Learning Tips 3

Do you have a little brother, younger sister, niece or nephew? Did you ever notice how happy a two-year-old is exploring her or his surroundings? Did your younger relatives pester you with questions? Did they enjoy learning new words? Did they take apart their toys to see how they worked? Did they like learning new games, playing make-believe, and reading books? Were you the same way?

Most of us, when we are growing up, love to learn. However, after years of school, we often stop enjoying the learning process. Once we stop liking school, we often work just hard enough to get by on tests. The knowledge we gain from this approach is often fleeting, and since we never really grasp the material, we do not get any intellectual pleasure from the learning process. This often continues when people arrive at college. Isn't it sad to think of all the college students who are spending so much time, energy and money pursuing an education that they do not enjoy? Are you one of those students? Can you become a happier student? Yes, you can rediscover the joy that you once felt from learning. Many people rediscover how much they like learning while they are in college.

To rediscover the joy of learning, we should start by making our primary aim to really understand a subject (not just to do well on the test, to keep our parents happy, to get a good job, to avoid failure, to get into medical school, etc.). Our primary motivation should be simply to do as well as we can to learn the subject we are pursuing. Then all of the things that we do to learn, like taking tests, reading, writing, and studying will be ways to help us understand, not work to be avoided. We must take some time to check out our attitudes. Remember, we are totally in control of how we feel about something. If we hate a class, then all the work that we do will be unpleasant. Why punish ourselves? If we look instead for the positives, then we will enjoy what we are doing, we will learn a great deal more, and we will do better on the tests. When we have a positive attitude and seek to really learn, then we will rediscover the joy of learning. That joy will grow as we learn more, and what we have learned will be a treasure that we will have for the rest of our lives.