Life Long Learning: The good and the bad

The 7 1/2 steps listed on our library staff's 2.0 program are all good, common-sense points about how to be a life long learner. It is so crucial to have that mindset. I read a book earlier this year called "Mindesets" by Carol Dweck, and this entire life long learning thrust reminds me of that. Dweck says some people come from a mindset that if they have to work to learn something it isn't worth it. They expect to be naturally good at something from the get go and if they are not, fuhgetaboutit. That's a counterproductive way to go about life. We can all learn to improve in almost every area. In the book it took people who said they were horrible at drawing (like me) and with just a little bit of training their stick figures turned into decent likenesses of what they were trying to draw. I recall not being a good free throw shooter as a boy and years later, in my thirties, laid off from work, I spent hours one day shooting free throws and actually got to where I cold make 10 to 12 in a row. So, we can all improve.

The easiest thing or best thing in the 7 1/2 for me is taking problems and treating them as opportunities. I've had mega personal challenges in the last 15 years, and initially I cried, "Why me," but I came to realize the folly in that and figured, "Why not me", and endeavored to use my "problems" to become a better person. And I am a lot better person now. I am not where I want to be, but thank goodness I am not where I used to be.

The most difficult of the 7 1/2 steps would be dealing with technology, I believe. I am not afraid of it, and am proficient with computers and such, but I am at an age where I am between the dinosaurs who have real problems with tech and the younger folk who grew up with it and using technology, for them, is like breathing.