[tweetmeme] One of the biggest barriers we all face when pursuing our learning goals is a lack of self-discipline. We may know where we want to go, but putting in the time and effort to get there is another thing entirely.

Maybe you don’t manage to drag yourself out of bed early in the morning to write, like you told yourself you would. Or you skipped practicing your Spanish verbs the last two days.  Or… [fill in one of your own].

In these situations, many of us have a tendency to embrace the more negative side of discipline. We beat ourselves up; punish ourselves for our failures.  But in doing this, we start to develop a negative mindset about discipline that can only lead to more failure.

Here are some ways to shift your mind towards a more positive view of discipline:

1. Realize that discipline is the sum of many small parts

“Discipline” actually derives from the Latin “disciplina,” meaning teaching or learning. A disciple, in the classic sense, was someone who followed the teachings and code of conduct of a master as a path to knowledge. Naturally, this doesn’t happen overnight. It takes many years of small successes – and failures. In fact, there really is no finish line for discipline. It is an illusion to say that a person is disciplined. Really we are always in the process of becoming disciplined.

2. Focus on the small parts

Given that discipline is an ongoing process rather than a set condition or one-time event, it makes sense to value the steps in the process. Your goal may be to become a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, but focusing in on mastering the Moa Seogi stance is a much more manageable short-term goal. Break that goal down into small chunks that you can begin to form into a habit. Maybe committing yourself to just 5 minutes a day of practice is all you can handle at first. But do that for 30 days, and you’ve got the foundation of a habit on which you can build.

3.  Keep the long-term view

You will fail. Even in the seemingly simple effort to commit just five minutes a day to practice, the day will arrive when you skip your five minutes. These are the times where we drive ourselves crazy. We focus too much on our short-term failings. Or, for that matter, on our short-term successes. But these single instances do not matter in the long run. What matters in the long run is that we continue the process of discipline.

4. Know your reasons why

If you understand the importance of learning goals and have been thoughtful in setting them, then you know what is motivating you to achieve a particular goal. Don’t lose site of that motivation. Make sure you have written it down and told others about it. Motivation is the positive energy of discipline. Always keep it close.

5. Enjoy yourself

It’s hard to push yourself to have discipline when you don’t like doing something, but let’s face it, even when we are learning about something we love, there will be less enjoyable parts. Memorizing vocabulary, for example, has never been one of my favorite parts of learning a language, but it has to be done. Doing it with a beer on the back porch is one way to make it much more enjoyable. Or maybe trying out some online flashcards. Find what works for you, but figure out how you can make the trying parts of learning a bit more enjoyable.

6. Screw up

Aristotle said in his Nicomachean Ethics “…as a practical matter, we must sometimes aim a bit toward excess and sometimes toward deficiency, because this will be the easiest way of hitting the mean, that is, what is right.” That may sound like Greek even in English, but one way of translating it is that you don’t really know and appreciate success until you have experienced failure. So don’t sweat it too much when you fall off the wagon. It’s a necessary part of the process.

7. Repeat …Wisely

Remember: Discipline is a habit. And habits, by definition, are behaviors that are repeated again and again. The important point is to recognize your “excesses” and “deficiencies,” as Aristotle would put it, and try not to keep repeating those. You will repeat them, of course, whether you like it or not, but over time repetition of “what is right” will prevail.

It seems appropriate to wrap up by saying that this post is part of my own effort to cultivate a more disciplined approach to blogging. Those who have been reading in the past month or so may have guessed that it represents another installment of my Zen Learning Habits series, inspired by Leo Babauta’s work at Zen Habits.

As always, I welcome your comments. How do you deal with the issue of discipline in your own learning efforts? Please comment and share with other readers.

- Jeff

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1. 10 Ways to Be a Better Leaner: No. 9 – Mind Your Body

One of my good friends has a framed document hanging in his house that lists ten rules that Thomas Jefferson believed were essential for leading a fulfilling life.  According to the Th: Jefferson Encyclopedia,  these were compiled at the request of a father who had named his baby son Thomas Jefferson Smith. They were pared down somewhat from an earlier list Jefferson sent to his granddaughter, Cornelia Jefferson Randolph.

It occurred to me as I saw the document once again at my friend’s house this past weekend, that this type of accumulated life wisdom – particularly from a mind as sharp and disciplined as Jefferson’s – is something I ought to highlight from time-to-time here on Mission to Learn. So, here are Jefferson’s 10 Rules, which he described as a “decalogue of canons for observation in practical life.”

1. Never put off till tomorrow what you can do to-day.
2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
3. Never spend your money before you have it.
4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.
5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold.
6. We never repent of having eaten too little.
7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
8. How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.
9. Take things always by their smooth handle.
10. When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.

Certainly these words apply as well today as they did in Jefferson’s time – or any other time, for that matter. If you have a list like this that you particularly like – especially one from a less known source – please comment and share.

Jeff

P.S. – If you enjoy what you find here on Mission to Learn, I’d be truly grateful if you would subscribe by RSS feed or by e-mail.

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1. 10 Gift Ideas for the Lifelong Learners in Your Life

With the world more “flat” and open than ever before, it helps tremendously to have a clear set of strategies for making sense of it all. Curtis Bonk, author of The World is Open, provides some great tips in this guest post for navigating the world of open education. One aspect of the post I particularly like is Curt’s emphasis on reaching out to others, creating new connections, and collaborating. It’s truly difficult to navigate this new world alone!

In addition to that advice, you will find a number of other great resources here. You’re going to want to bookmark this one and come back to it again and again. And be sure to check the recent Radio Free Learning podcast with Curt as well.

Here are the tips:

1. Find an Open Friend: Everyone needs a friend. In the twenty-first century, we need friends who share educational content as well as ones who know where such content can be found. As education is increasingly brought to us in open and free formats, we will soon evolve into a society of sharers. Find someone known for sharing educational content and reach out to him or her. Those who have a pulse on the Web world will be golden. A simple email exchange with such a person might result in much splendid fruit.

2. Attach yourself to Expert RSS Feeds: You might subscribe to the RSS blog or podcast feeds of an expert in the field of open education. Alternatively, you might also get their e-newsletters. This way, you get your news filtered from those who know it or perhaps have more time than you to explore the content.(Editor’s note: Most readers here are probably familiar with RSS, but if you need a brush-up, or need help educating others, see the great, brief video RSS in Plain English.)

3. Check out the MIT OpenCourseWare site: As some make pilgrimages to Mecca, Rome, Jerusalem, or Tibet for religious reasons, it is good to visit one of the holy lands of open education and that is the MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) site. Officials at MIT really jump-started the movement with their leadership in many different areas. Check out their OCW website! It is always worthwhile going back to that site and many other OCW sites such as from Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame, Tufts, Yale, and the many members of the Open Courseware Consortium.

4. Review the Open Educational Resources Commons: The Open Educational Resources (OER) Commons has indexed open courses in many disciplines. Browsing a few of the key nuggets there is useful. Check out some syllabi or activities from others. Ten years ago, I would have suggested checking out the World Lecture Hall. Today sites like Connexions, MERLOT, Curriki, the OER Commons, and NROC (National Repository of Online Courses) are also essential virtual destinations.

5. Use Frameworks: You are bound to get overwhelmed by all the free and open content you will find. I have tried to create frameworks for making sense of technology in education. One example is my Read, Reflect, Display, and Do (R2D2) model and associated book, Empowering Online Learning: 100+ Activities for Reading, Reflecting, Displaying, and Doing. For open education, in my World is Open book, I have a framework called WE-ALL-LEARN that represents the 10 key educational openers that technology has brought us. It can help you figure out why a particular new technology is perhaps important from an educational standpoint and potentially how to use it.

6. Save the Gold: When I find something new or exciting, I might blog about it or place it in a PowerPoint file for later use (screen shot and URL). Every few weeks, I scroll through what is in this file. I use it for my speaking, thinking, writing, and reflecting. Such practices will also help you with any cognitive overload.  You can also share what you have saved with others. (Editor’s Note: Google Docs provides an easy – and free platform – for sharing PowerPoints. Also, consider Evernote for taking and sharing notes online, Delicious for sharing bookmarks, and and the share functionality in Google Reader for sharing your favorite feeds.)

7. Read the Paper: Newspapers and magazines aren’t dead yet – and they have technology articles nearly every day. We have increasingly become a highly technological society and members of the media are covering it. There are likely 2-3 open education projects, tools, or resources that you will find each week in the New York Times or Washington Post as well as 2-3 more in the USA Today or your local paper. You can get these online or in paper. Again, save, share, and use them. Some very unique portals, partnerships, and tools are announced each week. You can also get quite useful and interesting open education ideas and resources from magazines like Wired, Technology Review, Fast Company, Edutopia (K-12), etc., as well as online newsletters. Find them and go back to them on a regular basis.

8. Conferencing: You might attend conferences with open education themes like OpenEd (which was recently held in Vancouver in August), E-learn (which will be in Vancouver in late October 2010), or Global Learn (which will be held for the first time in Penang, Malaysia May 17-21, 2010). At such conferences, you can meet some of the people leading in worldwide or more local open education efforts. Ask for their papers and business cards, take them to lunch or dinner, and attend their talks. So many people to meet!

9. Using Free Stuff: There is much free stuff out there about free stuff.  Opening Up Education, published by MIT, features content from many of the major players in the field of open education and is available as a free download. My book, The World Is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education, has a website with my free stuff as well. In the section called “Free Stuff,” you will find a book prequel, postscript, references, Web resources, and so on. I am also working on a free e-book extension with the same chapter sequence, but  different content. These are just two examples. Consider writing to those mentioned in these books or who have written a chapter in the book from MIT Press.

Also, check out some of the syllabi for open education that are available online. For example, I’ve posted a syllabus on Web 2.0 and Participatory E-Learning. Every article or resource mentioned in it can be found for free online. David Wiley from BYU and George Siemens from the University of Manitoba also have syllabi with many useful Web links and ideas. David and George are great promoters of this open education field. (Editor’s note: I also recommend visiting the site for Connectivsm & Connected Knowledge, the free “massive” open online course offered by Siemens and Stephen Downes.)

Lately, it also seems many people are creating 100 item lists of free educational contents. I blogged on that phenomenon recently for Powell’s Books Blog. The funny thing is, even as I was writing this post for Mission to Learn, I noticed that Jeff Cobb had commented on my Powell’s Books blog post with a 100 item list I had forgotten. Wow! How cool is that? Small world it is. No, small open learning world it is!

10. Plan for it: The best way to navigate the open learning world is to plan for it. Decide what you would like to be doing in it 1, 2, 5, or 10 years from now. Such goals will help focus your searching, reading, and saving techniques. When you have solid plans (even as solid as jello), you can focus your search habits. You will also be less likely to ignore that which is beneficial to you. And excitement and passion will build for open education as you find your hopes and dreams of a better future coming to fruition. (Editor’s note: Related to this point, you may also find a recent post on learning goals of interest.)

***

Be sure to check out The World is Open Web site to find out more about Curt’s book. It is a must-read, in my opinion. And if you like this post, I’d really appreciate it if you would use one of the links below or another tool of your choice to bookmark it and share it with others – Jeff

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It’s been far too long since my last round-up of learning games, but I have been squirreling away quite a few. Here’s a list of 12, with a bonus thrown in at the end. Most of these have to do with environmental issues, but there are also some that address the digital divide, microfinance, and helping kids deal with divorce. Except for any text in italics, all of the descriptions come from the game site. Also, unless otherwise noted, all of these are free!

51Tree.org
51 Tree is a new online computer game (social issue game) that lets players plant virtual trees in the country(ies) of their choice. It is great fun to play and teaches players all about the importance of tree planting, forest coverage and carbon offsets.

EnerCities
Are you ready to take on the challenge of running your own virtual city? Do you have the skills to create a solid, sustainable energy strategy? Will you build a nuclear plant or go solar? Whether you are an industrial tycoon or treehugging hippie, join the exclusive EnerCities beta program now. Your citizens need you!

Catchment Detox
Play Catchment Detox to see if you can repair a damaged river catchment and create a sustainable and thriving economy. It’s an online game where you’re in charge of the whole catchment. You get to decide what activities you undertake – whether to plant crops, log forests, build factories or set up national parks. The aim is to fix environmental problems and provide food and wealth for the population.

LogiCity
LogiCity is a fun interactive computer game with a difference.  Aimed at young people under 25, it’s a game set in a 3D virtual city with five main activities where players are set the task of reducing the carbon footprint of an average resident.  As players work their way through the game they will pick up information about Climate Change, and some of the main ways in which everyone is currently contributing to the emissions of the main greenhouse gas (CO2) that causes Climate Change.

Climate Challenge
A game where you are president of the European Nations. You must tackle climate change and stay popular enough with the voters to remain in office.

Connect2Climate
Connect 2 Climate comprises of five different applications on the mobile – three mobile games involving different mindsets and psychologies of mobile users, and two mobile learning applications on climate change. The games are being deployed on low-end and low cost handsets to sophisticated high-end devices.

Copenhagen Challenge
The game “Copenhagen Challenge” … aims to create awareness among school children and youth on issues related to climate change – renewable energy, energy efficiency and reduction in greenhouse gases.Download the English and Hindi versions of “Copenhagen Challenge” game from the links below. Install it on your desktop, play the interesting game, and learn more about Climate Change and related issues.

V GAS
V GAS aims at making the connections between individual lifestyles and greenhouse gas emissions, gauging personal contributions to global emissions. V GAS will try to help the user to answer the question ‘how does my lifestyle relate to the global problem?’, as well as ‘what options are there to reduce my contribution to the global problem?’

Earthquake in Zipland
Help your child cope with the challenges of divorce through a fun and interactive video game, designed specifically for children of divorce and legal separation.

Earthquake in Zipland takes your child on an exciting adventure that will enable you to sensitively deal with the psychological effects of divorce on children. (Note: This one cost $29.99, but there is a free demo available.)

MiniMonos

MiniMonos is a virtual world for children: a place of fun, beauty, discovery, generosity, sustainability and friendship. We created MiniMonos so that children could have a place of their own, a place that allows them to explore and grow without constant pressure to buy stuff. We also wanted them to have a place that embodied core values like sustainability and generosity, without turning those values into a boring lecture.

One Hen
Interactive activities and games to teach kids about microfinance. This is intended to complement a book on microfinance that currently sells for $12.89 at Amazon.com.

The Cuckoo of the Computers
“The Cuckoo of computers” consists of two parts that can be used together or separately. On the one hand an animated video presentation, playing with any fear, explains what is a computer and what can serve to. As the second block are the exercises that users need to be overcome that fears.

Bonus:

It would be hard to argue that the games at Games That Give have a great deal of educational value, but they are free, and the 70% of the revenue that the site collects from ads goes to charity.

Have fun. Learn a little. Change the world.

Jeff

Related posts:

1. Can you learn to save the world by playing games?
2. 10 Education Resources and Games for Autistic Students
3. Game Mechanics, Bwah Hah Hah!

This is the second installment of a Radio Free Learning podcast with Dr. Fiona McPherson, author of The Memory Key and curator of the About Memory Web site. In the first installment we discussed some of the keys to memory and why most memory courses don’t result in long-term memory improvement. In this second episode we discuss the brain training craze, how the brain changes as we age, and why effective note-taking (the topic of a recent book by Fiona) is so important.

Here’s the MP3 file link (17:29 minutes long) in case you do not see the audio player below (or click through to the original blog post).

Subscribe to the Radio Free Learning podcast:

• Subscribe using RSS
• Subscribe using iTunes

I also encourage you to check out other posts on brain science and the human mind here on Mission to Learn.

Jeff

P.S. – Follow Mission to Learn on Twitter at http://twitter.com/missiontolearn

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Set Learning Goals to Avoid the Blues

There is a part of me that resists the whole idea of setting goals for lifelong learning. With the world of tests and degrees behind me for the most part, I welcome the opportunity to be a dabbler, a dilettante, a jack-of-all-trades but master of none. Why should I add the stress of achieving goals to my learning mix?

And then I pick up my guitar.

You see, a guitar for me is symbol of all the joy that can come from learning, and at the same time, all the frustration. I play reasonably well, and I get a great deal of enjoyment out of doing it. And yet…

And yet, I am nearly always conscious of the fact that I cannot express myself on the guitar in the way that I would really like to. I don’t have the knowledge. I don’t have the chops. I haven’t achieved what I would really like to with the guitar, and there is a very simple reason why:

I never set clear goals for learning the guitar.

Well, if you have been reading Mission to Learn lately, you know that I’ve been focused on reflection as a learning habit. So, I’ve decided to turn some of that mental energy toward the subject of learning goals and that’s led me to what I think of as a First Principle of Learning Success:

You can’t separate your learning goals from your life goals

With this principle in mind, you need to ask the same three essential questions about your learning goals that you would ask about your life goals:

1. What is important to me?
For me, music is incredibly important, yet I’ve always tended to take it for granted and have not focused my time and efforts towards it in the way I might have.

2. What am I doing about it?
I’ve taken guitar lessons on and off since I was a teenager, and I play at least a little bit on most days, but I’m not where I want to be. Partly this is because I have not consciously acknowledged how important playing a musical instrument is to me and committed myself to learning.

3. What can I get rid of?
The other key reason I have not achieved what I would like to with the guitar is that I let any number of less important things distract me. What are some of the things I can’t remove from my life so that I can find more time for focused learning?

Of course, these questions and the First Principle of Learning Success don’t apply only to your avocations, they also apply to your professional development, your spiritual development, and all other aspects of your life.

Finally, none of this is to suggest that all learning needs to be goal-driven. Far from it. There is much to be gained from being a dabbler and dilettante at times. (The subject of a future post, I’m sure.) But I could do without the pangs I feel when I look at my guitar, and there are probably similar pangs you get from “symbols” in your life. Setting clear goals is the first step towards getting rid of them.

How does goal setting factor into your lifelong learning? I welcome any tips you can share about how you set and achieve your goals.

Jeff

P.S. – For anyone is not familiar with it, the “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” in the title is an allusion to the Beatles classic penned by George Harrison for The White Album. Here’s George playing it at The Concert for Bangledesh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7qpfGVUd8c.

Related posts:

1. What are your wildly important learning goals?
2. 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 5 – Set and Manage Goals

In this episode of the Radio Free Learning podcast, I talk with Dr. Fiona McPherson, author of The Memory Key and curator of the About Memory Web site. I came across Fiona’s work recently when I was writing 5 Key Paths to Improving Memory, and found her Web site to be one of the most thorough, well organized sites on memory out there. So, naturally, I contacted her to see if she would share some of her expertise with listeners here.

Our conversation lasted long enough that I decided to break it into two episodes. In this first one, we find out a little about Fiona’s background and what sparked her deep interest in memory. We then talk about some of the keys to memory and why most memory courses don’t result in long-term memory improvement. In the second episode (out later this week) we discuss topics like the brain training craze and why effective note-taking (the topic of a recent book by Fiona) is so important.

Here’s the MP3 file link (19:17 minutes long) in case you do not see the audio player below (or click through to the original blog post).

Subscribe to the Radio Free Learning podcast:

• Subscribe using RSS
• Subscribe using iTunes

I also encourage you to check out other posts on brain science and the human mind here on Mission to Learn.

Jeff

P.S. – Follow Mission to Learn on Twitter at http://twitter.com/missiontolearn

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Time for another installment of linky learning with assorted Edutweets from Mission to Learn. There are some really great ones this time around.

For readers who are new here, I periodically do a round-up of some of the items that have been going out over the Mission to Learn Twitter stream and try to package them up in some logical way to help make them easier to digest. I do this roughly every two weeks or so. Naturally, you can get all of this in real time if you follow Mission to Learn on Twitter!

Human Mind

47 Ways to Fine Tune Your Brain: http://bit.ly/10nFQS See also: 5 Key Paths to Improving Memory: http://bit.ly/4lIWtR

Media multi-taskers pay mental price http://bit.ly/16ko3N (via http://zenhabits.tumblr.com/ )

Memory improvement and learning skills. Pretty amazing site:http://www.happychild.org.uk/acc/tpr/mem/index.htm

A Short Collection of Powerful But Under Appreciated Learning Strategies: http://bit.ly/3mKoa6

How Simplicity Can Help Creativity, Briefly: http://bit.ly/6jeYE

Learning Trends & Insights

Very interesting – rethinklearningnow http://rethinklearningnow.com/ via Downes http://bit.ly/asV5d

On Zen Habits: Education Needs to Be Turned on Its Head http://is.gd/2Ijnj

RT @joshkaufman: Essays on the theme “school is prison”: http://su.pr/6Cn8BP & http://su.pr/9TzHAp

The Importance and Challenges of Universal Media Literacy Education: http://bit.ly/iQhpe

What is the Future of Teaching? http://bit.ly/FM2GT

Can a School Library Be Replaced by E-Readers? Apparently, it Can. http://bit.ly/rClky

RT @live2learn: Being educated is more than a diploma or a degree. 12 Things Really Educated People Know http://bit.ly/1LjvEy

10 Wishes for True Student Success from @mayafrost – http://bit.ly/8IZTg

40 Things to Teach My Kids Before They Leave Home: http://bit.ly/RUTiR

Learning Resources

16 Great Books to Change the World http://bit.ly/a9Iy7 (and 26 Games: http://bit.ly/jB97y )

Another winner from Zaid: The Best EDU Blogs on the Planet: http://bit.ly/FmJI8

RT @Larryferlazzo: The Best Places To Find New Educational Websiteshttp://bit.ly/u9XN1

RT @Larryferlazzo: Best Fun Sites You Can Use For Learning, Too — 2008 http://tinyurl.com/5cxbh2 This year’s list is coming up this month!

RT @Larryferlazzo: “Show Me” is a great site highlighting best games from British museums http://www.show.me.uk/games/games.html

Are you missing out on these two great values? http://bit.ly/16SxqG

RT @live2learn: Great learning resource! RT @dianadell Bet the Farm http://ow.ly/nC1N Make all key decisions as you run a farm for a year.

100 Inspirational blogs for after college life: http://bit.ly/CT1dm

Nice, short video about the Big Bang: http://bit.ly/9u5zg

30 High-Value Tips and Resources for Learning on the Cheap: http://bit.ly/1DNJii

Language

7 Free, Focused Resources for Learning a Little Spanish Without Signing Up – http://bit.ly/1xYdEL

RT @AngelaMaiers: RT @englishraven Place to find very best English language teaching blogs and posts -http://3.ly/yhI

RT @Larryferlazzo: 9,000 categorized links accessible to English Language Learners http://bit.ly/lNYC6

Educational Web Apps & Tech Tools

10 Awesome Tools To Get More Out of Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/rHqTT

Not sure how I never came across this before: DailyLit: http://dailylit.com/

RT @AngelaMaiers: Every TED Talk Under the Sun from @openculture http://ow.ly/oAlQ THIS ROCKS!!! REALLY!!!! #learningmonitor

Looks like a pretty cool little tool for managing (learning?) goals: http://www.joesgoals.com/

RT @mitzilewis: RT @JimMacMillan Back to School: 15 Essential Web Tools for Students http://su.pr/15oMdw

Learning Habits & Skills

5 Powerful Reasons to Make Reflection a Daily Learning Habit, and How to Do It: http://bit.ly/w9vmy7:10 AM Sep 9th from Seesmic

@edbatista Thanks for the tweet on 10 sites for sharpening critical thinking skills! http://bit.ly/4f3E9F

RT @tferriss: How to Become an Early Riser: http://su.pr/2DgJtP (and create some extra time for learning: http://bit.ly/3xhzm7 )

RT @learninglater: DO YOU KNOW…Learning Later is a way to discover new talents and resurrect old ones? http://www.learninglater.com

Scientific Speed Reading: How to Read 300% Faster in 20 Minutes: http://bit.ly/Bg6gb

Learning via self experimentation: http://bit.ly/JnJnj

RT @speakamerica: What is your curiosity quotient? http://bit.ly/13JzEt

15 Ways to Find an Hour a Day of Extra Time…for Focused Learning: http://bit.ly/wokHr

10 Bona Fide Best Sites for Sharpening your Critical Thinking Skills. Grateful for a bookmark if you like it: http://bit.ly/TwbzU

5 Key Paths to Improving Memory – Part II http://bit.ly/3xNSi8

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

Jeff

P.S. – If you enjoy what you find here on Mission to Learn, I’d be truly grateful if you would subscribe by RSS feed or by e-mail.

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I don’t like to spend to much time blogging about the blog, but I made a big change to the look and feel of the Mission to Learn site earlier this week, and it seems worth pointing out – particularly to those of you who subscribe by RSS or e-mail and may not have dropped by in a while.

I was already using the great Thesis WordPress theme developed by Chris Pearson, but had implemented it pretty quickly and haphazardly following the massive server crash and data lost at Mission to Learn’s former host, Bluehost. I use Thesis on two other sites and really can’t recommend it highly enough.

To really make Thesis hum, I relied on the help of Daniel Stanojevic and his team at 1Serpent. They did the design and all of the customization work. I also worked with them on Tagoras and my personal site, and I recommend them highly.

I welcome any thoughts you have on the new design, and I’d also like to ask one small favor of you. Part of the reason for investing in a new design here at Mission to Learn is that I have decided to greatly increase the time and effort I put into the site with the hope of growing it into all I think it can be over time. So…

If you feel you enjoy and benefit from what you find here, I would sincerely appreciate it if you would tell someone else about Mission to Learn. Maybe e-mail them a link to a post you like. Or Tweet about it. Or mention it on your own blog. Whatever works for you.

I hope you enjoy the new look, and thanks so much for reading Mission to Learn!

Jeff

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As my recent post on reflection as a daily habit may suggest, I’ve been in a bit of a reflective mood lately, and one of the things on my mind is how I have tended to make the biggest learning “leaps” in my life. In so many cases they have had little to do with conventional education practices like sitting in a classroom or preparing for a test.

So far, I have come up with six that seem to have impacted me most or that I know others who are passionate about learning have used. Here they are. One big caveat, though – all of these require you to be mindful and reflect if you really expect to get a lot out of them.

1. Leave

One of the biggest barriers to learning and growing is simply staying in the same place for too long  – whether that means the same office, the same relationship, the same job, or the same country. I don’t advocate disloyalty or irresponsible quitting, but sometimes you just have to move on. For me, choosing to leave my first job and travel the world, and later to leave a high-paying job and start my first company were the beginnings of some of the most valuable learning experiences in my life. I think you see this strategy being pursued with vengeance through blogs like The Art of Nonconformity and Illuminated Mind.

2. Dare

We rarely do anything to shake things up in our day-to-day life. That’s usually fine – no one wants to live in a state of constant disruption – but sometimes you have to push boundaries, go to extremes if you want to learn. You can do this in remarkably simple ways. For example, I love Tim Ferriss’ challenge in The 4-Hour Work Week to “eye gaze,” or practice maintaining direct eye contact with everyone you meet. It’s amazing how uncomfortable an experience this can be, but it offers some great lessons in human nature.

3. Sit

Of course, learning doesn’t have to be about radical change or disruption. As my previous post on making reflection a habit suggests, learning also comes to those who sit quietly. I have always been fascinated by the Zen practice of zazen, which involves concentration, introspection, but above all just sitting, often for very long periods of time. This can seem purposeless, and yet the practice of emptying the mind can bring great insight into the many ways we struggle and strive to fill it.

4. Switch

Changing up some of your normal habits or environments can help reinvigorate your learning or create new learning experiences. And this doesn’t have to involve a great deal of effort. It might be as simple as leaving the office or classroom and getting outside. Or, try an experiment like doing everything left-handed for a day (assuming you are right-handed). Aside from it being incredibly awkward, you will also begin to notice just how biased the world is to right-handedness. At a much more involved level, my life will forever be changed by the first time I really had to use a language other than English to get by on a day-to-day basis. (Rostov-on-the-Don, Russia. Summer 1993.)  A switch that fundamental forces you to take notice of any number of things you otherwise take for granted.

5. Divest

The Web is packed full of advice on how to declutter, streamline, and simplify your life. What most of this advice does not mention, though, is how much you can learn in the process. I chose the word “divest” for this one – as opposed to discard, or dispose, or cut, for example – because it is the opposite of invest. When you start to remove things from your life, you have to put thought into what you really are or are not invested in. You may be surprised by what you learn.

6. Imagine

I heard Elizabeth Strout, author of the Pulitzer-prize winning Olive Kitteredge, speak recently and I was struck by her comments on a scene in the book in which the main character, Olive, ends up stealing her future daughter-in-law’s bra. Strout didn’t know ahead of time that this is how the scene would play out. She got there through imagining herself as Olive and developing an understanding of what Olive would do given the circumstances. Gifted fiction writers seem to use imagination in this way as a matter of course. So do kids up to a certain age. For the rest of us, this ability tends to weaken in adulthood or disappear altogether, but it can be a powerful tool for developing better understanding of a situation, empathizing, and problem solving.

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So, that’s what I have so far. How much do these resonate with you, and what other “under appreciated” strategies do you find helpful? Please comment and share your thoughts!

Jeff

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