One of my mentors is fond of pointing out that, just like money in a savings account, the "returns" from learning tend to compound over time. As a result, if we make the effort to improve by just one percent each day, in seventy days we will be twice as good.* As we turn the corner to a new year, this is a perspective that every dedicated lifelong learner would do well to adopt both for looking back and for looking forward. First, look back on your efforts in 2011. If you made some big leaps, congratulations. But also consider where you have made smaller, incremental progress. Have you done it steadily over time? If so, congratulate yourself on that as well. Have you got the start of something you can carry forward into the new year? Are there areas where you can re-apply yourself? Now, look forward to 2012. Where will you focus your efforts? If you have some big goals in mind, how can you break these down in to manageable objectives with small, daily steps to carry you forward on your journey? Even with a lifetime of effort, true mastery of anything is an elusive goal, but bit by bit, with conscious, consistent effort, we can improve dramatically. And each improvement makes the next one just a little easier. Jeff * The mentor I have in mind is Alan Weiss. I don’t know whether the "1% solution" is original to him, but I have heard him reference it many times in various seminars. If you don’t believe the math, I encourage you to use a simple interest calculator like the one at MoneyChimp.  Put in "1″ for "Current Principle," nothing for "Annual Addition," "70″ for "Years to Grow," and "1″ for "Interest Rate." Leave the rate of compounding as it is, and then hit calculate. As shown below, the result is just a bit more than "2." Note: It doesn’t matter that "years" rather than "days" are the unit of measure here. The point is that the original amount is compounded 70 times. Related posts: 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 1 - Growth Mindset

In 2011, more than a quarter million unique visitors landed here on Mission to Learn. I’d like to thank everyone of them, and also highlight some of the resources that were most popular among them. Here’s the top 10 for 2011 based on unique page visits: 10. 15 Language Learning Tools for Lifelong Learners (2,991 unique views) Ready to get started on that New Year’s resolution to learn another language? 9. 25 Free Online Resources and Web Apps for Lifelong Learners (3,181 unique views) Great stuff to support your lifelong learning habit in 2012 and beyond. 8. How to Improve Concentration and Focus: 7 Tips (3,474 unique views) Hard to learn if you can’t focus, eh? 7. 50 Web Widgets for Your Learning Mix (4,579 unique views) Note: This one has recently been updated. 6. 26 Learning Games to Change the World (6,149 unique views) Also recently updated. 5. More Than 100 Free Places to Learn Online - and Counting (7,025 unique views) And yes, this one has been updated too! 4. How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall? 8 Keys to Deliberate Practice (10,055 unique views) Don’t just put in the hours - practice deliberately. 3. 25 Sites and Tools to Exercise Your Brain (13,899 unique views) You didn’t think exercise is just for your body, did you? 2. 15 Free Online Collaboration Tools and Apps (28,896 unique views) Check out the comments on this - a long list of other tools and apps are mentioned. 1. A Definition of Learning (38,150 unique views) Who knew so many people were looking for a definition of learning? So that’s the Top 10 based on unique page views. Now, here are several of my personal favorites that were actually authored in 2011. As it happens, these have no overlap with the posts above other than the one on deliberate practice (which I won’t list here, since it is already listed above): 15 Ways of the Successful Self-Directed Learner A helpful list, I think, for any dedicated lifelong learner. In Defense of Competence This one didn’t get much reaction, but for me, it was one of the most important concepts I encountered in 2011. How Language Is Lost A reading from my favorite poet. (And it’s not too late to get her book for someone as a holiday gift.) Think you could never be homeless? This is a post about a "serious game" that I found very effective - and it touches on an issue that is impacting all too many people in the current economy. 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner Okay, cheating a bit here as this is the tag for the whole series. Given that this series took up a good bit of my posting time in 2011, it seems only right to include it. That’s all for my posts in 2011. I’ll be back in early 2012. In the meantime, I wish you very happy holidays and an excellent start to 2012. Jeff P.S. - If you like what you read here on Mission to Learn, I’d really appreciate it if you would subscribe by RSS feed or by e-mail. Related posts: By The Numbers: 5 Favorite Learning Habits List Posts You May Have Missed Mission to Learn on Facebook

Ever wonder what it takes to make a samurai sword? Or what the heck the Salton Sea is? Or what it might take to end poverty? Check out Documentary.net for a wealth of documentary footage on these and a wide range of other topics. And for you audiophiles in the Mission to Learn readership, here’s a short documentary on how vinyl records are made (click through if you don’t see it): No related posts.

I’ve mentioned Stanford Professor Carol Dweck before here on Mission to Learn. I think her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success is a must-read for every serious lifelong learner. Last week, Dweck was interviewed for an HBR Ideacast episode, and I was struck by a segment early in the interview when Dweck highlights a trap I think we can all fall into if we aren’t careful. In case you are not familiar with Mindset, the core point of the book is that consistently successful people embrace a growth mindset - a belief that they can always learn, grow, and become better at whatever they set their sites on. This is in contrast to the fixed mindset that holds back so many people - a belief that whatever talents or abilities you have are basically innate and not changeable to any significant degree. As I wrote in an earlier post, I find that it is possible to have a growth mindset in some, even most aspects of life, and yet allow a fixed mindset to insinuate itself into others. In the HBR podcast, interviewer Sarah Green raises the possibility - which Dweck affirms - that we might also slip into a fixed mindset even in areas of our life where a growth mindset has traditionally held sway. As Dweck puts it (at around minute 3:16), we may achieve great success only to feel that "Now I have to have all the answers. Now my period of growth is over. I have to be a fully mature person who knows everything. So, yes, at any point you can fall into that trap." So, be aware of the trap. Embrace the growth mindset - and don’t let it slip away. Jeff Related posts: 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 1 - Growth Mindset What’s wrong with this statement? 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 3 - Ask Questions

If you are reading this blog post, there is a good chance you are someone who likes to learn. Probably even someone who is hungry to learn and would like to learn more than you ever seem to be able to manage. But what can you do about that? Is there really any way to speed up your learning while not damaging the possibilities for retaining what you learn? Well, yes and no. Most learning of any substance involves at least some level of repeated exposure to whatever it is you are trying to learn. Whether this takes the form of practice, immersion in the right environment, testing yourself, or other techniques, it takes time. There’s just no way around it. But, you can certainly stack the deck in your favor. Here are a few tips: Sleep On It First, sleep well both before and after your learning experiences. With a well-rested brain, you are better able to focus and process new information. And during sleep following a learning experience your brain solidifies connections it formed while learning. Activity in the brain during sleep actually mirrors activity during learning - particularly learning of new motor skills. In other words, you pretty much practice in your sleep! Finally, sleeping between sessions of learning helps to space the learning out. Even if you are bent on learning fast, this spacing will ultimately help ensure better and faster learning. Connect the Dots Make the effort to draw connections between what you are learning and other things. In learning-theory speak this is know as "elaborative encoding." The use of mnemonics, is one strategy you may already be familiar with for making encoding easier. Like many musicians, for example, I used the phrase "Every Good Boy Does Fine" to help me learn the lined notes on the treble clef (E-G-B-D-F).  Similarly, if I am taught about a new concept and then spend time reflecting upon and visualizing how I might apply it in my day-to-day work, this also is a form of encoding. In this case, I connect new information to knowledge I already have (prior knowledge), and in the process strengthen my grasp on both the new and the old. Test Yourself If you want to move something into long-term memory, few methods are more straightforward and effective than testing yourself regularly as part of the learning process. Occasionally, for example, I like to memorize poems. When I am trying to memorize a new poem, I read it through a few times, set it aside, and a little while later make myself try to repeat as much of it as possible from memory. Repeated attempts at retrieving what I have learned help to cement it in my memory. Immerse Yourself As much as possible, immerse yourself in the environments where your learning will ultimately apply. This is a well-known approach for language learning - living in a country or visiting it for an extended period of time can provide a big boost for learning its language - but it also works well in many other learning situations. Putting your learning efforts as much in context as possible can provide for a powerful combination of application and unconscious exposure to supplement your conscious efforts.  These days, putting yourself in context may not even require leaving your house - role-playing games and other technology-enhanced learning experiences can bring immersive environments right to your living room. (For more on the power of games, check out Jane McGonigal’s TED Talk.) Don’t Stuff Your Brain Okay, this may qualify as an "anti-tip," but be sure to resist cramming - especially when learning anything complex. While cramming may get you through an exam, if that is your goal, it doesn’t help much with real mastery and long-term retention. You do, of course, need to repeat, review, and test yourself, but try to do this at spaced intervals. Study or practice for a bit, stop, and come back to it later (perhaps, as suggested above, with some sleep in between). Yes, this takes time, but learning fast isn’t of much value if you don’t retain what you learn. (Stay tuned: I’ll pick back up on "spaced learning" in an upcoming post) *** So, those are my suggestions. In spite of what numerous self help gurus may claim, I don’t think there are any miracle approaches to accelerated learning. Nonetheless, I know from my own experiences (in addition to having reviewed a great deal of research) that the approaches indicated here can really make a difference. What about you? What approaches have you found effective for accelerated learning? Please comment and share. Jeff No related posts.

I was reviewing some old notes recently when I came across a quote I jotted down last summer from Yochai Benkler’s The Wealth of Networks. Benkler argues that in a networked economy, …the diversity of perspectives on the way the world is and the way it could be for any given individual is qualitatively increased. This gives individuals a significantly greater role in authoring their own lives, by enabling them to perceive a broader range of possibilities, and by providing them a richer baseline against which to measure the choices they in fact make. [9] This, I feel, is the flip side of what I’ve referred to elsewhere as the learning economy. On the one hand, the demands upon all of us to keep learning, growing, and acquiring new skills and knowledge are greater than they have ever been before. It can be daunting at times. Frightening, even. On the other hand, the opportunities are enormous. It’s worth stopping occasionally to ask: Given the range of opportunities available, what  steps am I taking to author my own life? Benkler’s book is several years old, by the way. I wrote about it at least a couple of times in the early days of Mission to Learn, but I return to it often and am always amazed as the prescience of his thinking. Well worth the read - and it is available for free in a variety of formats. Jeff Related posts: 10 Gift Ideas for the Lifelong Learners in Your Life

Think about your life in the future. Imagine that everything has gone as well as it possibly could. You have worked hard and succeeded at accomplishing all of your life goals. Think of this as the realization of all of your life dreams.  Now, write about what you imagined. These are the directions that professor Laura King and her colleagues gave to a group of undergraduates in a controlled experiment conducted in 2000 ("The Health Benefits of Writing About Life Goals," 801) The students were then asked to write for 20 minutes each day for four consecutive days. This is just one of many experiments King has conducted over more than a decade to explore the beneficial effects of writing about both our past and our future. In this particular scenario, the students who wrote about their "best possible selves" experienced "a significant increase in subjective well-being" when assessed three weeks later. Five months later, it turned out they were also sick significantly less often than the control group. Timothy Wilson, a professor of psychology at the University of Virgina, references King’s work in his recent Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change and adds the following advice, which I find helpful to anyone who is embraces "best possible self" writing as a goal-oriented learning exercise: Don’t just think about what you have achieved (e.g., getting your dream job), but be sure to write about how you got there (e.g., doing an internship, going to graduate school). By so doing you might become more optimistic about your future and cope better with any obstacles you encounter. (Kindle Edition, 73) This is in line with what I wrote about goals in an earlier post. We’re more likely to realize our goals if we clearly see the contrast between a positive future and our current reality and then consciously embrace the work that it will take to move from the present to the future. Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor of psychology at the University of California - Riverside, also writes about King’s work in The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want.  She has conducted her own experiments with "best possible self" and found positive results similar to King’s. She notes, however, that "the biggest boosts in happy mood were observed among those participants who believed that the exercise "fitted" them best (i.e., who found it interesting, challenging, and meaningful) and practiced it with sustained effort." (Kindle Edition, 104) Like Wilson, Lyubomirsky suggests that "the exercise wasn’t just about imagining a model future for them; it was also about building a best possible self today that can make that future come true." (Kindle Edition, 105) It’s not a magic bullet, but clearly writing that is focused on a "best possible self" had tremendous potential. The key is in fully engaging with it and comprehending the steps that will take you from where you are now to where you want to be. So, give King’s directions a shot: Think about your life in the future. Imagine that everything has gone as well as it possibly could. You have worked hard and succeeded at accomplishing all of your life goals. Think of this as the realization of all of your life dreams. Now, write about what you imagined. Jeff No related posts.

I’ve taken a shot before at defining learning as I see it, but I’ve always felt the definition alone falls short of capturing what it means to be a lifelong learner. As I have considered the question more, it seems to me that the following five habits are essential: Consciousness I mention consciousness often on Mission to Learn. Certainly not all learning happens consciously, but I think dyed-in-the-wool lifelong learners are always attuned to opportunities to learn. They are aware. They are curious. The ask questions. As a side benefit, their conscious devotion to learning often puts them into situations where they learn a great deal unconsciously. Faith Bona fide lifelong learners truly believe that time spent learning is time well spent. They a have mindset that tells them learning is always possible regardless of age, current abilities, criticism or other factors that may hold us back. Engagement Lifelong learners don’t just sit there passively and let the world flow past. They take action. They try things. They get their hands dirty. They fail - usually often. Reflection Lifelong learners pause. They close the door and turn off the TV. They review what they have learned and think it over. They connect new knowledge to things they already know. They do this regularly. Humility Lifelong learners are optimist. They know great change is possible. They know they and others are capable of great things. But they also know there are things we will never know. Mysteries we will never solve. Things that are beyond our control. They are humble. Having written this out quickly, it now strikes me as almost a mini manifesto for lifelong learning. What do you think? How well does this capture the ways of the true lifelong learner? How well does it reflect your practices? Jeff P.S. - If you like this post, I’d be grateful if you would give it a tweet, like, or +. Related posts: 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 1 - Adopt the Right Mindset 10 Excellent iPad Apps for the Lifelong Learner 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner: No. 10 - Embrace Responsibility

I noted in a post late last year that I’d had the opportunity for a brief "immersion" experience to jump start my Spanish. In an ideal world, all language learners would would have the opportunity to spend a big chunk of time in a country that speaks the language they are trying to learn. Of course, we don’t live in an ideal world - but at least there is Skype. I’ve come across a number of companies that tout Skype for language learning specifically because it enables exposure to native speakers. This week an e-mail from Mission to Learn reader Dr. Tobias Lorenz highlighted the fact that Skype for language may also be a tool for changing the world. Lorenz’s organization, Glovico, bills itself as a "fair trade" solution for language learning. Its mission is "to offer entrepreneurs from developing countries the opportunity to earn additional income through teaching their mother tongues." In the process, Glovico aims to "promote intercultural dialogue." I have a soft spot for any initiative that combines learning with a social mission. If you are looking for a good way to learn a new language or get better at one you already know, check out Glovico - the first lesson is actually free. Jeff P.S. - If you have tried Glovico or have other language learning solutions you like, please comment and share your experiences. Related posts: Can you learn to save the world by playing games? The "Adults are Bad at Language Learning" Myth Explored

Complex systems like the global economy have leverage points where a little insight, action, or power can be amplified to make an outsized difference. These are catalysts for change. That’s the set up from a new massive multi-player game, Catalysts for Change, that will be launched by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Institute for the Future on April 3. By inviting large scale collaboration through "tweet-like" playing cards that help innovative ideas spread, the game aims to generate some serious insights into global poverty - and maybe even some real solutions - in a period of 48 hours. I write about serious games from time to time here on Mission to Learn and, in general, am fascinated by the potential for learning they represent. The Institute for the Future’s Jane McGonigal, who has architected numerous other large-scale, multi-player games, believes that games  may be the key to tackling the really big problems that plague the world. Others are skeptical of McGonigal’s arguments, but regardless, I think this is a phenomenon for serious lifelong learners to watch - and perhaps join. You can find out more and sign up to participate at http://searchlightcatalysts.org/. There’s also a Facebook page and a Twitter handle. Jeff Related posts: Can you learn to save the world by playing games? Game Mechanics, Bwah Hah Hah! Think you could never be homeless?