Journaling for Learning

Written by Max | Edited by Rory Hart
Sections of this topic
    Person Writing On A Notebook Beside a laptop

    © Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.

    Description

    One of the most critical skills to learn in life is the ability to learn from life. If you’re like most of us, when you think of learning, you think of classrooms. This is probably true because you had learning in mind when you signed up for the classes, sat through their lectures, and took their tests. Yet the most important things that you’ve learned in your life probably were not learned in a classroom. If you can go through life with learning in mind (as you did in your classes), then you can greatly expand your capacity for learning and living. This is the basic premise of continuous learning.

    One of the most powerful and highly accessible methods to learn how to learn is ongoing journaling. Many people seek journaling as means to learn more about themselves. They start journaling but soon stop. Ironically, their journaling might have already taught them something very important about themselves: they want to learn, but they don’t want to work to learn it! As with most important forms of learning, journaling takes some effort — if only to write down for the day “I don’t want to write anything
    today!”

    One Simple Format for A Private, Learning Journal

    Learning is often interpreted as enhancing your knowledge, understanding or perceptions or attitudes, behaviors, or skills.

    1. What learning have you accomplished (or are you accomplishing) lately?

    a) What experience spawned that learning?

    b) What learning did you accomplish from that experience?

    c) How can you carry this learning forward to improve your life? Your work?

    2. What learning might you accomplish in the near future?

    a) What experience might spawn that learning?

    b) What learning might you accomplish from that experience?

    c) How might you carry this learning forward to improve your
    life? Your work?

    Also, consider
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    Max