Are you aware of the learning opportunities around you? Are you stuck in your comfort zone, and find yourself going through your daily routine with little variation? Lifelong learning aspirations can be combined with your normal daily opportunities to rejuvenate your spirit.
Everyone can teach something. It is easy to miss learning opportunities. Your life is filled with your priorities and tasks you must complete. You do not have time to look around for new opportunities. But by not being aware, or grasping the value that every person around us has, you risk missing many good things in life.
Next time you get a telephone call from an associate or a colleague, take a chance, and ask them a question unrelated to their call. Ask them about a project, or ask them about a decision they made, or ask them about their toughest current challenge. That one question that you ask can impact you.
For a challenge today, take these three actions:
- Open your eyes. See opportunity in every human contact you have today. Make a list of the names of each person you meet or talk with today.
- Force yourself to interact. Ask questions that create an opportunity to learn. Practice your listening skills, and concentrate on the message, and also the person. How are they reacting to your discussion?
- Recognize the impact on yourself. At the end of the day, reflect on how this list of people affected you. Take the information you learned today and decide if there are next steps that will help you. What about extending help to those people? Did they reveal areas that they needed support?
At the end, you should be able to recognize that each day provides us with opportunities that many times we ignore. Each day can be so much more than just a routine or just a job. If you find this technique successful, then repeat it. Begin using it once a week, or even daily.