Exercise Your Learning Muscles

Recently I was asked to be interviewed for a podcast, and the interviewer asked me to pick a couple of articles from his website to comment on during the interview. As I reviewed the site and looked at a variety of articles, I selected two and decided that rather than just commenting on each, I would look for the common threads and compare and contrast them.

As I did this exercise in preparation for the interview I realized the power of what I was doing and decided at that moment to write this article. This article uses that experience as a starting point, then offers two other approaches, and finishes with a process that you can use when trying these activities.

Human beings are natural learners, and yet we don’t always harness that ability in a conscious way to help us achieve greater results. These approaches are meant to help you become a more conscious, intentional learner. Consider these approaches as habits that you can add to your daily or weekly regimen to improve your learning ability and agility.

The Three Approaches

Two articles. I’ve already partly described this first approach. Take two articles (any two articles), read them and then look for the similarities and differences between them. Consider where they are in alignment, and consider the basis of the story or argument to see if you agree or not. This may be easy if you read two articles from a favorite trade journal or publication, but let me encourage you to consider branching out for your sources. This approach can lead to wonderful and serendipitous results when the articles come from more disparate sources. How about a newspaper article and a blog post in a different topic area? How about a trade journal article and a piece from Ladies Home Journal? Some of the best results (beyond the practice you gain from doing the exercise) will come when you haven’t “planned” your two sources upfront. Two people. You can do a similar thing, substituting people for articles. Have lunch with different people each of the next two days, or schedule a meeting with someone interesting. When you meet with these two people (whether planned or not) don’t focus on small talk, but get them to talk about their passions. Talk about ideas and plans. Learn more about their interests. After having done this, apply the same thought process we discussed above. Compare and contrast what you heard and discussed. Look for common lessons and ideas. Look for new ideas that might come to you with these conversations as fuel for your creativity and learning. One of each. Don’t have time to visit with two people today? You can use this same approach of comparing, contrasting and reflecting using one conversation and one article as the fuel for your thinking. All three of these approaches require one important component – you must do more than read and listen, you must think. Thinking is a critical part of the learning process, and one many of us don’t truly do enough of!

A Helpful Process

Here is a process to help to take best advantage of these learning opportunities. It consists of 4 A’s – and each of them is an important part of this process.

Add – The fodder for your thinking comes when you add new ideas – whether that comes from reading or listening to others. In either case (or by any other means) you are adding ideas and thoughts to your conscious mind for you to think about. Analyze – In the approaches above I discussed comparing and contrasting ideas. This process of analysis, the process of comparing and contrasting, of thinking pros and cons, of mentally comparing ideas, is a powerful part of your intentional learning process. Ask – Certainly in personal conversations you will be asking the other person questions, but beyond that this thought/learning process requires that you ask yourself the questions that lead to making the lessons and ideas your own and therefore creating powerful learning. Apply – In the end, the learning cycle isn’t complete until you take action on your lessons learned. Consider how you can use what you have learned, not only from the conversations/reading itself, but from what you have gleaned in thinking about it.