“Live and learn.” It’s an expression we often hear in connection with life’s small setbacks. “I should have known better than buy a used DVD player for three dollars. Oh well, live and learn.”
Such an important insight shouldn’t be relegated solely to humble everyday uses. Consider the famous phrase Cogito Ergo Sum. Translated to mean, I think, therefore I am. These three Latin words, attributed to René Descartes form a pillar of modern philosophy. In simple terms, it means, “I must exist, or how else could I be having this thought?”
In its elegant simplicity, Cogito Ergo Sum solved, for most philosophers, the age-old problem of proving that we exist at all. It is interesting to juxtapose thinking and existing the other way around: I am, therefore I think. In its simplest terms, this means, “Because I live, I think.” This in turn implies the more you are thinking, the more you are living. It implies that the act of thinking makes life more meaningful.
Thinking, learning, even studying should not be limited to what you are required to learn. It’s possibly just as important to study what you want to learn—for fun, for personal development or to be social, whatever your reason. No worries, because there is always the opportunity to be a lifelong learner.
Lifelong learners usually do a lot of reading. If you like fiction, you can decide to read everything by Stephen King or Shakespeare or J. K. Rowling or Toni Morrison. If you like towering scholarly works, just three by Daniel Boorstin (The Discoverers, The Creators, and The Seekers) can keep you occupied for a lifetime.
Although reading is a wonderful thing, the 21st century is a multi-media era with many other assets aside from the written word. The value of the cinema as a learning venue cannot be ignored. To find not just books but also audio and video works, browse a local library, or bookstore or an online source like Amazon.com. You can't judge a book by its cover, true, but there is no shame in pulling a book based on its cover and seeing if it appeals to you.
You may also learn by experiencing places and events. Bucketlist.org offers many interesting ideas for lifelong learning, as does Patricia Schultz’s book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler's Life List. Why pursue a bucket list late in life? Make a list now and change it as you go.
Talking to your coach. Just as professors create a syllabus for a course, you can create one for your life. Keep it simple at first, add to it later. You can start with a journal entry where you say, “Every day I will read this day in history,” or “I will read daily fun facts every day.” Those goals are easy to achieve on a phone or computer, and will establish the habit of lifelong learning. Every day tell your coach why you did—or did not—keep building the habit. The process of making the journal entry will produce some insight, and the questions your coach asks will help you think about the habit.
