Learning Archives - Asif Rehmani

Mentor the receptive ones

Not everyone is going to be receptive to hearing your brilliant thoughts, your ideas or learning your skills. No matter how much you believe how beneficial it can be for them. If they’re not open to receiving it, nothing will get through no matter what. That’s just how it is.

In fact, many of us realize once our kids get to a certain age that they are not interested in our insights, learnings and thoughts that we thought we would be transferring to them so they don’t have to go through the same hardships and failures we went through. Many of the times they’re just not receptive or open to them.

It breaks your heart when you feel you have so much wisdom and skills you want to pass on to your next of kin but either they’re not ready yet or they just don’t have interest in learning from You specifically.

This happens to the rich folks as well as poor ones. Powerful businessmen and those working at a 9 to 5 job. Elite athletes as well as those who don’t have an athletic bone in their body. No matter where you fall in the spectrum and who you are, chances are this will happen to you also to some degree.

So what do you do? Do you force your insights, your wisdom, your skills and aptitude to those who are not receptive? You’re just going to end up pushing them away and waste your time in the process.

This is where we have to remember that there’s always someone out there who is ready to receive the wisdom and skills that you have to share. In fact, out of the almost 8 billion humans that exist on Earth right now, there will be many people out there who can benefit from what you have to share and are ready to receive your wisdom.

So share away. It can be as easy as answering people’s questions online – forums, blogs, social media, commenting on articles, etc. Or if you are really driven, join an organization or start your own.

Whatever you do, just try not to leave this earth without leaving your pearls of wisdom scattered behind you for others to pick up.

How to slow down time

I can’t believe 2021 is over and 2022 is here

Have you caught yourself saying something similar?

For folks in there mid-thirties and above, this feeling is pretty common. It’s hard to believe sometimes how time is just flying by so quickly. It feels to get even faster once you have kids and the routines with them set in and you literally see them grow by the week.

I was having this type of a chat with a lady at a conference I was speaking at recently. She was saying the same type of thing: I can’t believe my kids are all grown up and time is flying by so fast.

I shared a thought with her. An idea of how to slow down time. I would like to share that same thought here as well for what it’s worth…

To slow down time, add wonder & curiosity in your life

My rationale behind this is the following. If you think how kids perceive time, many of them think time is going by too slow. They will tell you that they are bored most of the time.

Why is that? How is it that for them time is going by slow when they live in the same world as you and I..?

I believe this is because kids are constantly absorbing new information and experiences. They’re constantly getting curious about things they don’t know. Their sense of wonder is still young and fresh. For them, every minute is new and different. The only routine most of them have is going to school everyday and even there, they’re absorbing new information all the time (or at least we hope so 😊)

I’m convinced that adding the sense of wonder and curiosity in our lives will help us slow down time & enjoy life to the fullest

But what’s the way to add wonder and curiosity you ask..? here are a few things to consider:

Enjoy every moment.
Relish the present.
Get curious about the things and people around you.
Make constant learning a way of life.
Try to understand before being understood.
Take pictures and videos of moments that otherwise might be mundane.
Write down your thoughts in a journal routinely.
Start a personal blog like I did 😊
Discuss new topics (not current news) with your friends.

I hope you find the path that works best for you to add wonder & curiosity in your life. As Steve Jobs once said: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish”.

Is learning a waste of time?

“Why learn in school when you’re going to forget everything anyway?” – my daughter asked.

It should give us pause when youngsters are routinely asking this type of question that many of us also asked when we were in school: “will I ever use calculus in real life if I want to be a doctor? Why the heck is this a prerequisite for me?”

A very valid question for which I believe there is a very valid answer.

Learning how to learn

You might have heard this one before: you learn how to learn in school.

I think there’s a better way to explain this statement above. Let me try.

Just like any other muscle, our brain is also like a muscle (technically it’s an organ and not a muscle but let’s go with it for now for this analogy…). But I’m sure you’ve heard this one already before right? Well, I think it’s a bit more than that…

Our brain is like our complete body with different muscles or areas. Just like in our body, we have leg, arm, chest, back muscles, in our brain, we have areas for different things as well – thought, memory, emotion, touch, motor skills, vision, breathing, temperature, hunger and all other processes that regulate our body.

Then there’s the left hemisphere that is thought to control language, math and logic, while the right hemisphere is responsible for spatial abilities, visual imagery, music and your ability to recognize faces.

Ok, that’s enough for the technical parts of this post. Let’s get into what that has to do with learning.

Working out your entire being

If you went to the gym and only worked out your biceps all the time, you will eventually have some pretty decent biceps but you’ll be missing out on all the other compound movements that are super important to grow and balance the other parts of your body – chest, legs, back, etc.

Have you ever seen a guy who’s buffed at the top and has very skinny legs? Believe me… It doesn’t look good. Not to mention that weak legs means weak foundation for your entire body.

Taking that same analogy, if you only studied one area like math or reading because you are focusing on studying engineering, the other parts of your brain would be deprived and would not grow. Those other areas also balance out your entire brain and serve as foundational areas you need for your main job.

Align your goals with your learning

You have to ask yourself: what are your goals in life?

Do you want to feel smart? Look smart? Make lots of money? Have a fulfilling life? Have people who love you? Be able to love many people around you and feel good about that? Make an impact on the world?

What do you really want …?

The answer to all of these things and more involve learning.

Learning is natural and automatic from the moment you are born. But you eventually get to a point where natural learning slows down.

Natural learning usually starts to slow down a few years into your job when things become repetitive. At that point, if you really want to learn and continue to grow and change things in your life, intentional learning is required. It’s not automatic anymore. It’s not easy… But it’s required if you want changes in your life.

But what if I don’t feel like reading books?

You might have noticed it I did not equate learning to reading books. I did not use the words “reading” or “books” even once above.

I personally think reading books is awesome. However, that’s not the way many people learn. They learn by practicing and doing, talking with others, watching something informational on television, traveling the world and so forth.

You do you! Learn in the way you enjoy.

No need to force learn in a manner that you do not find enjoyable. If you keep curiosity alive and continue to learn in the way that you enjoy, and make learning a way of life, I guarantee you will find that fulfillment that we all crave in life.

Stay curious. Learn. Have fun!