Unlocking Potential: A Guide to Lifelong Learning

The dawn of a new year often inspires resolutions centered around acquiring new skills or overcoming personal challenges. However, the perception that learning becomes more difficult with age can be a discouraging factor. Is it truly the case that "an old dog can’t learn new tricks?" This article delves into the science of adult learning, offering practical tips and insights to help you unlock your learning potential at any stage of life.

The Adult Learning Landscape

According to Chris Dede, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, fluid reasoning, which involves the ability to solve problems quickly in new situations, tends to decline as adults age. However, crystallized intelligence, or knowledge gained from experience and prior learning, increases over time. This suggests that while some learning processes may become more challenging, others actually become easier with age.

Kim Mills interviews Dr. Rachel Wu, an associate professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, where she runs the Cognitive Agility Across the Lifespan Lab. Her research focuses on understanding cognitive development and decline across the human lifespan from infancy to older adulthood in order to help learners maximize their learning potential at any age.

Dr. Wu says it's easier for kids and babies to learn new things because their whole lives are centered on learning. Babies are incredibly open-minded. They want to learn everything because everything is relevant to them. Wu says we can learn from that by asking, "is the thing I'm trying to learn relevant to my life?"

Five Tips for Adult Learners

Drawing from research on adult development and learning science, here are five key strategies to keep in mind when embarking on a new learning journey:

1. Build on Existing Knowledge

Learning science suggests that people learn most effectively by building upon what they already know. If you're an experienced photographer interested in painting, your understanding of composition and light can accelerate your learning process. Adults possess a wealth of knowledge from past experiences, providing a solid foundation for acquiring new skills.

2. Identify Your Motivation

For adults, learning is often driven by a desire for self-improvement and intrinsic interest. Unlike younger learners who may be motivated by grades or external pressures, adults are typically less concerned with formal assessments. This creates a more relaxed and positive learning environment.

3. Analyze Your Interests

Understanding the reasons behind your enjoyment of certain activities can reveal potential new areas to explore. If you enjoy cleaning because of the sense of accomplishment it provides, or jigsaw puzzles because you enjoy recognizing patterns, you can leverage these motivations to expand your learning horizons.

4. Connect and Collaborate

Teaching others or collaborating with peers can significantly enhance the learning experience. Bouncing ideas off of someone and having someone to hold you accountable can also prove beneficial. Studies have even shown that individuals often work harder to help others learn than they do for themselves.

5. Embrace Challenges and Cultivate a Growth Mindset

Overcoming challenges can lead to increased happiness, and learning something new provides ample opportunities for growth. By adopting a growth mindset, you can remain open to new information, skills, and hobbies.

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Practical Strategies for Acquiring New Knowledge

Beyond these core principles, here are several practical strategies to incorporate into your learning routine:

Consume Information Widely

Increasing your exposure to information increases your chances of discovering new things. Techniques like speed reading, which involves recognizing phrases and sentences instead of individual words, can help you process information more efficiently. Normal reading speed is about 250 words per minute (wpm).

Embrace Mistakes as Learning Opportunities

Mistakes are an inevitable part of the learning process. Instead of viewing them as setbacks, treat them as opportunities to expand your knowledge base. When you make a mistake, acknowledge it, analyze the reasons behind it, and identify areas for improvement.

Cultivate Curiosity

Maintaining a sense of curiosity is essential for staying open to new possibilities. Reconnect with your inner child by making a habit of asking questions and exploring the world around you.

Break Free from Routine

While routines can provide comfort and conserve mental energy, they can also limit your exposure to new perspectives. Introducing small changes to your daily routine, like taking a different route to work or trying a new coffee shop, can help you break free from autopilot and become more receptive to new experiences.

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Step Outside Your Comfort Zone

If you're naturally athletic, consider trying an activity outside your usual repertoire, such as a team sport if you typically exercise alone.

Schedule Dedicated Learning Time

Life can be hectic, so it's important to schedule dedicated time for learning. This could involve listening to a podcast during your commute, reading an article during your work break, or dedicating 30 minutes each evening to an online course.

Seize Everyday Learning Opportunities

Be open to absorbing new information in small increments throughout the day. This could involve asking people for their names and trying to remember them or reading brochures at your local café.

Define Your Learning Goals

Start by identifying what you want to learn, whether it's a new hobby, a subject of interest, or a professional skill. If you're unsure, experiment with introductory classes or courses to test out different activities and subjects.

Set SMART Goals

Once you know what you want to learn, chart the necessary steps to achieve your goals. Create SMART goals - specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely - to increase your chances of success. Break down larger objectives into smaller, manageable steps to maintain motivation and avoid feeling overwhelmed.

Utilize Multiple Learning Mediums

Consuming information through various mediums can enhance your understanding and retention. If you're learning to cook, you could watch a YouTube video, cook a new recipe, and observe a family member cooking.

Seek Out Learning Resources and Communities

Take advantage of the many online learning platforms and communities available. Find a study buddy or connect with someone who is already proficient in the skill you want to learn.

Reflect on Your Learning Process

Regularly reflect on your learning journey by keeping a journal or documenting your progress with photos.

The Benefits of Lifelong Learning

The pursuit of new knowledge and skills offers numerous personal and professional benefits. It fuels an inquisitive nature that enriches your relationships and enhances your career prospects.

Lifelong learning also has immense health benefits, like easing cognitive decline when you're older or making you feel good about yourself and increasing your happiness levels. When activated, these areas release dopamine, the feel-good hormone that produces a sense of pleasure and contentedness.

Learning from Children

Dr. Wu says we can learn from children by asking, "is the thing I'm trying to learn relevant to my life?" Next, find yourself an instructor - someone who is really good at breaking up the things you want to learn in approachable ways. Then, give yourself a realistic timeline to learn something new. Using babies as an example - we don't expect newborns to be able to communicate the second they are born. It often takes a baby at least a year to start accumulating a pen of recognizable words in their vocabulary. Give yourself the same amount of time to learn something as you'd give a child to learn it too.

The Role of Failure

Manu Kapur is a professor of learning sciences and higher education at ETH in Zurich Switzerland, where he writes and teaches about the benefits of renormalizing failure and the idea of productive failure. He says the struggle to let yourself make mistakes is really hard. "It's a constant effort to tell yourself that 'This is something I do not know. I cannot possibly expect myself to get it immediately,'" Kapur says. "when I'm struggling, I just need to tell myself that this is exactly the right zone to be in and then to do it again and again and again. And until such time, you just become comfortable with being uncomfortable because you're learning something."

Examples of Skills to Learn

Meditation: Regular meditation can help you feel calm and manage your emotions.
Time Management Skills: Developing your time management skills means you’ll better meet deadlines and accomplish your goals.
Public Speaking Skills: Toastmasters International, an organization that helps people improve their public speaking skills, is very popular.
Cooking: Learning how to cook unfamiliar meals and cuisines is a valuable skill.

Broad Learning vs. Specialized Learning

Wu says that children practice broad learning and adults mostly do specialized learning. The idea is that you get paid to basically be productive in society.

In the study, Wu brought in people that were 58 to about 86 years of age, and they asked them to take three courses over one quarter, so a 10-week, 12-week session. And Wu asked them-so this is essentially a undergraduate quarter, and the classes that they had to take were Spanish, photography, drawing, music composition, things like that. And they had to take three of the classes that they assigned to them, and they assigned them based on how little they knew about the classes. And then they said, if you want to, you have the option to take up to the five classes that they were offering. And so some of the people wanted to take the additional two classes because let’s say they were really interested in drawing, but then they didn’t assign them to drawing because they had some drawing experience or something. So after 3 months of taking these classes, they increased their cognitive abilities to-levels that were initially similar to other older adults that didn’t take the classes to more middle-aged adults who were taking the test for the first time. And so this was a 30-year difference in terms of age. And then what was really astounding was after 1 year, after the end of the intervention, after the end of the classes, they ended up increasing their cognitive abilities, continuing to increase their cognitive abilities all the way up to levels that were similar to undergraduates.

Redefining Cognitive Decline

Wu's research is trying to question, well, how much of that is under our control and how much of that is predestined biological issues that are more out of our control? And so what they’ve been finding is that there actually can be quite a bit of movement in terms of your cognitive abilities if you’re learning a lot of new skills.

Wu typically tells people is, if you think about it, children who-if you pull children out of school and you give them the life of watching TV all day, not learning a lot of new things, they also would be declining too. So it’s not so much an age issue, it’s a lifespan issue for her. So Wu asks people, as people will ask her, well, what should I do? How should I live my life? , But what Wu typically asks them is, if you have grandchildren or you see children around, if you’re happy with them living the kind of life that you live, then continue that way. So if you’re learning a lot of new skills and they’re learning a lot of new skills, then that’s great.

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