Want to Learn Something New Today?

 by: Steve MacLellan

How many times do you say, "Gee, I wish I had of learned...?" How often do you avoid new tasks simply because they are out of your "comfort zone" and the task would involve having to learn something new?

I realized how slow we, as adults, resist learning. I've often heard it said that as we get older, our thought processes slow down and it isn't as easy for us to learn. Is this true? Or is it simply we don't want to learn?

When my daughter Kelsey was four years old I was watching her one day, I noted some differences between children and adults. The fact is, I was getting prepared to scold her, when it occurred to me that I should be quiet and study the situation instead. I was observing how she was learning to work with what she has and the tools around her.

Kelsey had dumped a small bucket of mud and stones on the pad behind the house which is typically where we set up our outside table and umbrella. My wife, Crystal, often cleaned this area by spraying it with the water hose, which washes pebbles and dust from it.

Before I could scold her she whipped out two brooms she had collected from where we keep our outside tools. Why two? Because there were only two! Likely she didn't know which one would do the best job, so she brought them both. The first broom she dragged across the mud with the brushes pointing upwards. This obviously did not produce the effect she was trying to achieve so she discarded that broom in favour of the other one. The other broom she dragged across the mud with the brushes pointing toward the pad. This was achieving the result she expected.

She studied the two brooms for only a glimmer of a second. She discarded the second broom and picked up the first one again, and this time she had the brushes pointed toward the mud.

Finding the right tool, and learning how to use it is part of the daily life for someone who is 4 years old. Each day is filled with new challenges and they greet it with such enthusiasm. Could our lives benefit by adopting such a strategy? Could our businesses benefit from us learning at least one new thing everyday?