Are you a Lifelong Learner? Do you live a Lifelong Learner Life? (Part 1)

Here are two questions I realized curious individuals might be asking when first visiting my blog. So I will attempt to help answer the first question here: Are you a Lifelong Learner? 

One factor that come to mind that really defines the lifelong learner is the fact that motivation to learn must come from within. It is hard to truly learn when it is forced. The second most important factor in the definition of a lifelong learner is that the learning process is "ongoing." 

The lifelong learner also tends to have somewhat eclectic interests, I have found. There are lifelong learners who focus, to be certain, and those people are often the ones who are all about furthering their careers through pursuit of knowledge both in their field and peripheral areas. 

In addition, the field of heutagogy is often part of the self-improvement programs that autodidacts undertake--learning how to learn is part of being a Lifelong Learner. To teach oneself or guide one's own learning fully is the ultimate aim of autodidacts like myself. 

A little background on me:

I have taken both routes in my life, for various reasons, meaning that I have attended organized schooling as well as pursued my own individual learning adventures. I graduated from public high school, attended several public universities over the years, garnering degrees in psychology, aquaculture, management information systems, and culminating in my pursuit of an MBA in leadership, for which I have only a couple more classes to complete. 

As to the autodidactic aspect of my life, not only did it begin as a baby , but also it has remained a vital part of my existence ever since. As a child, I read everything in the house ( I do mean everything, including the dictionary, the World Book Encyclopedia set (circa 1957), the Childcraft set (circa 1979), and all of my parents' books, including cookbooks, gardening books, childcare books, old textbooks from college, and ANY other books I could find. 

We also took regular trips to the public library in a nearby town (we were very rural), where I would spend hours perusing and choosing books not only from the children's library section of the library but also from the adult section. I often checked out 20 or more books every couple of weeks, and read the vast majority of them from cover to cover. Voracious reader does not really describe my childhood fully, but it was definitely the PRIMARY characteristic that lead me to my Lifelong Learner mindset that continues today. 

As a teenager, I was already learning about heutagogy through such books as the Teenage Liberation Handbook and The Day I Became an Autodidact. I also read tons of books about education, especially John Holt's books such as How Children Learn, How Children Fail, and Teach Your Own. I don't know if it is unusual at all but I was planning to home school my unborn children already when I was 14... 

For every stage of life, I have pursued knowledge and growth in understanding in a variety of topics related to that stage of life and also seemingly random subject areas as well, or at least one subject leading into another which leads into another... This means that the phenomenon of the world wide web was a great boon to my research!

But I digress: to summarize the qualities that determine whether one is a lifelong learner:

• Open minded
• Always seeking new information; hungry for knowledge
• Incessantly curious about one or more topics
• Ability to see many different aspects of various situations (perhaps even to the point of being ambivalent or indecisive...!)
• Enjoy frequent reading, writing, and discussion about topics of interest to you
• Feel excited when you find a new resource for learning!
• Often feel compelled to read everything you can find on some idea or subject
• Depending on the subject of interest, considerable additional hands-on activities are planned surrounding the given area of study (i.e., computer programming or cooking)

In short, almost anyone who has a significant passion could be considered a Lifelong Learner, along with eclectic types like myself who have a wider variety of interests but are passionate about knowledge itself. 

Please feel free to comment/add your input to the list of qualities defining the lifelong learner!

Also, stay tuned for the second part of this post, which will address the question: "Do you live a Lifelong Learner Life?"