The 5 Big Mistakes That People Make in Learning (And How You Can Avoid Them As You Learn How To Learn In 5 Easy Steps).
In the late 1990’s (MCMXCV for those of you who enjoy Latin numerals) I remember buying a tape course by Brian Tracy with Colin Rose, called Accelerated Learning Techniques, published by N ightingale Conant. I love learning, and this course accelerated my passion for personal development.
Well, the Information Age predicted by Brain and Colin is now well and truly upon us, and lifelong learning seems to be an even more indispensable skill and key to personal effectiveness. For example, “Old Timers” in Search Engine Optimization are those people who have been in the industry for only 5 years!
So last Monday, when I walked into the Friends Meeting House in Littlehampton and wrote on the flipchart, at the start of our latest NLP Master Practitioner course “Why Mastery of Learning” (or Why Misstery of Learning as one person suggested). The responses that I got did not surprise me:
* Personal Development
* Create Options in Future
* Potential Alternate Career Path
* Make a Difference, Make The Difference
* Explore a bit further
* Use in work in appropriate chunks
* Start up own business
* Use with staff for motivation
I begin to wonder “how I can help people to learn faster?” and “what are the 5 big mistakes that people make in learning?” I’ve made them all myself, so I may be something of a maven on the subject. Here’s my list and how you can avoid them:
1. “No Pain No Gain” as Arnold Schwarzenegger famously said. We tend to create motivation by asking “Why?” Motivation away from pain works well to get you moving. Motivation towards pleasure works better to keep you moving in your chosen direction. So identify “why do I want to learn?”, “What is the problem that I want to solve?” to get started and focus strongly on “what do I want?” to maintain your momentum.
2. “I don’t know how to remember details”. We tend to remember what’s important. So remember details by making them more important, emotionally by making details an element of your success criteria. Begin by eliciting “what’s important in learning?” and “how will I know that I have learned successfully”. Then use sub-modalities to make more precise distinctions.
3. “I don’t know what works for me”. We tend to use the strategies that we learned at school for learning as adults, and often these strategies are not very effective. So we may tend to waste time use slow and inefficient learning methods. Which of your senses do you prefer to use for learning and in what context? Which sense do you use first, second, third, fourth? For example: If you prefer to learn visually you can get DVD’s, if you prefer to learn with sound you can get Cd’s and if you prefer to learn with self-talk, go buy a book.
4. “I don’t know how to apply what I’ve learned” We tend to change the reason why we learn as we grow up, from learning wantonly as children to learning more purposefully as adults. So the question of “how is this relevant?” “How do I apply this to improve my business and my life?” becomes more useful. Ask these questions before you begin a new learning project. You can also use future pacing to see yourself using something that you have learned in a new context.
5. “I don’t know when I’ve gathered enough information” We sometimes tend to approach learning with a mind set of “being right” and wanting to know “everything”. You can counter this tendency by continually asking “What’s next” and “How do I add more value” and “How do I become more effective at learning” and begin to build externally based checks as to how well you’re applying your learning to make a difference.
Last Friday, after 5 days teaching the NLP Master Practitioner Course I asked the participants for their feedback. One of them said “I have to say I really enjoy learning like this!” Enjoy.
P.S. Amazing what you can find on the internet “Likewise the Roman numeral for the year 1995 is usually written as MCMXCV (M + CM + XC + V, or 1000 + 900 + 90 + 5).”
Graham Constantine from Whole Being is an NLP Trainer and with his partner Claire Towers he specialises in helping Graduates who are unemployed to make the transition from education into employment or setting up their own business or volunteering or work placement or further education.