STOP Learning!

I know you're like.........

With the exception of the last 4 years, I have been in school since kindergarten.   I am what you would call a professional student.  It's almost like I have become addicted to learning. I start a program, I complete the program and then I sign up for another one. I'm Sure that my grade school and junior high teachers would be shocked. After graduating high school, I went to college. I came home pregnant and still enrolled in community college until my belly was too big to fit behind the desk.  I delivered my bouncing baby girl and then After that, I went to and graduated from trade school. I worked a bit, raised my daughter some, got married, had another bouncing baby (boy) and I went back to school. From there I graduated with my associate's degree, raised the children while working part-time and then went right back to school.  It was only through the turmoil of going through a divorce that school had to go on pause. I didn't let "life" stop me from learning. I had become accustomed to learning continuously so I found other ways to do so.   

  

Growing up as a child, I had difficulty in school.  I couldn't learn as fast as the others in my class. Or maybe I wouldn't learn.   Had I not been so shy and had the boldness to ask questions, I probably would have grown to be a walking encyclopedia.  But instead, my difficulty got me taken out of class and into sessions with a counselor or in special activities class such as photography while other students stayed in class and learned the core classes.  

Luckily for me, my mom was a teacher, so I never missed the essentials. School became all year round for me.  Once regular school ended in June, summer homeschool started.  My mom brought home books and learning systems from her classes that I could learn from at my own pace with her instructing me.  

It became a part of my life routine.  Even with me being out of school the last 4 years, I still kept with the life pattern of always learning. Let me be the first to say that learning is a good thing. No, a great thing!!! However, I learned that in business, for me, it has become a handicap. No side eyes. Yes, I said a handicap. 

  

This past year has been a learning experience all over again. With the evolution of the internet and the birth of e-courses, Google, and podcasts, I have spent more time signing up for e-courses and completing them than doing the work that it has taught me for my own self.  I can randomly log into email and I’ll see, “Here’s Day 5 lesson” or “Open now for Lesson 15” .  LESSON 15!!!!!  Wait where’s day 1?  Or did I complete it for this course?  No wait, that was the other course….  SHEESH!! I need to give myself a break!  So then I go through each course and print out all the materials.  Before I know it, I have 7 e-courses sitting on my lap at one time.  I had to ask myself, “Did I really sign up for 7 e-courses at one time?”  So what do I do? Zip through them just to say I completed them.

  

You never guess what happens next….  Take a wild guess.

Each virtual mentor SENDS ME ANOTHER COURSE!!!!!!! I’ve been set up!!!  Clearly, I’m addicted to learning and like clockwork, I sign up for another set of courses.  Before I know it, the time has gone by and I never put into action what I have been learning.  I look back and I’m like why aren’t I further than when I started?  Well, that’s because I’ve done nothing!  Well, not absolutely nothing; just not the things that I wanted and needed to learn to propel.  My virtual teachers/mentors are so good at what they do, I just don’t want to miss out on any nuggets.  Anybody feel the same way?  You just want to soak it all up. 

So now that I have admitted to myself that I need L.A. (Learners Anonymous), I am setting myself back to work as I learn.  So as I listen to a Podcast or Periscope series, as I take the next e-course, I’ll stop upon completion, put into action the things that I just learned, BEFORE moving on to the next.  Is admittance the 1st step of rehab right?  Let’s see how I do.  Stay tuned. 

Find yourself in the same situation.  Leave me a comment and let me know how you are changing things.