3 Steps of Learning

There is a larger story behind Walks of Mind.  The topics that I explore are largely introspective, they are about understanding something about ourselves.  But everyday life is much bigger than that with understanding just a starting point.  It is what we do with understanding that is really important, how we live our lives, the decisions we make, our wins and our losses.

The larger story behind Walks of Mind is about motivation and faith and personal growth, about achievement and wisdom and hope.  It is about our fundamental cycle of living and learning, and how we can make use of that in a very pragmatic way to live life more fully, to be more satisfied, to be more successful, or to learn how to be the best that we can be.

I have no priceless mystical secrets to sell, nor previously unknown powerful panaceas, and I do not pound a drum of 'new' thinking.  Everything that I offer in Walks of Mind fits into one simple key approach to understanding and promoting long-lasting change, and the wealth of insights and observations that support it.  And I'll give you the outlines of that key approach right here.

I suggest that each of us follows a fundamentally simple cycle as we experience life, learn from it, and change as a result.  Perhaps we are simply growing up and gaining wisdom, or we may have embarked on a conscious path of personal or spiritual development, or we may be setting out to become a teacher, councellor, or mentor.  I believe that the basic cycle of deep-learning is the same and it comprises 3 basic steps:

• Getting Real :- truth-telling, verification, researching, understanding, accepting, ...  (I can)
• Choosing :- deciding, taking a stand, joining in, engaging, ...  (I will)
• Reflecting :- acknowledging, reviewing, completing, appreciating, ...  (I am)

In my opinion, these three steps describe, in its simplest form, our innate cycle of gainful change.  We perform these three steps naturally, continuously, and repeatedly - and usually unconsciously.  All three steps are important and learning will be limited without all three.

My question is, how can we make the most of this cycle and learn more effectively?  How can we learn, and therefore grow and change, more directly and more directedly?  How can we make the most of what we have to get the most of who we are?  How do we convert a cycle that happens to us into a process that works for us?

Knowledge of ourselves and life (Step 1) can help direct and enable our choices.  However, we can learn facts until they come out of our ears and gain the best diplomas and credentials in the world but these will not by themselves turn us into contented, effective, or productive people.

Our deeply-held passions provide us with the motivation and enthusiasm to aspire, they provide us with a definition of who and what we are and what it is that we stand for.  Though passion alone can inspire and propel us into great acts of will (Step 2), it can also lead us astray or betray our deeper intentions.

Contemplation (Step 3) can provide us with a context for our life and reveal personal meaning.  But contemplation without genuine engagement in life can be more of a path to escapism than a path to enlightenment.

Strong growth comes from firm and well-founded roots.  It is clarity of mind and a deep empathy with our own personality that provide the roots from which we are able to grow.  It is clarity of mind and a deep empathy with our own personality that provide a conduit for the passion that fuels our growth and sustains it over time to achieve our higher aspirations.  And it is familiarity with our own bigger-picture that provides the 'meaning' that is vital to clarity.

In this website I begin to look at the three-step process and how we can benefit from it.

Three-Step Learning

Establishing Reality.  This is something that we humans tend to think that we are pretty good at.  After all, we have well defined sciences and endless experts that know pretty much everything, don't they?  Actually, establishing personal reality and gaining some clarity about who and what we are is something a little different from gathering facts.  Even with recent advances in psychology and neuroscience we still know remarkably little about the basics of being human.

In Walks of Mind you will find a number of fascinating explorations of different aspects of the human mind.  Vital insights to empower self-discovery.

Choosing.  In the past half century there has been a surge of interest in motivational science and motivational products.  And much of this is still at an early stage, owing at least as much to philosophy as to objective study.

As Walks of Mind grows, you will find practical ways to ignite enthusiasm and maintain appropriate and discerning willpower.

Reflecting.  This is seemingly the most straightforward and simple step.  Surely we all know how to ponder over what has happened to us or drift into fantasy about what is coming next?  Few of us take the trouble to do this consistently or constructively though, and this is also the step that is most often skipped as we move from one urgent demand to the next in our busy or pleasure-seeking lives.

Walks of Mind will, as more material is added, expose alternative approaches to reflecting and completing so that we can move on ready and empowered to engage with life yet again.