Learning, Learning, Learning

Learning is a lifelong endeavor. Just because you’re no longer a teenager, you no longer go to school on a regular basis, or you’re not in the workforce (because you’re a stay at home parent) does not mean you have nothing left to learn. You have many years of learning ahead - the rest of your life. Spend time on yourself every week learning new skills and knowledge to allow you to keep your mind sharp.

It’s really easy to fall into a habit of not spending time trying to improve yourself and your mind. Being busy as a parent, and spending time with your kids takes a lot of time and energy. Using your free time to work on improving your brain is hard. It’s much easier to sit and peruse social media or play a game on your phone or computer. Beyond that, there are probably other hobbies that you’d like to be doing as well.

You should absolutely make sure that you’re spending time every week to learn something new that will help you either as a parent, in your career, or simply in general to become smarter. Learning happens naturally of course as you read and learn, but you shouldn’t take everything that you read as fact. There are a lot of poor websites and news organizations out there that don’t provide factual information.

If you like to spend time on social media and see what articles that are shared there, spend time researching the truthfulness of those articles. Just because a headline states something doesn’t mean it’s actually true. Spend time reading the entire article rather than just the title. Follow that up by reading further articles on the same topic to view differing opinions on the matter. Viewing an issue from multiple perspectives is an excellent way to learn about the subject as you’ll find more truth in the matter.

Learning can also be more focused than just reading articles and learning about current events. If you have tasks at your job that you’re not currently able to do but want to be able to, then focus learning on how to best address your deficiencies in those areas. Find online courses or videos to help you learn how to complete the tasks. Learning how to complete these tasks is a great way to earn a salary increase by taking on new responsibilities (you may have to ask for that salary increase though).

If the task you want to learn is more than something you can take on from basic online courses, then enroll yourself in the programs you need to gain the knowledge. Perhaps you need a certificate or higher degree. Don’t be afraid to take those things on if it’s what you want. Just because you’re a parent doesn’t mean that you can’t go back to school or take the more advanced courses. You may have to work harder since you have additional responsibilities, but you can absolutely do it if you want to.

Always work on learning to become a better parent. If you don’t know how to change a diaper correctly, learn and do it. If you’re unsure how to talk to your kids about the changes they’ll undergo in puberty, learn about those things and research the best ways to talk to them about it. Parenting is something that you’ve never done before, and as such there is much to learn to become a better parent.

Learning will be something that you do for the rest of your life. Work hard to learn the things that will help you best in life. Always work on learning something new each and every week. It will make you feel better about yourself, and it will make you a better person overall.