“Learning is not attained by chance.

It must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.”

~Abigail Adams

 

“As we start a new school year, Mr. Smith, I just want you to now that I’m an Abstract-Sequential learner and trust that you’ll conduct yourself accordingly.”

 

 

Did you know that learning leads to increased happiness?

A study by the European Lifelong Learning Indicators (ELLI) noted numerous connections between a good learning atmosphere and well-being.  According to the researchers´ summary, “learning makes you healthy, satisfied and happy.”

 

What have you learned today?  How about last week?  Month?  (Do we need to go back as far as a year?)

I recently learned that there are “lids” made for microwave cooking to cover your plate of food, preventing explosions all over microwave walls.  Who knew?  I didn’t.  I’ve been using a paper plate or towel to avoid messy food blasts.

I’ve been reading the biography of Walt Disney and I’ve learned that you never give up.  Never.  When you have a dream – you stick with it.  No matter what anyone else says and no matter what roadblocks appear along the way.  You keep trying, working and believing.  Dreams do come true.

In the article “Learning Happiness; Everyday Activities to Increase Your Happiness”, Sara B. Healy states, “When people are intensely engaged in doing and learning new things, their well-being and happiness can blossom.”

Try a new recipe.

Read a book.

Research a topic online.

Learn. Something. New.

Samuel Johnson wrote, “It is by studying little things, that we attain the great art of having as little misery, and as much happiness as possible.”

Healy even suggests we can learn about being happy!  What a wonderful topic!  (Not that the microwave lid wasn’t fascinating…)  She suggests making a conscious shift from negative to positive.

“Unfortunately, the more we focus on the negative, the more likely that’s all we’ll see. Changing this means we have to consciously bring more attention to the positive things that happen to us.

For example, I used to talk about my day by reciting what went wrong in it. I’m changing this by learning how to shift my negative comments into positive ones. This can be done two ways. You can match the negative comment with an unrelated positive. Therefore, if I say I’m mad at myself because I forgot my dentist appointment today, a positive statement might be that I received a compliment about my latest newsletter. The other option is to make the negative comment into a related positive one. For example, I missed my doctor’s appointment, but I called to apologize and made a new appointment.”

Learning to focus on the positive…a worthy pursuit to be sure!

Vernon Howard said, “Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn and you will.”

Be Happy…Learn something new!

 

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2012 at 10:24 pm and is filed under BillionClicks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.