Have you noticed just how much of your healthy lifestyle centers around learning? The people best known as “successful” devote themselves to learning something new every day. And thanks to the techie-oriented world we live in, there’s a virtually unlimited collection of educational resources available. Do you subscribe to the “learn something new every day” philosophy? If you do, I applaud you. But are you learning the right things? Learning that proves to be helpful rings true in your own experiences and creates a positive belief system. Now that’s the school I want to go to! How about you? Now that all the kids are back to school, it’s your turn.
Successful People 101
I had to laugh a little when I saw a recent post on “54 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do.” The list was very practical. Many helpful skills were mentioned. Among the things we should know how to do:
- Start a fire without matches . . . CHECK!
- Change a car tire . . . If I absolutely had to.
- Speak one or two languages besides English . . . OUCH! BUT IT WOULD BE GOOD!
- Give a compliment . . . EASY!
- Cook an egg . . . OVER EASY, please.
- How to be happy . . . OK, that’s so complicated, it’s not even fair.
- And my favorite: Think critically and question the status quo . . . NOW WE’RE TALKING!
Choosing to learn something new every day is the hallmark action of any successful person. Your lifetime should be spent learning. But if you aren’t learning to think critically and challenge the status quo, you have just been sent to the back of the class!
Wicked Smart Lessons to Learn
There’s smart. And then there’s “wicked smart.” Regardless of what you already know how to do, you have much to learn. But which lesson should be the priority? I submit, that the priority should be on learning that leads to UNDERSTANDING these things:
- How you personally are designed to think, feel and act about the world around you
- How your brand of critical thinking leads to good choices
- What challenging your own status quo really means
If my priority learning list sounds familiar, good! We have talked about what I assert is one of the most critical lessons a successful person can learn: the 100% Pure Gold version of the Golden Rule. Don’t dumb it down and you are well on your way to a lifetime of critical thinking and throwing off the yoke of status quo.
Go Back to School and Learn Way More than “People Skills”
Wicked smart people challenge status quo by getting “schooled” on how they are designed on the inside. They also seek to understand others in the same fashion. It’s this kind of schooling that leads to way more than just good “people skills.”
LESSON 1:
We learned the real meaning of introversion and extroversion. Misunderstanding how someone is designed to regain their depleted inner resources leads to all kinds of trouble. Understanding this important aspect of inner design is more than just a good people skill, it’s Step 1 in maintaining the ability to think critically.
LESSON 2:
Understand how a person’s lifestyle preference colors everything they do.
Do you generally have a high sense of urgency about life? Do you prefer to come to closure quickly, not leaving anything to chance? Or do you tend to keep your sense of urgency on the low side, preferring to keep your options open?
Neither of these two lifestyles is better than the other, but they are incredibly different ways of relating to the world around you.
Those who want closure will be irritated by those who don’t. Those who prefer to experience life and all that it is (good, bad or otherwise) can find themselves at odds with those who prefer to exert their will on life and avoid unpleasant experiences. Lesson 2 is critical learning for any successful person!
It’s so important, that we’re going to re-visit it next week. Which lifestyle do you prefer to live by? It’s not something you do consciously. And we all lean toward one or the other.
Have you enrolled? It’s never too late!
In previous posts, we’ve started to learn some critical differences in the way we each think, feel and act.
Here are a couple of posts to get you caught up:
- So many ways to re-charge . . . how do you choose what really works?
- A genius move for anyone: Become a perpetual student of inner design
More on wicked smart “LESSON 2” next week.
Start class knowing which lifestyle preference is fueling your critical thinking: