Learning How To Learn: Developing my personal learning environments

These past few years have been the biggest years of personal development I have experienced. I attribute this to going into post-secondary. I remember people always asking me why I choose the program that I am in now, and things like "why not just go into the workforce?" Well, back then I just knew I was not ready to work, and jump into being a grown-up. I needed to develop myself to be a better learner, listener, and outright doer. Classes in outdoor recreation, tourism and environment, communications have pushed me out of my comfort zone and have contributed to me not learning about some scientific or philosophical subjects, rather it has focused on me at the base level. Instead of learning for the sake of learning, I am learning how to learn.

When focusing on my personal learning environment it focuses to evaluate myself. In five to ten years I picture myself in a job where I am comfortable with my coworkers, working towards a goal that benefits the environment. I hope to be part of outreach and education so that people can learn about the environment. I want this job to work with my need to be around friends and family, and my everlasting desire to adventure in the outdoors. Now, that's not too far off from where I am now, but I can still spot differences. To be the man I picture, I need to continue to work hard, be intentional, be bold, and most of all have confidence. I am naturally lazy and a procrastinator, and that is a attribute I want to transform. So what must I do or learn to change? I am glad you asked.

To become that man I desire to be, I must persevere. All the time I find myself getting discouraged by the amount of work I need to put in to complete an assignment, but I need to push myself and always keep that intrinsic reward of finishing in the back of my mind whenever I start an objective. If you look below, you might see the one tool that lacks. Yes, that would be organize. Well, I think that is a major source of my laziness, and state of being discouraged. I find myself always so clustered and unorganized. That is no way to start a project. I find myself being able to flourish in other categories like creativity and connecting, but sometimes this tapers off. Again, that might be me getting unorganized along the way. So I hope to really focus on staying organized.

Being organized is in essence having a good environment. I believe that it is important for me to be comfortable wherever I work. I need to be surrounded by people who are positive and have strong mindsets and are willing to talk to me when I need to. I work equally as well, or better, alone too. I believe the most important environment is just having a clean space where I can write things down to visualize what needs to be done otherwise I would forget. Using tools like word clouds and mind maps are perfect for me because it gives me the opportunity to see how I was thinking at that point in time. Reflecting on last week's post was easier when I saw my word cloud since I could see the major themes and keywords I used.

Yee, N. (CC) 2014.

This picture you are seeing. Well, it is like you are looking right in my brain. It might be a bit clustered with odd words, but that is pretty accurate when I reflect on how I think. I can see two major themes: technology and self-betterment. Those are two very important things to me and my personal learning environment right now.

Yee, N. (CC) 2014.

So what are the next steps for me no that I have identified this gold-mine of information. Well, I need to change my habits. The first stop is staying organized. I plan to take 30-days to stray from my lazy ways by staying on top of my assignments and starting everything early. I plan to write down all of my due dates and post them on my wall so I can always visualize what I want to do. I am going to be active in doing my work by giving my undivided time, and I will seek that intrinsic-reward/satisfaction when I complete assignments. After all, it is worth I try if it gets me closer to being the man of my dreams (pun-intended).

Thanks for listening,
I hope to keep you posted on this 30-day journey. And while I am at it, maybe you should take 30-days to break a habit that is affecting you ability to be the person you imagine you to be!