Learning to Learn

The Insights of Eleanor Roosevelt

Issue #91

Thanks for reading my weekly inspirational newsletter. This issue is about lifelong learning and is inspired by the writing of Eleanor Roosevelt. If you find the newsletter helpful, please share it with others.

I am reading the book, You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life, written by Eleanor Roosevelt and published in 1960 when she was 76. Her first key is Learning to Learn.

We constantly face new challenges and new problems in work and life. The key to successfully solving these problems is to develop new knowledge and new ways of thinking.

Some people dream of turning the clock back to a simpler time. It is not going to happen. Life will continue to become more and more complicated. Those who refuse to change, to learn new ideas, will be left behind.

Don’t live in the past. Challenge yourself to seek out new knowledge. Find new ways to solve problems. Become a lifelong learner.

Not all learning happens in the classroom or from reading. The people we meet can teach us a lot if we observe and listen. Talk to other people in your business. Find out what they are doing that makes them successful. Learn from their successes and failures.

I worked for 30 years in a large corporation with over 60,000 employees. When I was out in the field, visiting one of our locations, I would talk one-on-one with the leaders. I would listen to what they had to say. What was working? What was not working? I was amazed at what people would tell me if I took the time to listen with an open mind.

I would also walk around our corporate office and talk with people in other departments. I would ask questions and learn what was happening in the various areas. What projects were computer people working on? What new system was being rolled out in accounting, or nursing, or human resources?

There is no way a company can communicate everything that is happening. You have to take the initiative and seek out information. Don’t blame the company for not telling you something. Ask questions and listen.

Also, spend time meeting people from other industries. Amazing what you can learn if you simply ask and listen to what they say. I once talked with a man who worked for a trucking company. He said that he knew when the economy was headed for a recession six months before it happened. He could tell because truckers from other companies came looking for work. Also, his company was experiencing fewer shipping contracts.

While reading is important, learning from what you read is even more important. What impact does the content of what you read have on your life?

When I was seventeen, I read the book, The Religions of Man by Huston Smith, and it opened up other worlds for me. I grew up in a conservative Mennonite church in central Illinois and planned to enter the ministry. The book introduced me to the other major religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.

Overnight, I realized that there was more than one path to God. Every religion has its strengths and weaknesses. How can any one religion claim that it was the only path to spiritual understanding? We can all learn from each other.

Another book that had a powerful impact on my life was Dress For Success by John T. Molloy. When I entered the business world in 1975, I saw myself as a hippie. I had long hair, a beard, and wore earth shoes. I did not wear a tie or a suit coat. When I was promoted to a position in marketing, I was given a copy of Dress for Success.

Molloy had done his research. He sent job applicants to companies dressed in different ways. Those wearing a suit and tie outperformed those in casual dress. People judge us by our appearance. Agree or not, it is a fact.

So, I changed my appearance. I shaved my beard and cut my hair. I bought 3-piece suits and Florsheim shoes. And my career took off.

What books have had an impact on your life? How have you changed?

Additional Quotes from Eleanor Roosevelt

Here are some additional quotes from Eleanor.

“What I have learned from my own experience is that the most important ingredients in a child’s education are curiosity, interest, imagination, and a sense of the adventure of life.”

“If the child’s curiosity is not fed, if his questions are not answered, he will stop asking questions. And then, by the time he is in his middle twenties, he will stop wondering about the mysteries of his world. His curiosity will be dead.”

“Life is interesting only as long as it is a process of growth, or, to put it another way, we can grow only as long as we are interested.”

“Knowing my own deficiencies, I made a game of trying to make people talk about whatever they were interested in and learning as much as I could about their particular subject. After a while I had acquired a certain technique for picking their brains.”

“And there’s one strange thing: when you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else.”

“In all my life, nothing I have ever learned has failed to be useful to me at some time or other, often in the most unexpected way and in some quite unforeseen context.”

“Of course, unless it is checked, imagination can remain only a means of escape; but if it is nourished and directed, it can become a flame that lights the way to new things, new ideas, new experience.”

“If you can develop this ability to see what you look at, to understand its meaning, to readjust your knowledge to this new information, you can continue to learn and to grow as long as you live and you’ll have a wonderful time doing it.”

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Plant seeds of hope in the hearts of others!

Thanks for reading Creative Seeds of Hope. I will stop by again next Tuesday. Have a fantastic week.