When I took Lifebook, there was a section on intellect. You were supposed to build an intellectual habit, and many people in the Lifebook group didn't really understand what that meant. As someone who has always been curious, and who researches and writes a lot for websites, I have fallen into many intellectual habits that have propelled me forward with my writing, relationships, career, happiness, and success. If you want to develop some habits to get wiser and improve your life because of it, following are some that I have found invaluable.
1. Continuously Educating Yourself
Never stop learning. If you haven't adopted this belief, it's an affirmation that you should write down and pin up all over your house.
To learn every day is an intellectual gift you can easily give yourself. Simply look up something that you want to know more about and you've added
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Get Engaged In Intellectual Conversations
Don't waste your time arguing with the guy who says nothing and says it loudly or talking about nonsense. Instead, get engaged with thoughtful converstaions that stimulate your mind and make you think.
At a party, don't talk to the complainer or person who wants to talk about meaningless stuff. Instead, find the person who can communicate well and engage with them. They will challenge your beliefs and help you learn and grow. Or, at the very least, they will stimulate your brain and make you think.
Online, stop engaging with trolls who talk nonsese for a reaction. Instead, strike up a conversation on a forum or in a group with someone who has soemthing interesting to say.
At work, take your breaks around people who are actually talking about something other than how much work sucks!
11. Saying 'I Want To' More
How many times a day do you say someting like 'I have to do this'? By saying 'have to' you create a small sense of stress. Getting to do something is much more fun than having to do something. Therefore, develop the habit of saying, 'I want to...'
Learning is important for countless reasons, the most important reason being that it molds a person into who he or she is. What people choose to learn, and also what they choose not to, create the core of their opinions as individuals. Though people do not admit it or openly declare it, it is fair to say almost everyone is self centered. Because of this, and the fact that learning dramatically affects a person, learning is not only thrilling, but also expressive. Furthermore, since learning is expressive, its meaning varies from person to person, therefore making each person’s experiences with learning unique and life changing.
We know what we are learning and can find what we like from self-education. If we do not have any interests to do something, then we cannot do our best and keep going. Instead, interests can help us to keep searching and learning new information. Malcolm X said, “As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive” (3). This tells us he realizes his interest by reading books every day and enjoys learning from books. Books become a huge part of his life and make him successful. If someone forces us to add new knowledge and do not care whether we like or not, we will never absorb those knowledge. Additionally, Malcolm X wrote “I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity—because you can hardly mention anything I’m not curious about” (4). This is important because self-education helps him to figure out what he is curious about. For this, he has motivation to get new knowledge and determination to satisfy himself. In general, self-education can increase our interests on something new and satisfy our demands simultaneously because we can choose what to learn and how to
The article by Gerald Graff was written to inform the readers that reading is a key factor of becoming a more intellectual person. Reading text that fits ones interests is a great way to get used to reading. Eventually as ones reading skills improve then they will be able to read more difficult texts. Reading is an extremely important skill to have because it allows one to obtain information on topic that are in and out of their scope of interest. Consequently, reading broadens a persons perspective on the world. Nonacademic interests can be tied into academic interests that are learned in school. Reading on topics that interest a person will eventually lead them to start reading more on the topics that may not have interested them in the
Intellectualism? Have you ever thought what it really means? Does it come naturally or with time and effort? Hidden intellectualism by Gerald Graff explores the concept of street smart incorporated with intelligence, while What College is for? By Gary Gutting explores the theme of books and teachers that will help us achieve intellectualism. These two essays may be different, but contain similar ideas such as intellectualism. They both state that is is important, but they interpret it differently. Gutting describes intellect as something a person can achieve through reading and studying, which make you book smart, while Graff mentions that you don 't have to be book smart in order to be intelligent. Second topic they agree on is openness. Gutting mentions that a student should be open to his teacher 's style of teaching, whereas, Graff argues that students should embrace their own learning style and teachers should accommodate with
Read every-day from a various source (internet, books etc.) to increase the level of knowledge.
For example, in school every moment one is learning something new whether it is a part of history, a new method to solve a problem in math, a new language, or even how to do a layup in gym which can all help one grow as a person. In school, one is also exposed to many new ideas which could come from their teachers, friends, or classmates that can influence them on how they act or their interests for different hobbies or even for what they will want to be in the future when they grow up. These ideas can greatly affect what one will enjoy doing in their life. It could be a pass time which could turn into a job that they will love. One is continuously learning even outside of school. It could just be small things that one discovers but one never fully stops learning. One is learning something in everything they do. They could be learning by reading a book, doing homework, simply talking to someone or by playing their favourite games, all of which makes one a smarter and wiser person. If we could not learn anything new, we could never be able grow as a person and be able make better choices in our lives. In addition, there are constantly new ideas that enter one’s mind which leave one to ponder on these thoughts. Curiosity also plays a major role in discovering new things. If one is curious about something interesting ,then one will want to explore the idea more. The more one explores an idea, the more they will learn. Exploring these new ideas are a fantastic thing to do because one may find a different interest that they will enjoy much more than their current interests and will lead one to change as a person and go on to live life in a better way by changing the path they go on and making different choices which relate to what they have like to
There is so much to study and to learn about, one just has to pick something, be curious about something, be an expert on something. Currently, all humans are unique, and therefore each person’s experience through life is different. To embrace this, and be curious, and be interested is to be engaged in life. It is to be an active human. This is what Socrates aimed to teach his followers: to be humble enough to admit ignorance is not a character flaw; however, to make no effort to reduce one’s ignorance is
One of the few steps that have helped me immensely are step 1, step 5, step 9 and step 17. Each of these steps has their own way changing a person’s perspective. The first step says we are required to observe our behavior; does what we say affect us in a negative or positive way? What we need to analyze is whether or not we are subconsciously insulting someone or are they offended by what we said? We need to think before we speak, and that is a problem for some people, including me, I am a social extrovert and occasionally I may make impulsive responses and won’t realize what I said before I realize someone did not like what I said. However, that is when step 5 comes into place, it talks about reviewing our responses in order to see our thought process and what were some strengths. Another is to practice positive thoughts one thing we need to keep in mind, we need to be assertive with ourselves, at times we can be our worst enemy so being self-motivated can help you in the long run by having confidence and how others with positive conversations. Additionally, with positive reinforcements comes rewards, the last step, says it is important to provide ourselves ongoing support and receive a reward for asserting ourselves this way we can have encouragement at the end of our
I think a key factor to learn in ones life is to show appreciation for the things that you have as there many people living in the world, which does not have the wonderful opportunities that we have
For example, when a graduate steps out of the school and enter the insurance company, he is well equipped with the fundamental mathematical and business knowledge, as well as the analytic skills and understanding of market behavior. Only when he is able to apply his knowledge and skills to his work after, he is starting to become an influential actuary. Moreover, he should learn from people around him by listening to their opinions and observe how they what they learn to deal with various situations at work. Even the great master Confucius had to reflect on himself that “Am I a learned man? No I am not. But if a farmer asks me a question and my mind is a total blank, I shall keep turning the question over in my mind until I come up with an answer” and “There are those people who can do without knowledge, but I am not one of them. I listen to many views and choose the sound ones to follow. I see many things and keep them in my memory. Knowledge attained this way is the second best” (passage 7.28, The Analects). Knowledgeable as Confucius is, he kept seeking and absorbing new ideas from people around him to improve himself. Learning is
‘Strategies for Lifelong Learning’ has been unexpectedly and therapeutically revealing. Throughout our correspondence we’ve shared personal, and professional challenges, and wins. In doing so, I’ve come to realize strengths and areas for improvement, which is why I chose to discuss the second habit from the 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, titled; ‘Begin With the End in Mind’.
I have a great comfort in engaging others and find it easy to communicate with people. When in a group or engaging with someone one-on-one, I do not find it uncomfortable to engage in a conversation or start one. The strengths I possess in my engagement skills are that I am an extrovert, compassionate, and communicate effectively. However, I do need to work on not always starting a conversation and allowing others to talk first. I also need to improve on my listening skills instead of always feeling that I need to make a contribution to the conversation. Even though I am able to communicate effectively, I sometimes need to remember that others deserve a chance to start an
However, the amounts of knowledge that I was getting made me forget about the challenges and made me hungry for more. The more I learn, the more I find out that there is no limit to education and as long as I live I could keep on learning. Therefore, as long as I’m capable of learning I will continue to learn and my education journey will be an endless one. Most people have a different perspective on what an educated person is and according to Hudson Valley Sudbury School “education sometimes happens at school and sometimes doesn’t, and knowledge can be a sign of an education, but neither are education itself. Simply put, education as the willingness and ability to learn for the sake of learning. The truly educated person learns constantly without supervision or external reward”(Burdik, 2014). I completely agree with this code. I believe education is the willingness to learn not for the sake of rewards, but for the ability to expand our thoughts and ideas and also to solve problems and to know the unknown.
What is it that I am learning? How will it help me? How important is it to be? In summary, if I need it, then I will learn it. 2.
Lifelong learning is important because knowledge is the primary source of value in the world today and ability to expand our mind and thinking out of box is the key to attain success. For example to be successful in your career/field you need to be up-to-date with the information and knowledge available in your field and this needs a lifelong learning.