Category Archives: Learning

“Teaching others scales right back to us.”

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“Teaching others scales right back to us.”

—Seth Godin, Author

Photo from Flickr by winnifredxoxo

Photo from Flickr by winnifredxoxo

I have always had a passion for learning. As a child, I remember vividly my mother coming upstairs to read after our evening meal and some family time. Although she had only a high school education, she had the most expansive vocabulary of anyone I knew.

My own family, and my wife’s, were educators, so it was not surprising that my first career was as a teacher. After a few years, I shifted to business and found myself in teaching roles within the company. For the past 22 years, I have continued to be both student and teacher as I pursue my professional efforts as a coach.

Over the years, I’ve learned by watching others, applying what I’ve learned, and learned the most by sharing what I learned with others. The lessons always scaled back to me with even deeper meaning and impact.

EXERCISE:

How can you learn what you most desire by watching people you admire, practice what you learn, and scale these lessons back to you even more by teaching others in your professional and personal life?

As Seth Godin said in his latest book, What to Do When It’s Your Turn, “Teaching rewards us all.”

“Don’t think of it as failure. Think of it…”

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“Don’t think of it as failure. Think of it as time-released success.”

-Robert Orben, speechwriter for President Gerald R. Ford

Photo from Flickr by lu-lu

Photo from Flickr by lu-lu

Before I became a coach 22 years ago, I worked in the pharmaceutical industry, where I had the good fortune to learn a great deal about business through jobs in sales, marketing, and advertising.

One of the industry developments during the 80s and 90s was that of time-released formulations that allowed patients to go longer periods between doses. This improved compliance and, presumably, clinical outcomes.

We have all heard the phrase “take your medicine,” which often means acknowledge, accept, and learn from our experiences—particularly mistakes and failures. Perhaps in this way failures and the lessons they provide are actually time-released sources of success.

EXERCISE:

How have your professional or personal setbacks or failures contributed to your developmental journey and the level of success you currently experience? Where are some of the challenges and obstacles facing you today releasing the knowledge and capacities of your future successes?

“Kindness causes us to learn, and to forget, many things.”

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“Kindness causes us to learn, and to forget, many things.”

– Madame Swetchine, 18th Century Russian Mystic & Writer

Photo from Flickr by Margaret Almon

Photo from Flickr by Margaret Almon

What would happen if we lived in a much kinder world?

Today’s quote suggests first that we would learn more, perhaps due to the openness and receptivity kindness provides.

We would also forget many of life’s speed bumps because kindness has the capacity to help us forgive others and jettison the memories that hold us back.

EXERCISE

How can you intentionally and generously expand your level of kindness to those in your professional and personal worlds?

Notice what this effort helps you learn, and perhaps forget, through the process.

“To teach is to learn twice.”

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“To teach is to learn twice.”

—Joseph Joubert, French Esssayist

Photo from Flickr by Duane Schoon

Photo from Flickr by Duane Schoon

Have you ever considered that learning is a multi-step process? Do you recall times in your education when you would read, re-read, and literally memorize information to prepare for a quiz or test?

What happened to this information when you tried to recall it even a few weeks later? If you are like most people, non-essential information is wiped clean from your “cerebral hard drive,” to make room for information that is essential, or critical, to your existence.

EXERCISE:

A simple yet powerful technique to deepen and sustain things you wish to learn and master is contained in these three steps:

  1. Watch others who are very skilled at some behavior.
  2. Try to practice those skills for yourself.
  3. Teaching this skill to others will cement and sustain the lesson.

Remember it this way: Watch One, Do One, Teach One.

A lesson taught with humor

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 “A lesson taught with humor is a lesson retained.”

– Ruth K. Westheimer, aka “Dr Ruth”, sex therapist

One of the primary reasons I chose to pursue the profession of coaching 20 years ago was because of the considerable shortcomings of other forms of training and development. We all have books, binders, tapes and seminar folders sitting on our shelves that are barely remembered, and collecting dust.

Coaching is all about stickiness and sustainability, where the lessons learned often – in an experiential way – stay with us and become habituated.

Humor, as Dr. Ruth suggests, is a great way to make an idea or experience memorable, sticky and sustainable.

Exercise:

Where can you add a bit – or a bunch – of humor and fun to lessons being shared in both your professional and personal worlds?

Google the phrase “the use of humor to support learning” and see what you learn.

#112: “One’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.”

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– Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr, doctor and writer

Yesterday I attended a barbeque with friends and family. My father, at age 85, attended, as did a little three-and-a-half year old boy named Luka. Luka enrolled my dad and others into playing baseball.

I actually got to see Luka’s mind and abilities expand over the hours – resulting in significant pleasure and joy for everyone there.

Exercise:

How have you embraced the pleasure and joy of learning for yourself, and expanded your world?

What ideas do you have to share with others, to expand their worlds too?

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#54: “Remember to pick something up when you fall.”

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– Unknown

We have all heard that experience is the best teacher. Many experiences do not provide us with success on the first attempt. Consider a baby trying to take its first steps, a child learning to read a book or ride a bike, a new leader speaking in public to a large group, learning a new language … the list goes on and on.

Have a “beginner’s mind” and a hunger for the lesson: this offers us the opportunity for value even in adversity.

Exercise:

Where did you fall down today, this week, this month? And what did you pick up when you stumbled?

Quotes are posted on The Quotable Coach a week after being sent out by email. To get the latest quotes straight to your inbox, pop your details in the sidebar to the right.

#41: “If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher…”

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“…I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.”

– Confucius, Chinese philosopher

I have a passion for learning and personal growth. My personal antenna and receiver are often on high alert to the knowledge, wisdom and behavior of others.

One of my favorite questions to ask coaching clients is “how would you describe your best future self?” If they are unclear about the meaning of this question, I often suggest that they identify the qualities of the people they admire – such as integrity, courage, loyalty, and enthusiasm. They can also identify the qualities that they least admire – such as greed, dishonesty, arrogance, and pessimism.

Exercise:

Who are the people that can help you discover and develop your best future self? What are their qualities (good or bad)?

Where can you begin your future journey today?

Quotes are posted on The Quotable Coach a week after being sent out by email. To get the latest quotes straight to your inbox, pop your details in the sidebar to the right.

#30: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

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– Buddha, spiritual teacher and founder of Buddhism

The phrase “perception is reality” seems to suggest that what we perceive, and how we perceive it, makes something real. But what if we simply don’t perceive an issue, a challenge, or a lesson to be learned, simply because it is invisible to us?

As a student, we first must see a situation and determine that there is value, opportunity or benefit. Only then is there the potential to hear the teachers and see how they might assist us in capturing the lesson.

Exercise:

Where are you stopped or stuck in your life? Where are your efforts being thwarted?

To whom could you go with this challenge to determine your readiness and receptivity to the lesson?

Quotes are posted on The Quotable Coach a week after being sent out by email. To get the latest quotes straight to your inbox, pop your details in the sidebar to the right.

#24: “Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.”

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– Vernon Sanders Law, Major League Baseball pitcher

My first career was as a school science teacher in Philadelphia. Those who know me know of my passion for learning. What I found through all my education and the process of educating others, was that very few lessons really stuck unless they were combined with some experience, such as a lab experiment.

When we see and hear, and then act on what we learn, we internalize a lesson and it sticks.

Exercise:

What lessons are there to be learned from the day-to-day test you are taking?

What experiences can you initiate to speed up the learning process?

Quotes are posted on The Quotable Coach a week after being sent out by email. To get the latest quotes straight to your inbox, pop your email address in the sidebar to the right.