Continuing In Learning

As the days go by, new trends unfold, new innovations and inventions are witnessed at an increasing rate, so also should learning increase. If the only thing you know is the knowledge you picked over a decade ago, then you may not be relevant in this era that has witnessed a paradigm shift from the analogy way of doing things to the digital way. What to learn is limitless and new things to be learnt keep unfolding. No wonder this popular quote says:

Learning is living, but to stop learning is to start dying.

The more you learn about a thing, you will not just discover new things about that thing but you will realize that you have known very little all these while. As you learn, there will be a need for you to learn more and keep learning. The truth is that the demands of this world is ever on the increase and you need to keep upgrading and updating your knowledge-base in order to keep up. It is what you know that gives you mastery and gives you an edge over others that do not know. You will agree with me that there is a level of power that comes with knowledge.

It is through learning that you will be able to proffer solutions to the challenges that the world is facing. As a matter of fact, what makes a difference between people is the level of knowledge that they possess. I give you this analogy: imagine someone that knew the manual typewriter extensively about 2 decades ago but has not improved on that knowledge even now that there are computers and other computational devices. Then another person knows computer extensively but has not even used a manual typewriter. If you are looking to hire a secretary for your company, will you hire the guy that knows typewriter or the one that knows computer? Obviously, the one that knows computer will be more useful and relevant to you in this modern world.

This is to prove to you that no matter what knowledge you have, you need to keep updating it and continue learning, because the world is also constantly evolving. More so, knowledge can be bound by time and also limited by the passage of time. That is, as time goes by and as newer trends emerge, it may render some knowledge irrelevant (just like the case of the manual typewriter), so this is why it is required of you to keep learning. When you finished from primary school, you still went further to enter secondary school and then to college, instead of just stopping in primary school and parading your primary school result. The reason is that there is a limit to where that result will take you to and you need to upgrade to stay relevant.

Many of the things that people called "brilliant knowledge" some decades ago, are nowhere near what is being witnessed in this era where there is ready access to information through the net and whatnot. You see why you need to put in extra efforts in order to go beyond your current knowledge-base. Furthermore, when learning, you should learn wide - even wider than your area of discipline. The truth is that, if your whole knowledge is centered exclusively on your area of discipline or only what you were taught in school, then you do not have an edge over others and your relevance is at risk.

One thing to also know is that the power of knowledge comes from putting in to practice. It does not stop at learning or acquisition of knowledge, but how have you used it to solve a real life problem? Knowing something and not putting it to practice is almost not different from not knowing at all. The prove that you have knowledge about something is by taking actions based on what you have learnt. This is just like someone learning how to drive theoretically but has not driven any car in practice before, of what use is the knowledge to him? As you acquire knowledge, it is important for you to use it to proffer solutions to people's problems, because that is what will matter to them and not what you know.

Thanks for reading