How To Be A Better Learner According To Brendon Burchard
I have constantly been striving to become a better learner throughout my life. And I encourage professionals to keep learning and continue to learn in more effective ways. I got some excellent ideas about learning when I read the "Habits of High Performance – How Extraordinary People Become That Way," a book written by Brendon Burchard. I want to share three major takeaways that I had about becoming more actively engaged in learning.
You know that learning has become a habit when you have your learning activities scheduled in your calendar as if they were critical work activities. Most importantly, you don't fail to comply with them. You need to set up time in your agendas for structured learning activities: these can be online training, reading, or mastery-oriented hobbies, among others. But remember, it has to be scheduled on the agenda or calendar!
Choose a specific set of skills to develop. Think of the skills you need to build today to become a high performer in the near future. Then, plan your learning schedule around that. The plan needs to be aligned with your professional goals. First, be sure of what you want to accomplish in the future, then develop a list of specific skills you need to build. Start conducting some research about how you can acquire those skills, and be sure to schedule it.
Approach learning as a specialist, not a generalist. Instead of trying to know a little about a lot, focus your learning on skill-building. Casual explorations are good for those curious minds who want to learn about many topics. But sometimes, those explorations are even forgotten about in a short time. On the other side, causal explorations could lead you to choose your specialty path. If you have time constraints, focus on skill-building learning instead of casual explorations. Those can be done in your "free time" if your curiosity is strong enough.
Be intentional about your learning and take your work seriously!
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Revised August 2022
Written by Annie-Mariel Arroyo, PH.D
Dr. Annie-Mariel Arroyo-Calixto is a practiced organizational psychologist with more than 28 years of professional experience in organizational change and leadership development. Dr. Arroyo is the founder of Culture To Fit, where for the past 22 years, she has helped leaders build or reshape their organizational culture and lead transformation. She is a seasoned leadership educator and a renowned executive coach known for her ability to guide leaders in gaining deeper insights and self-growth.
