If you’re reading this, you are fortunate enough to be in a society of wealth. The world truly is your oyster as you have access to libraries, computers and even more importantly, the Internet. You know how small the world has become and can access information as you need it. If you’d like some perspective, take a look at “If the world were a village of 100 people.”
Learning isn’t about being taught, learning is about knowing how to access the information you need. If you teach one thing to yourself and your children, let it be the skill of accessing information.
Be proactive in your education.
It’s easy to let issues fester and wait for someone to take the lead for things to get done. Part of taking full control of your life is getting up and taking the initiative instead of procrastinating. No one cares more about you than you do, so how you get through this lifetime is completely up to you!
You might not be a student in school, but as long as you’re alive, you are learning. You’re ‘education’ is what you make of it and if you wait for someone to speak up and spoon-feed the information to you, you’ll be loosing out on time and a chance to explore.
If you want something, go after it. As long as you expect others to take the first step, you’ll find life to be sadly disappointing.
Check out what Steve Pavlina has to add to the topic of proactivity.
Speak to yourself.
You don’t need to start muttering to yourself aloud so that other people think you’re a lunatic, but you do need to start asking your internal-self some questions to get things accomplished.
I’ve learned to literally ask myself “now what’s next?” Sounds strange, but I’ve managed to find solutions to some of my biggest problems this way. Often, taking purposeful steps like the one just mentioned allow you to find the next step in whatever process you need to take.
Case in point: I’m currently waiting while my provincial government drags its feet over a piece of subsidized equipment I need. I finally decided to contact my MLA yesterday and voice my concerns. His manager just emailed me (on a Sunday evening!) and made arrangements to get get some signatures so that they can look into the matter. That was fast! Imagine how long I might be otherwise waiting if I had not taken this step–now I have someone on my side! I’ll definitely keep you updated on what happens.
The very action of taking a quick break and asking yourself where to go from there (making a mental plan) allows you to focus on what your next priority should be to assess the situation. You might be surprised and actually start to like your inner-self!
Think Outside the Box.
The solution to your problem may be either staring at you in the face, or something completely unrelated to the thought process at hand. For example, would you ever think of using a Bounce dryer sheet to repel mosquitoes?
A good exercise I used to give to my English students in Saudi Arabia:
List 50 things you can do with a spoon.
Sounds easy? Give it a try! It’s easy for the first 10-20 ideas, then you really have to start searching for answers. You have to start getting creative and thinking outside of that proverbial box to be able to complete the list. My students were so used to being spoon-fed their entire lives that in my 6 years there, not a single student was able to complete this list–yet I usually have about 15% of my students able complete it.
Imagine your situation from the perspective of another person and see where you can make changes, or where you can try to bend your mind around old concepts to make them work to your advantage. Need a door jam? Think spoon! Something to pry that jar open? (spoon) What about keeping your beloved cat out of the catnip? (spoon booby trap!)
It’s ok to ask for help.
Asking for help is fine; I’ll be the first to admit that I do it all the time. However, there’s a difference on asking for help, and waiting around for help to pop up.
You may need to have your cracked window repaired, so ask around for assistance. But if in the meantime, you figure that using krazy glue to seal the crack and scratching the glass at the ends of the crack to keep the crack from extending, then go for it! You’ve found a solution, even if temporary.
Don’t be afraid of failure.
None of us are perfect! Failure is part of learning and it’s a great (though sometimes unpleasant) way of learning. As long as you don’t do anything worthy of a Darwin Award, you’ll probably be okay.
When all else fails…
Everyone knows how much of a Youtube fan I am! I’ve used it to learn origami, how to crochet, and how to solve many problems around the house! When I was in the hospital recently, I found more info about how to deal with my situation than I did from the hospital staff! Just don’t listen to this guy!
Some parting wisdom.
There’s a lot of truth in what they say about WD40 and duct tape!
