Just Keep Learning!

Becoming a lifelong learner isn’t a trend, it’s a calling. All we need to do is to discover that calling within ourselves!

- S H Subrahmanian

Consciously engaging in lifelong learning is worth it. We should be intrinsically motivated to learn and do we need a list of potential benefits of lifelong learning! It is its own reward. Some key areas in which lifelong learning has tremendous benefits include:

Economic Benefits: To thrive economically, we simply have to keep on learning. It is increasingly important to be well rounded, to have a sense of perspective, and to be able to leverage a variety of learning experiences into generating new ideas and ways of doing things. Ageing is no barrier.

Intellectual Benefits: Lifelong learning increases our knowledge and, just as importantly, our ability to use that knowledge in diverse and meaningful ways. It opens up and enhances your mind. It fuels creativity and innovation. Also, it is an approach to living life consciously and deliberately, rather than being guided purely by instinct, emotion, and the desires of others.

Cognitive Benefits: Cognition is a group of mental processes that includes attention, memory, and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions. There is a wealth of both scientific and anecdotal evidence that actively continuing to learn throughout life is beneficial for all of these processes. The bottomline is that it helps to keep our brain working well, and as we continue to live longer and longer, this is a benefit that is hard to ignore.

Social Benefits: Indeed a good percentage of what I know comes from reading posts here, broadening with new ideas, gauging reactions, adjusting and adapting. Learning sparks social engagement; I often connect with others because I want to learn from them and with them; and it is also an outcome of social engagement, often without my even realising it.