It’s common to expect children to have learnt something new every day. The rigorous atmosphere at school combined with the natural curiosity children have make it easy for them to keep the flame of their inquisitiveness burning and constantly upgrade their knowledge pool.
But when we get older, we get caught up in the monotony of our daily lives. The grind of our jobs, the struggles at home, the tussles with friends and family members makes it hard for most adults to keep learning something new every day.
But there can be several immense benefits of building a habit of learning something new every day, such as:
- It gives you a wide range of perspectives and broadens your usual narrow field of knowledge.
- It makes you a better conversationalist and gives you several topics to use as ice breakers at social situations.
- It keeps the spark of curiosity alive in your brain and makes you more likely to think of innovative and out-of-the-box solutions to everyday problems.
- It makes you more confident.
- It adds depth to your character and makes your story more inspiring to the people around you.
When you know there are so many benefits of learning something new every day, why not try and build a habit of doing so? Of course, this is easier said than done. This articles contains some insights on how you can go about doing so without feeling intimidated or overwhelmed.
1. Read the news every day
While reading the news might not necessarily help you develop your curiosity, but if you consume content mindfully, you can start researching related topics on your own and look up connected bits and pieces of information.
This can lead you down that internet rabbit hole of seeking knowledge and uncover several dimensions you hadn’t previously heard of.
2. Listen to podcasts
Podcasts are an interesting, easy, and superbly effective way of adding to your knowledge without working too hard for it. While doing any menial chore that doesn’t require too much of your attention — like washing the dishes, hanging out your clothes to dry, or eating meals by yourself — you can simply plug in your headphones and start assimilating the knowledge of the world.
If you have never listened to podcasts before, this article discusses the steps you can take as a beginner to start listening to podcasts immediately and turn this into a daily habit of learning something new.
3. Always ask “Why”
Whenever you come across a concept or bit of information you are not sure how or why it works, ask yourself questions to uncover its mystery. Then, do some research online to find the answers.
Asking questions, no matter how silly they might seem to be, always helps you uncover new depths of knowledge you hadn’t know existed previously. You might hesitate, thinking they might shed negative light on your personality. But being curious never goes unrewarded. As the Nobel Laureate and world-renowned scientist Richard P. Feynman famously quoted,
“I’d rather have questions that can’t be answered, than answers that can’t be questioned.”
4. Treat mistakes as lessons, not failures
Children never get discouraged by failures. More often than not, they see each failure as a lesson on what needs to be done better the next time, and never let small failures dishearten them.
And as adults, why do we attach so much stigma to failures?
If you rewire your brain and start treating failures as opportunities to learn soemthing new, you’ll free yourself of the burden of unrealistic expectations and learn to take failures in your stride.
5. Turn to technology
Get a habit tracker and mark each day on the calendar when you succesfully stuck to your new habit of learning something new. Seeing an unbroken streak on your calendar will motivate you to let that remain unbroken. You will be inspired to push yourself harder, and as you slowly start enjoying the process of assimilating new information every day, you will feel that it no longer seems like a chore, rather, a habit you can’t live without.
You can also hire an accountabilty coach to help you stay on track. These are trained professionals who will give it their all to make sure you stay true to your new habit and don’t give up on yourself, no matter how hard things may get.