
Interview/send an email to a wide range of people both close ones and those that you don’t know yet and ask them what did they learn in the past that proved useful, what do they want to learn now and in general, what do they consider important for people to know.
The Avatar
Think of your favourite video games. What skills did the heroes develop. What class of hero would you be? Mage, Warrior, Necromance, Healer, Priest? Look at these images with badges and pick some of them that look cool to you. Give them names. How would those translate in real life?
Mindmap with “Me, version 2.0 and beyond” Here is a comprehensive article about mindmapping to get you inspired. [a more elaborate exercise will be coming soon]
Who Am I being? That … Benjamin Zander – famous orchestra conductor – asks himself the question “Who am I being that my player’s eyes are not shining?”. He goes on to say “My definition of success is not wealth, fame, or power, but how many shining eyes do I have around me?”. So ask yourself, in any situation that you find yourself in, “who am I being that [this happens/this does not happen]?”. It is not a way to take the blame for everything but a way to imagine what a future version of you could be capable of.
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376 in Self-Direction for Lifelong Learning, Philip Candy
Personal Learning Myth – convert in exercise for “You Can Learn Anything”
= convictions about their own learning; their models of themselves as learners; often this has been achieved on less than adequate evidence; They have either been “brainwashed” by someone else’s assessment of them, for example parents, teachers or peers or, in having been offered less than optimal condition to learn, they have generalized their experience as a commentary on their own methods. Such assumptions can very easily be self-validating”
Personal myths, like societal myths, might be demonstrably untrue, but that does not stop them from being treated as if they were true, and such beliefs accordingly influence behaviour.
Continues to 378 with examples; 384 Nelson-Jones (1982) has coined the term sense of learning competence, which recognizes that there are significant emotional, motivational, and interest variables that affect learning. The “sense of learning competence” is a subjective and rather fragile construct, yet its lack can inhibit the attainment or fulfillment of one’s actual potential.