The Ability to Never Stop Learning

Posted on July 18, 2007 by Jennifer Brady

Back when I was in college, getting my undergraduate degree was a defined process, with a sure beginning and certain end. As I further my own education, my job and personal desire to learn and challenge myself, I have detected a significant shift in people's thinking about what you do after you are awarded a degree. Learning does not stop nor does the learner's quest for knowledge and wisdom.

Here in support of this conclusion on my part is a kind of open letter to recent graduates published by Seacoastonline.com, which serves the New Hampshire and southern Maine seacoast communities. They write:

Fear not. If you talk to any successful person in any field, you will discover that the secret to their so-called success was no secret at all… Theirs was a triumph of the human spirit, of the ability to never stop learning, to keep expanding the boundaries of their skills, to take risks because failure is the biggest lesson of all and to persevere because outcomes are not preordained.

I know that now to be true. I wish I knew that long ago, but it is not too late… not for anyone.

They close with this encouragement:

The constant is the approach to learning to serve yourselves and your country. As President John F. Kennedy noted more than four decades ago, "Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource."

[Graphic from website of Harvard Business School.]