Sunday, 15 March 2009

Never too old to learn

*First Posted: 5 January 2007*

Hi, Milton Louw here from Windhoek in this first month of 2007. I hope you have had a relaxing vacation (those of you who could afford to get away), and are ready for the challenges of 2007. May all you efforts be rewarded with the success you work for.

Now how about a New Years resolution to include improving yourself..........

This week, I cover
1. Thought for the week
2. Life Long Learning

The next week means for most of us the return (or start) of school for our children. If you can, take just five minutes each day and consider what they will become upon leaving school. Then, check to see if you are doing everything possible to make their dreams come true.

Enjoy the week,
Milton
Cell: +264 81 304 3282

Thought for the week

We must encourage [each other] once we have grasped the basic points to interconnecting everything else on our own, to use memory to guide our original thinking, and to accept what someone else says as a starting point, a seed to be nourished and grow. For the correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling but wood that needs igniting no more and then it motivates one towards originality and instills the desire for truth. Suppose someone were to go and ask his neighbors for fire and find a substantial blaze there, and just stay there continually warming himself: that is no different from someone who goes to someone else to get to some of his rationality, and fails to realize that he ought to ignite his own flame, his own intellect, but is happy to sit entranced by the lecture, and the words trigger only associative thinking and bring, as it were, only a flush to his cheeks and a glow to his limbs; but he has not dispelled or dispersed, in the warm light of philosophy, the internal dank gloom of his mind.

Life-Long Learning
Are you satisfied with what you have achieved in life? Do you want to climb the ladder of life even higher? Are you going to sit in an old age home at 60 and watch the world go by?
Today we recognise that finishing school or university is not the end of our learning experience. Think just about computers, cellular phones, etc and how much you have had to learn over the past decade to stay up to date with just having a life. How more so if you are in an ever changing working environment. This demands from you an approach where you take charge of your career, rather than the old-fashioned view that a career is what happens to you. Remember also, once you turn "60", it no longer means you have nothing to contribute to your society.
Take the challenge this year, and choose something new to learn. Here are a few examples:
  • Another language - how many of us will be able to talk with our Chinese counterparts as they ever increasingly extend beyond their boundaries?
  • A musical Instrument - even the drums can be learnt by those (like me) who say they cannot carry a tune
  • Computer program - Project management is all the rage and it will take you less than four days to master a software package such as MS Project

This are but a few of the areas that I am exploring for 2007. Maybe you have other interests, maybe even a hobby such as origami or bonsai, just as long as you keep them brain cells working.

For interest sake, I typed in "life long learning" in the Google Search engine. I got back over 86,000,000 sites that cover this topic. So remember, even if you do not consider life long learning, there are many other (your probable competitors) who do. Have a look at this link for some great ideas, http://www.newhorizons.org/.

Remember, you are never too old to learn.

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