By Shazad
You may have heard this before but it’s worth a review. Education is not the same thing as learning. The former is part of life and a requirement to advance in life. The latter is what makes life fulfilling and enables a person to excel in life.
Education is about attending a school or some program to achieve a desired outcome like a diploma, degree or a certificate. Some of these may expire and others are good for the lifespan of the student who completed the education. It’s important but it’s just a foundational skill we need to have to build a life on top of the many things school teaches us.
Learning is the act of formal and informal acquisition of knowledge which is applied. When you learn something in an authentic way, you are not just listening to data or facts and making notes about something. You are actually processing the information and making sense of this. You are forming an opinion or point of view about the knowledge. It should inspire you to make some life changes based on the learning. These can be very profound and will definitely have a lasting impression on the rest of your life starting with the day you learn something.
The most Awesome thing about Learning is that anyone can do it. You don’t need a formal classroom, tuition fees or even a world class professor. You just need to be willing to observe, think and make decisions about the world around you. Every day is a learning opportunity because there is something going on every day in our home and the community. You just need to pay attention, learn how to look up relevant information in books or online and possess critical thinking skills to sort through what is relevant vs what is incorrect or unnecessary info.
Your formal education may have ended 20 years ago when you finished that Bachelors or Masters degree. Your learning never stops as long as you are alive. I personally believe my University experience was the training ground to lifelong learning. I’m grateful I had an opportunity for formal education at 2 Universities and a Community College. I’m even more grateful for the passion I have learning many more things, correcting my thinking, and being a better person every year. Never stop learning!
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