Today, I want to talk about learning — learning in general and learning Life Design.
I want Life Design to be taught in schools and homes and for women all over the world to be living their lives by design and not by accident.
So, we’re going to learn how to get better at learning.
We don’t get taught enough life coping skills, which are essential to learn.
So, it’s not only about what we learn but also how we learn because not all learning techniques and frameworks are equally efficient.
Some strategies work better than others, but our ultimate goal isn’t to pass a test once and then forget everything.
Our goal is to be able to successfully and consistently apply what we have learned in our own lives to make it part of our lifestyle long term.
Let’s explore how to get better at learning and applying necessary life skills.
TWO PRIMARY WAYS TO TEACH PEOPLE LIFE SKILLS
- Courses
- Coaching
Both courses and coaching — group and one-on-one — have advantages and disadvantages.
Let’s take courses, for example.
Online education has been booming since COVID started. Everybody went online, making it easy for teachers, coaches, and experts to share their knowledge.
The advantages for courses include:
- Ease creating a course and putting all of your knowledge in it.
- Accessibility for students to access that course from anywhere in the world.
- Students receive a strong foundation from a subject matter expert.
The disadvantages of courses are:
- A lack of accountability
- A lack of interactivity
How many times have you downloaded a course or signed up for one and never finished it?
Life gets in the way, and our usual routines kick in.
It can be challenging to apply what you’ve learned or even to expand on it.
On the other hand, if we’re talking about life coaching, one-on-one coaching in particular, it creates a lot of accountability.
The advantages of life coaching are:
- Accountability
- A lot of one-on-one guidance without all the guesswork.
The disadvantages of life coaching include:
- Becoming too dependent on your coach.
- Not seeing the bigger picture.
Coaches rarely give a complete picture or set the whole foundation. They guide you, piece by piece, based on what you need right now.
So, it’s very useful in the moment, but you don’t know what you need another day when your situation changes.
Both approaches have some advantages, but they also have drawbacks.
SOME WAYS OF EFFECTIVE LEARNING THAT ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS
Let’s dive into the educational system of learning.
The first example is school — elementary, middle, and high school.
I grew up in Ukraine, and our standards of education were very academic.
We had a lot of subjects — history, physics, political science, economy, math, and chemistry.
So, 15-20 subjects on rotation.
On the one hand, it gives students a lot of fundamental academic theoretical knowledge.
On the other hand, it was all very disconnected.
All of the subjects were unrelated to each other. Math was taught in math class. Physics included some math but was unrelated to what we were learning in math class.
There wasn’t a common theme. Therefore, it was hard to connect the dots and be able to apply what we were learning in real life.
Another thing I noticed…
Everything was focused on independent learning.
- Independent study
- Independent tests
School never promoted group brainstorming or working environments.
So, when Dasha and I moved to the United States, I was pleasantly surprised at how different the educational model was here.
It’s much more collaborative and holistic.
She doesn’t take history and geography.
Instead, it’s all grouped under social studies where they talk about culture, economy, and political science together.
Science groups physics, chemistry, and biology together.
There are group project assignments, which are very powerful.
The Power Of Collaborative Learning
Dasha had a group project where she and her classmates had to plan a trip to some country.
Each group of five was given a budget, and then they had to plan the entire trip around it.
- Locations
- What kind of flights they would book
- What hotel they’d stay at
- What sightseeing they’d do
They chose Tokyo.
During the planning phase, they were all face-timing each other to discuss the project, and by the end, they had an amazing piece of work — down to the cafes they would visit.
It involved math, geography, culture, communication, and so much more.
Whenever you get together with other people, it creates an entirely different learning environment.
It’s not just you anymore.
You get a Big Brain when all these smart people get together, and everyone brings their unique opinion, perspective, and experiences to the table.
And you create something really amazing!
So, that’s the takeaway from this collaborative, holistic style of education.
Another model of learning: how to drive a car.
Learning how to drive a car is an entirely different experience than traditional school.
I’ll share how I learned to drive a car back in Ukraine.
At first, we took a bunch of theory lessons.
I remember having a driver’s handbook, which I needed to read and study the theory and examples about how to behave in various situations.
And then something funny happened…
After all this study on theory, I went to my first practical lesson.
I get in the car, and the instructor looks at me and says, “Ok, you learned how to drive in theory. Now, forget about it all. Let’s learn how to drive in the real world.”
Pretty soon, I learned what he meant.
Learning to drive isn’t about following theory and rules. You have to follow other people, too.
Why?
Because they don’t always follow the rules, and you need to be able to react quickly.
What can we all learn from this experience?
It’s very important to be learning alongside somebody with real-life experience.
Theory only takes you so far.
Of course, coaching is great, as I am a coach. It provides guidance, but you want to ensure those coaches have real-life experience.
You want someone who has gone through what you’ve gone through because they understand and can give you specific examples for your situation.
Another learning example: Fitness training
I started working with a fitness trainer several years ago.
What I found interesting and useful was that when you have a trainer, you remove the guesswork.
You don’t have to wonder what you will do when you walk into the gym.
They check in with how your body feels, and based on their knowledge of you and your goals, they recommend a workout for that particular day.
Personal trainers provide accountability.
When you know someone’s waiting for you at the gym at 4 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, it creates more accountability for you to show up.
One more advantage of learning alongside someone with real-world experience is that they have enough knowledge to keep you safe.
It would be easy to walk into the gym and hurt yourself if you didn’t know what you were doing.
So, you want to make sure that whatever you’re learning isn’t going to harm you.
TIME-BOX YOUR LEARNING
The amount of time it takes you to learn something is directly connected with the amount of time you have to accomplish it.
If you’re given a week to complete a task, you will do your best to complete it within a week.
If you’re given an entire lifetime to complete that task, the chance is high that you will never get to it.
What does this mean for effective learning?
It’s important to time-box your learning experience.
Whatever you want to learn, put a time constraint on it.
If you give yourself your entire life to complete something, you probably won’t.
You want to put a little extra pressure on yourself in a good way.
You don’t want to force yourself, but when you know that you only have a month, six months, or a year to master something, you’re more inclined to actually take advantage of that time and get the most out of it while you can.
That’s why standard educational programs are all timed.
You have a set amount of time to get something done.
HOW TO GET BETTER AT LEARNING TAKEAWAYS
We’ve looked at a few different ways to learn, so how do we turn this all into the most effective learning experience?
Step 1: A strong academic theoretical foundation.
You want to set yourself up for success with a foundation of knowledge.
Step 2: Get somebody who guides you and helps you understand how to apply that knowledge best.
Connect with someone with real-life experience and have them guide you. Find someone who can help you determine which information is most useful at a particular time.
Step 3: Add the power of group learning and brainstorming to the process.
Extra accountability comes during this process. How can you create a container where people learn together and are on the same journey? This will be the ultimate learning experience.
And this is why I’ve designed Breverie 10x the way it is — a six-month mentorship program.
Once you join the program, you’re guided through the theoretical knowledge and then introduced to an interactive, facilitated group environment where you can brainstorm and discuss challenges and successes together.
Why six months?
Because you want to time-box your learning. You don’t want the time to be too short or too long.
We practice applying these skills in the real world and then come back together to talk about how it went and find ways to improve and celebrate our progress.
If you’re curious and want to master Life Design, join us!
What ways have you found that help you learn more effectively? Let me know!
As always, I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out with any questions you have.
Until next time,
Olena xx
