Page 83 - Power Up Your Mind Learn faster,work smarter

74 Power Up Your Mind

informal learning is the most valuable and the most real.
Congratulate yourself on everything you are already learning.
I am afraid it might change things. Learning is powerful stuff! You will
almost inevitably be changed by what you learn. It is best to be
honest about this possibility and try to share your thoughts and
feelings openly. My wife started to learn the piano recently after
being told as a child that she was no good at music. She is doing
very well. At one level you could say that all she has done is to
begin to acquire a new skill. In fact, her success in learning has
changed her, boosting her confidence as a learner and releasing a
musical talent she had been told she did not have.
I am too old to learn. However old you are, this isn’t true. While you
may have heard the slogan “Use it or lose it,” what we know about
our brains does not support this. It is true that your brain cells
gradually die off as you get older, but what is more important is that
even with only half your brain cells intact, you have more neural
capacity than you need. It is true that if you don’t seek actively to
use your brain you may get a little “rusty,” but this is really about
the patterns of connections between your brain cells rather than the
number of cells. It is common sense that if you stop using or prac-
ticing a skill you will be a little slower. More positively, there is
growing evidence that learning makes you healthier in later years.
Some doctors in the UK have even begun prescribing learning
rather than drugs, with very encouraging results!
I couldn’t possibly expose myself in front of my boss or those who work for
me. A fear of failure or lack of success is the reason that some very
senior executives find it difficult to accept the challenge to learn to
be different, and help explain why coaching and mentoring are such
important activities. The same reason can be equally powerful for
those in less senior positions. Nine times out of ten, however, those
around you end up admiring your determination to see something
through, even if they do not immediately give you that impression.
I am no good at learning and I’ll be humiliated in front of other people. This
fear is present to some degree in almost all of us. You were born able
to learn. You have done it naturally throughout your life. This book
is trying to help you rekindle your appetite for learning. Mentally
rehearsing what you are going to do will help, as will equipping