Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learner

... And since I set up this blog as part of a work-related course, I should post something on the "Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners".

Like most other people who have written on this topic, I find the learning habit most easy to acquire is the habit of "playing". When I learn something new I itch to play around with my new knowledge, to make a game of it.

Next to that, I find teaching/mentoring other people a most useful way to build on my skills and knowledge, because I am forced to work out how and why I do the things I do in order to explain it to others. Sometimes clarifying things down to first principles make them easier to understand for the teacher as well as the pupil.

And lastly, the hardest learning habit I find to acquire, is the habit of starting with the end in mind. Like the shipwrecked sailor in the A.A. Milne poem, I sometimes come up with so many ideas that I find that I have trouble setting clear goals, let alone bringing them to fruition! Let's hope I don't wind up like A.A. Milne's old sailor:

And so in the end he did nothing at all,
But basked on the shingle wrapped up in a shawl.
And I think it was dreadful the way he behaved -
He did nothing but basking until he was saved.