How to learn something new at a conscious age

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

About what prevents adults from gaining new knowledge and skills, and how to overcome it.

Why is it harder for adults to learn

Decreased susceptibility

It's no secret that learning is easier for children and adolescents than for adults. The thing is that their brains are more open to new experience and knowledge. After all, the task of a young organism, inherent in it by nature, is precisely to develop and accumulate experience.

The period in a person's life when he most easily assimilates information and develops skills is called sensitive. Bad news: chances are you are out of it. For example, speech skills develop best before the age of 6, according to the famous educator Maria Montessori.

Over time, brain activity decreases. How older people learn., and there is nothing you can do about it. The brain processes associated with memorizing large amounts of information and concentrating attention do not stop, but they slow down significantly.

Good news: it still won't stop you from learning new skills.

Lack of motivation

There are not only biological, but also purely psychological reasons why it is more difficult for adults to take on an unfamiliar business.

In people of age, there is a predisposition to psychologically fixate on the past as on some ideal, which can be an example for everyone else. They often say: "In our time, they did it like this."

Sergey Ivanov is a psychologist.

By a certain moment, a person reaches the level of knowledge he needs for life, gets a stable job … and he simply has no reason to learn something new. Learning becomes an option - useful, but not vital.

Counteraction of the environment

Often, our loved ones put sticks in our wheels.

Galina Lifshits-Artemyeva is a writer, psychotherapist.

Of course, one of the reasons for the lack of incentive to learn in adulthood is the manifestation of age discrimination. It flourishes in our country partly because quite a few people obediently follow such false beliefs: "It's too late to start", "Nobody needs us anymore", "Can you change something now?"

Fear of everything new

With age, not only interest in self-development may disappear, but even fear of it may appear. Children and adolescents are not shy about asking questions and are not afraid to appear incompetent. Adults, on the other hand, are used to feeling confident in their professional field. Going beyond it, they often feel stupid. And this provokes a desire to quickly return to the comfort zone.

Financial position

The majority of the age population in Russia is discriminated against in terms of average earnings and, therefore, often belongs to the lower strata of social classes. It can also be a component of unwillingness or inability to develop and learn professionally.

Sergey Ivanov is a psychologist.

Indeed, as polls show, How do Russians fight the crisis? Russians, who, due to the crisis, began to lack money, prefer to save rather than look for a part-time job or take retraining courses. Only about 16% of those surveyed find ways to increase income rather than cut costs.

Conclusion: the more a person is constrained in means, the less opportunities he has to learn something new, especially if it is not directly related to earnings. If all the energy is spent on feeding, there is no time to think that you once dreamed of playing the violin.

How to overcome yourself

To understand that everything is not so bad

Although adults tend to learn more slowly than children, this does not mean that they are generally unteachable. How older people learn…. The constant updating of the baggage of knowledge in itself helps to keep the brain in good shape. The more actively a person learns, the easier it is for him.

In this regard, adults even have some advantage over children: they are helped by the accumulated life experience, knowledge and vocabulary, which is especially important, for example, in learning languages. In addition, at a conscious age, we learn something because we are aware of the importance of it, and not out of fear of getting a deuce. And this adds motivation.

Understand why you need it

Before you start mastering a new skill, you need to answer the question: "And actually, why?" Unless you come up with a compelling reason, it will be tempting to drop everything halfway. Here are just some of the possible answers:

• I will be more productive at work.
• This will allow me to enjoy my vacation more.
• This will save me time and effort.
• This will give me the opportunity to find a part-time job in the event of a crisis.
• This will improve my career prospects.

Begin

It may sound trite, but in order to start learning something new, you just need to decide on it. If you have a presentiment that you will be lazy, it is better not to choose an independent way of studying, but to sign up for courses, with a personal trainer or tutor. Having deadlines and committing to a specific person will add self-discipline to you.

Galina Lifshits-Artemyeva is a writer, psychotherapist.

You have to change your own settings. You never know who says what! You need, you are interested - get down to business! With this attitude, everything will work out. Now, fortunately, there are a huge number of educational institutions in which people of any age (as well as any physical abilities) can receive additional education. When you expand the scope of your world, there is a great incentive to live and be useful, the quality of life improves.