The Most Important Thing They Never Teach You : Learning to Learn

Learning how to learn is the gateway to long-term growth in all facets of our lives.

I think there are two reasons that learning how to learn is not part of standard curriculum. First, there is no single ideal learning process. It varies immensely by individual so teaching how to learn en masse would be difficult for most instructors to manage. Second, since the emphasis of education has moved towards testing, there is no incentive to teach the softer skills when there are subject-specific testing targets for schools.

Yet the reality remains that learning how to learn is the most critical component to success.

Elon Musk is a great example. Some argue that he has super human intelligence, but my guess is that Elon Musk has mastered his ability to learn. He is known to absorb large amounts of information from textbooks in his free time and then apply that knowledge to build products that challenge technological convention.

When we do want to learn something, we focus on the positive—what we’ll gain from learning it—and envision a happy future in which we’re reaping those rewards. That propels us into action. Researchers have found that shifting your focus from challenges to benefits is a good way to increase your aspiration to do initially unappealing things. For example, when Nicole Detling, a psychologist at the University of Utah, encouraged aerialists and speed skaters to picture themselves benefiting from a particular skill, they were much more motivated to practice it.

The bottom line is that if you can learn quickly, you can grow quickly.