I think I've always loved learning. While I struggled with the social aspects of school I really did love being able to learn full time for all those years as I just love giving my mind stuff to soak up!
I did well at school, finding a lot of different subjects easy and enjoyable. But I'm not sure that the classroom was the best learning environment.
See, I was given a diagnosis of A.D.D. at quite a young age and was on Ritalin before most people knew what it was. So while I was clever and had a love for learning, I really think that the only reason I was able to concentrate in those busy, noisy, distracting classrooms was because I was on drugs basically every day of my schooling life.
I think I could write a whole post book on how I feel about the stimulants we use to get kids to "behave" but that's another story for another day. For now, let's come back to the main topic: learning.
My strongest learning style is listening. While many people I know are quite visual and respond well to pictures, they are rarely helpful for me. Some people learn well by reading, but I also find text a difficult medium to absorb anything from.
Can I read? You bet! But do I enjoy it? Not really. It's a useful skill to have, for sure. But given the choice between reading a book with pictures, or listening to podcast, I'd chose the latter almost every day of the week.
(Unless I'm reading a book out loud to a small child I love, then that's another story!)
"But what about kinesthetic learning," I hear you say. Well, it seems I have a preference for this 'learning by doing' style as part of my process.
It seems I take in new things best, most of the time, if I can listen to the information about the new thing I'm trying to understand. And then I need to go and do the thing myself to really cement the learnings.
If I try to just 'do' without getting some mental input first I find it almost impossible. But once I have a sense of what they're talking about then I can usually run with it.
Strangely, in some situations, I need to see things modelled for me. As in, I need to see someone masterful at the thing do it in front of me and then I can copy their example.
This seems to be the way I learn best when the skill is something that is highly complex. This is the method through which I learned the most about 'tapping', an energy healing modality that helps us process stuck emotions and limiting subconscious beliefs.
When it comes to what I like to learn about, I feel like the topics are varied! However, if I take stock of them they seem to all be around a central theme and that is: How to be the healthiest, happiest, most authentic, alive, loving human being I can be.
So while you'll find books on everything from business to money to spirituality to health and communication on my bookshelf here at home (and all the same kinds of topic in my YouTube playlist, and in my email inbox and in the courses I've taken over the last decade), they all seem to be in service of living a great life.
I think that's what I truly care about the most: living a great life. A full, rich, brave, kind life.
I feel like it's incredibly valuable to work out what's important to you, then work backwards: what do you need to learn in order to achieve that aim and how do you learn best, knowing that it may be slightly different for everyone.
You do you. The world needs more people who are honouring their truth and creating a life they truly love.
This post was written in response to the following prompt by :
Learning - What is your learning style? What topics do you like to delve deeper into and learn more about? What new things are you currently learning to keep your brain active and healthy? What advice would you give to someone who has the same learning style as you?
If this topic interests you then check out this post for all the details.