Why you should never stop learning as an adult

Think back to when you left school; many of us will have breathed a sigh of relief as we walked out of the school gates for the final time. Exams, homework and parents evenings were finally a thing of the past. It’s more than likely, however, that the celebrations came to an abrupt end once we realised how much less desirable adulting and full-time work were. Not only did we find ourselves fantasising about six-week summer holidays and being home by 4pm, but pangs of nostalgia, and even regret, will have swept over a lot of us while looking back on this innocent time of learning and infinite potential.

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Before we started moulding ourselves to fit the demands of the job market, it felt like the whole world was accessible to us via these seemingly endless channels of knowledge. But here’s the thing: learning doesn’t have to stop. Your days of hungrily pursuing knowledge aren’t doomed to end the second you graduate. Yes, you may have to cut down on your hours spent in libraries when it’s time to start paying your own rent, but this doesn’t mean learning as a hobby has taken its final bow; you just have to be a bit more strategic with it. 

Learning is the antidote to monotony

Gaining new knowledge allows life to retain its variety and colour and can come in many different forms. As wonderful as reading is, the bookworms among us don’t have a monopoly on learning. There are courses, private tuition, online lectures and many more channels through which to gain new knowledge, and many are wonderfully social, for all those extroverts out there. Experiential learning, such as visiting exhibitions or attending classes, can give you something in your week to look forward to. And that’s to say nothing of the places an expanded skill set can take you. Think Milan after a year of Italian lessons, or history-making one man/woman campaigns after a public speaking course…

Self-improvement covers your bases for a future career change

A desire to learn new things will do a lot to increase your skill set. As we’ve all seen over the past year, the face of employment can change at a click of the fingers. No one wants to think about it but a global catastrophe (say… a pandemic) can strike at any time and the wider your scope of back-up plans, the better. Someone with a rich cache of skills and knowledge is likely to fare much more successfully in an unstable job market. Plus, unforeseen world-wide disaster or not, you never know when you’ll be struck by the urge to change careers. Your willingness to take the leap will be far greater if you have more on your CV than 10+ years in one field, whatever your wider skills may be.

But remember…there’s more to life than work

As useful as it can be for your career development, a commitment to learning will also help you maintain a healthy work-life balance by quite simply reminding you that not everything in life is about work. Too often, we’re pulled into a state of being in which our perception of the world is dominated by what we do for a living. Under the weight of this work-centric mindset we forget that, in order to be successful in our careers, most of us have had to enter a specific niche that can sometimes make our existences seem very narrow. Learning in our free time can expand the scope of our daily experiences and remind us how rich and diverse the world around us is.

Independent projects help develop your sense of self

Similarly, and perhaps more dangerously, work can alienate us from ourselves and our own sense of identity. When you’re first starting out in your career, it might feel exciting to devote so much of yourself to your work. But there will inevitably come a time when you’ll mourn the parts of your individual identity that you could have been cultivating when you were spending your Saturdays trying to get a headstart on the following week’s tasks. Whether we choose coding or cooking, developing skills and committing to our own projects outside work can liberate us from our sense of being defined by how we make a living. 

Learning keeps your brain sharp

Not only is the quest for knowledge personally enriching, it can have an enormous impact on our mental agility later in life. Regularly spending a few hours focusing on an activity, such as learning an instrument or a language, has been proven to help maintain individual brain cells, improving memory, concentration and more. So, developing a love of learning is a great way of ensuring cognitive function remains strong for as long as possible.

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So, what are you waiting for? 

Sign up for that French course you’ve been meaning to join, start those accordion lessons you’ve always been curious to try, and crack open that book that’s been sitting by your bedside for a year. It’s never too late to start embracing learning, but it’s always too early to stop.