Three great quotes have inspired me to write this article to encourage you to adopt a philosophy and practice of continuous learning. The first quote is by basketball coach John Wooden. He says: “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”

The second quote is by entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker Jim Rohn. He says: “Don’t let your learning lead to knowledge. Let your learning lead to action.”

And the third quote is by author and leadership expert John C. Maxwell. He says: “Growth must be intentional – nobody improves by accident.”

Learn After You Know It All

In my public speaking organization, Toastmasters International, we have volunteers who serve as club officers. Each year these officers are expected to attend training to learn how to do their roles and how to lead their clubs. Every year there are club officers who don’t attend the training because they think they already know everything they need to know about their roles.

I think this is a mistake. Even after several years of experience serving in a leadership role (or any other kind of role), I think there are opportunities for learning. You can learn from people with different perspectives. You can learn from sharing your experiences and getting feedback from other people. You can even learn by being one of the presenters at these training events.

The key point is: You should never stop learning. There are always opportunities to build on what you know, even if it is just sharing what you know with other people. Going to training leads to opportunities to learn from other people.

Put Your Learning Into Practice

Have you ever read a book, only to put it on a shelf and not use what it teaches you? I have been guilty of this. I read a lot of books on self-development and leadership. These books have a lot of great ideas, strategies, and teachings that can improve your life and your leadership skills. But you have to implement these strategies and use these ideas if you want to change your life.

The same applies to going to seminars or other training events. It is great to take notes at these events, but you also need to use what you learn from these events. Taking notes can make you feel like you are doing something useful at these events, but if you don’t read your notes, and you don’t take action based on your notes, then attending these events is essentially a waste of time because your life won’t change.

For example, imagine you attended a training session in your role as vice president of public relations for your community club. The trainer and other attendees all shared some great ideas that you captured in your notebook. These were ideas about how to effectively promote your organization on social media. You were inspired by this training session, and you have several pages of notes.

So what do you do now? I think a good first step is to pick a time to review your notes and create a plan for how to follow through on the ideas and strategies you captured in your notes. Then you need to follow through on that plan and do the steps you documented in your plan. This is how you can take action and make changes based on what you learned.

Something else you could do is to find someone else to teach. The idea is that you share what you learned with another person. By reviewing your notes and sharing what you learned with other people you can reinforce what you learned. You can also get other people’s perspectives and feedback on what you learned.

Intentional Learning

John C. Maxwell’s quote taught me that you have to be intentional with your learning. This goes along with Jim Rohn’s quote about putting your learning into action. So how can you be intentional with your learning?

One way to be intentional with your learning is to decide what approach you will use to learn something new. Whether this is learning a new skill or a new job, decide what resources you will learn from and then create a plan for what you will use, when you will use it, and how you will apply what you are learning.

This can include creating a checklist of books to study and courses to take. It can also include scheduling learning sessions during the week or during the month. It can also include one or more brainstorming sessions to identify what you want to learn.

Ultimately, the goal should be to have a plan for learning and to follow through on that plan. Actively pursuing continuous learning can make you a more versatile, knowledgeable, and effective person. It could even learn to new opportunities in life.

Conclusion

As John Wooden said, “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts”. To me, this means we should always strive to learn more, even after we think there is nothing more to learn. You can do this by teaching other people. You can do it by seeking out new perspectives and new opportunities to apply what you have learned.

Also remember what Jim Rohn said: “Don’t let your learning lead to knowledge. Let your learning lead to action”. This means actively using what you have learned, instead of just putting what you learned on a shelf and never acting on it.

Also embrace what John Maxwell says: “Growth must be intentional – nobody improves by accident”. This means having a plan for what you want to learn and how you are going to learn it. It also means acting on your plans, so you are intentional with your learning.

I challenge you to keep learning. Who knows how far you will go?