We are reminded that almost everything worthwhile in our lives is hard at first. Learning to walk was hard at first, but gradually we learned, and now is effortless. The same holds for our more advanced skills such as sports, music, art, etc. We forget these past struggles to learn and take them for granted now. When most people begin to try something for the first time, it usually doesn’t turn out particularly well. It doesn’t mean we are bad, stupid, or anything like that, it just means that most things of any complexity take a while to learn.

Given this, the surprising thing is how most people react when they begin to learn a new skill, and it does not go well. Most people at that point feel such things as surprise, anger, and frustration. We forget that the expression “beginners luck” means that doing something well at first is a fluke. We forget it isn’t supposed to be easy; it is almost against the laws of nature for something to be good at first.

So what is a more positive way to handle the difficulties we will encounter when we are learning something new? We should take the attitude that we are supposed to fail at first, that is the way the system works. We should look for a way to find fascination with the process and build enjoyment of the ups and downs of the process. We need to recognize the difficulties and make them into the time and effort we plan on expanding on the project. This is one place in your life where a healthy dose of pessimism will pay off. Just planning for difficulty will take much of the negative emotions we feel in these situations away.

Let’s look at another situation where we encounter difficulty at first. Almost anything involving change is hard for us to incorporate into our lives at first. One of my favorite expressions regarding change is, “the only kind of change we like is the change in our pocket.” Deciding to change is easy, it is just a decision. Staying changed is hard. We want to fall back to our old ways; we are discouraged, uncomfortable, and so on. Once again, we are learning something new, and it helps build this into our plan for change.

In addition to learning to enjoy the process as above, we can add another element to help us through learning something new or the change process. We can keep reviewing the goal we seek, the payoff, etc., and continually tell ourselves that the pain is temporary, but the payoff is permanent. We need to take the pain and frustration and deal with it minute by minute, telling ourselves to hang on, hang on, we can make it. Life is a series of minutes we can make it through.

People use visualization techniques to help them learn a new skill or deal with change. They “daydream” or use guided imagery to see themselves going through the process of learning or change and attaining the goal. A person on a diet can see himself f becoming thinner and thinner, easing the pain and giving them the sense they can do it. The same with a new skill such as golf. They see themselves hitting the ball in just the right way, and they see the golf ball going right where they want it. A word of caution regarding using visualization to learn a new skill. The technique is very, very powerful, and you will tend to perform exactly as you visualized it. So, if you visualize the wrong technique, chances are you will perform the wrong technique. So be very sure of the proper technique before you use visualization to help you master it.

One last point. I have stressed the need to recognize that new things will be hard to learn at first. While this “negative” view is helpful, it must be balanced with a positive outlook for the whole project. Plan and expect problems at first, but also plan and expect that you will eventually master the situation. Planning for a positive outcome will help give you the willpower to see the situation through and enable things that are needed to move you ahead to appear when they are needed. Remember, if we expect good things, we tend to get good things.

Learning is an amazing ability that all humans have. No matter how little or how much we know now, there is always more to learn. There is no limit to the skills and knowledge that we can gain by learning.

Take a new hobby, for instance. Learning to do something productive like sew, knit, or plant a vegetable garden is a great way to spend time. While learning, you are using your mind and filling time with things that are active and important. Learning is a much better way to pass the idle time than to do passive things like watch television or play video games. Your life will be richer and more fun as you spend hours learning new skills. You will have a great sense of accomplishment when the thing you have been hoping to do for years becomes easy and natural for you. Learning new things is also a great way to expand your knowledge and keep your mind sharp. Time spent learning by reading, for instance, is a great mental exercise, and it can be enjoyable and beneficial.
Consider children. From the time they are born, they are learning new things day by day. They learn to recognize the voices and faces of their family, and eventually, they learn to sit up and then crawl and then walk. If children were not constantly learning, they would stay children forever. At a young age, children begin going to school to learn even more new things. They learn to count, to read, to play with others, and to read.

Adults can learn something from children about the importance of learning. If, once our years in school were complete, adults continued to learn new things and gain new hobbies at the rate that children learn just think about how much more we would know today. Our lives would be filled with an incredible wealth of knowledge and with a variety of skills and hobbies that keep our lives full and satisfied.

Take a close look at your life. Make a list of things you have always wanted to learn or be able to do. And then commit yourself to learn something new starting today.

Do you remember when you were a child, and everything was new and exciting for you? The smallest bit of dirt or seeing a new flower color could keep you busy for an hour. If you are old enough that you have forgotten your childhood, look at the children around you. See the wonder and curiosity that they live and learn with each day. Do you miss having that kind of approach to life? No matter your age, it is very possible to return to the place where you love to learn and experience new things.

Take a close look at your life right now. Are you satisfied with the things you know? Are you constantly expanding your understanding and your knowledge? If not, now is the time to begin. Perhaps begin by making a list of things you would like to learn about or activities you would like to learn how to do. Have you always wanted to learn a second language? Go to a local library and check out some books or audio tapes on learning the language. Or perhaps you have always wanted to pick up a new hobby like golf or tennis. Sign up for a lesson and see what you can learn.

You will be amazed at the richness added to your life when you commit to learning new things. No matter how busy your schedule at home or work is, there are ways to learn as you live. Do you spend a lot of time in the car? If so, get some educational books or materials on tapes or CDs and start to learn something new when you are in the car. You can begin to love learning as you find easy ways to include it in your days.

When you learn to love learning, your life will never be the same. Life will never be dull regardless of your circumstance. Days will pass with the wonder and excitement that comes from learning something new and valuable. So think about everything that you still want to learn. Choose one thing from the top of your “to learn” list and begin learning today. You will find that your list grows so that you will always be learning and never knowing enough.

First, when you want to learn new material, expose your mind to it as soon as possible, even before you feel “ready,” or have time to study. This first stage of learning is the confusing part where you look at new ideas and say, “huh?” If you do this quickly, however, reviewing everything for a few minutes, your unconscious mind will start “incubating” the new concepts and finding some way to organize them.

The next time you sit down with the new material, begin to relate it to what you already know. Compare and contrast things. Say to yourself, “That’s like…,” or “How is that different from…” The concept of the autoresponder was new to me when I started my newsletter, but it sunk in and motivated me when I thought, “It’s like someone doing all my addressing and mailing for pennies a day.” This prompted all the important questions, and I was ready to learn about it.

Create Curiosity and Anticipation

You probably agree that you can learn more effectively with curiosity and anticipation working for you. So how do you create this state of mind? One way is to leave each learning session with a question or two clearly in your mind. This creates a sense of anticipation and curiosity that will help you the next time you approach the material. It’s like a television show cutting to a commercial at an interesting moment in the program. You want to stay tuned to see what will happen next.

Use Your Imagination

Want to change your perspective to make learning more effective? Study with the idea in mind that you will be teaching what you’re learning. As you learn something, imagine how you will teach it. This is a powerful way to get a good grasp of new information.

Imagine how you will use what you are learning. There is so much information, and so little of it is the “important stuff.” By imagining how you’ll use the new information, you tend to automatically focus on the things you need to know.

Take Breaks

Learn more by working less. Well, almost. Research shows that we remember best what we studied first and last in a given session. By taking breaks, you have more “sessions,” and increase the number of firsts and lasts. Get up and move around during your breaks, as this can also keep your mind fresh.

Finding Time

Is it difficult for you to find time to learn something new? What if it took no extra time to learn a new language, take a course on negotiating, or study something new and interesting? What would you want to learn then?

You can start this week, by using the dead-time in your day. That’s the time sitting in your car, or on the bus, or in the waiting room at the dentist’s office. There are thousands of books now on tape, CD’s, and MP3’s. Your public library probably has hundreds of books on tape, and you can even instantly download books on the internet. One website I use has 18,000 choices!

This is, without a doubt, one of the most under-utilized and easiest ways to learn something new. Is your job 25 minutes away? If so, you spend over 200 hours per year sitting in your car going to or from work. Could you learn something useful if you had four hours per week of audio instruction for a year? You bet. And the only extra time it takes is a few minutes to stop by the library or place an order online.

Put in a tape on your way to work, get used to using a few techniques here, and you could soon be a virtual learning machine.

Learning is the ingestion of freshly baked understanding, knowledge, skills, values, and preferences. It also includes manipulating various forms of information. It is part of the daily routine executed by animals, machines, and human beings. It is a fact that learning takes place via varying avenues of education and personal development. It can be triggered by either motivation or goal orientation.

Learning has many forms, and first up is simple non-associative learning. Habituation is a good example wherein a person experiences a decrease in the behavioral and psychological response after repetitive exposure to a stimulus over some time. Sensitization is another nonassociative learning form that showcases a gradual increase in the response after consistent exposure to a stimulus.

Next is associative learning, which involves interaction with a distinct and separate element to obtain understanding and skill. First on this list is operant conditioning which utilizes consequences to shape the form and occurrence of a behavior. Also, part of this form is classical conditioning, wherein a neutral stimulus is paired up with another stimulus having some sort of significance.

Learning can also be observational, social, vicarious, or modeling. This entails observation, retention, and replication of novel behaviors as seen from other people. Observational learning is a vital component of childhood development, especially in situations wherein authority plays a significant role. The best role models are those a year or two older.

Learning can also take place during enculturation. This is defined as the process by which individuals absorb the needed and appropriate values and behaviors as required by the culture where they belong. Important people like peers and parents help shape up these values and preferences. Once the process turns out positive, competency of the language and rituals under the culture is achieved.

There is a technique known as rote learning. It emphasizes memorizing the material for the individual to recall the material in the way it was heard or read. Learning by repetition is the dominant principle since a person can easily remember the meaning of the material once repeated several times. Rote learning has been well documented to be present in diverse fields of mathematics, religion, and music.

Advanced technology can contribute to learning. This can be seen in environments wherein people acquire knowledge and information via multimedia tools. Electronic learning is also a common method used to enhance learning via the internet and network-based computers. Augmented learning occurs when a learner participates within the realms of e-learning.

Play is an activity that does not necessarily present a purpose but is nevertheless done specifically by children to improve functioning and enhance learning capacities. It has been considered through the years as the universal language that the young ones communicate with. It has also been distinguished to be part not only of the human learning world but also that of our animal friends.