3 Switching On Your Mind
W
E ARE, OF COURSE, ALREADY WIRED UP FOR LEARNING. SITTING ON A
bus, standing in a queue, watching an argument, struggling with a
new computer application—we learn things all the time without
really realizing it. Our mind is permanently “wired up” to learn and
it is continually processing new experiences.
However, being wired up is not the same thing as being
switched on. We may have a good understanding of how our mind
works, be emotionally ready, and have the ideal learning environ-
ment (see later in this chapter), but if we are not determined to act,
all our preparations will be in vain. Even if you are emotionally
ready to learn, you have to actively engage your mind to get the
best out of life.
You need, as Charles Handy puts it, to cultivate a particular
kind of selfishness:Proper, responsible selfishness, involves a purpose and goal. It is that goal
which pulls out the energy to move the wheel. Diminish that goal, displace
it, or worst of all, disallow it and we remove all incentive to learn or to
change.
Not surprisingly, we all have different reasons for wanting to learn.
And in an age where lifelong learning is becoming increasingly sig-
nificant, knowing more about our motivation to learn is very
important. Interestingly, it is only recently that we have begun to
understand more about what turns us on to and off from learning.
The Campaign for Learning was one of the first organizations in the
world to undertake research into this subject and has subsequently