Almost 12 months ago I wrote a post titled Starting anew, at the time feeling the overwhelming pressure of having committed myself to a year of university studies whilst working full time. Now here I am, 40 weeks of study later, and finally pressing the ‘submit’ button on the last assignment. Going back to school this time around was initially daunting as my previous studies had all been on campus, where I would meet fellow students at the library and stay around afterwards to visit the World’s End pub. With other life priorities, studying remotely was appealing for the flexibility but it was a shock how different it was. In my case everything was delivered on a virtual platform, lectures were online and available for download later and as each weekly module was completed, I received a validating green tick.
I feel many people are lifelong learners, from podcasts for expanding knowledge, to mastering a new exercise or creative writing. However, there is something about the structured education provided when going back to school that can bring you many more added benefits.
Happiness comes from progress towards goals – in my case, the goals were hard deadlines of assignment dates. This ensured that I needed to hold myself accountable to progress the tasks each week, which at the start was challenging but once momentum was built it kept coming and I’d often find myself in a state of flow. The benefit of learning something new usually comes with feedback, adjusting and improving, this makes the achievement of the goal so much more rewarding.
Changes the way you think – scientific fact. When you are learning it creates new connections between your brain neurons, called neuroplasticity. This is a big one for me as we often don’t realise the immediate impact of learning the new thing, but it becomes part of how you discuss issues and solve problems, all with a new and improved lens.
You become more efficient – through your years of wisdom you know how to prioritise all the competing demands on your time, learning something new is manageable. The benefit of having workplace experiences means that neuroplasticity has already taken place to absorb and synthesize new information quickly. I firmly believe that going back to school gives you an ability to be more efficient and to complete the studies more easily than before. I found my writing was better and the research was easier because I knew how to construct a compelling case for my recommendations as it’s daily factor of working in a business setting.
Opens up your horizons – whether your interest in learning something new is to change your career or to simply expand your references, either way I guarantee opportunities will present themselves. When you put yourself in a growth mindset and become willing to tackle something new, the law of attraction comes into play because what we think about and believe, we tend to do. Consider this scenario: Shaun signs up to a nutrition course, he tells his friends and colleagues what he is doing, he then starts meeting other likeminded people doing the course, building a deeper knowledge of nutrition and attending local networking events on his topic of interest and soon enough, someone sees his passion and a role to move into the field becomes available. This could easily happen to you!
I wrote in Starting anew about how much time was required to complete the course I undertook. If you are thinking about going back to school and you’re worried about time commitments, try doing this exercise that a dear colleague with a busy family life did. Keep a diary for 2 weeks noting how you spend your time. Include how many minutes you spend watching television and scrolling on your phone. This will very easily help you identify what you are spending time on that isn’t adding value to your growth.
I’m not going to sugar coat it; going back to school and learning something new is hard. I missed family and social events, reduced my powerlifting training, stayed up late and got up early to get it done. I was anxious at times about how I would manage my life and study commitments. But it was worth it, and I would do it again tomorrow, because whatever makes us uncomfortable is our biggest opportunity for growth.
My final piece of advice, if you decide to take on study, do it just for yourself and pick a topic that interests you and makes you curious to keep learning.
This post was inspired by SB, thank you, sometimes we just have to keep flexing the warrior 2 pose to improve.
Thanks for reading. Please feel free to reach out and share your own experiences on learning new things. If you are interested in more ways to Think Ascend, please subscribe to my mailing list.