MOTIVATION - Expanding Your Mind

MOTIVATION – Expanding Your Mind


By Nikki Viljoen of N Viljoen Consulting CC – 22 November 2010

I don’t know about you, but I love to have my mind stretched. Especially when I am having a debate or discussion with someone whose mind works a little like mine. I must say that that doesn’t happen very often, but when it does happen, it leaves me with a profound sense of well being and a joy, deep down inside of me in that part that knows the truth. I walk around for days with a silly grin on my face and pretty much in a state of euphoric bliss.

Studies have shown that children absorb knowledge and learning at the rate of knots, in their formative years, but that doesn’t mean that adults cannot learn and absorb information or knowledge just as efficiently. Fact of the matter is that we, as adults have the ability to learn. In fact, I would go as far as to say that we, as adults (well some of us anyway and even if we remain children at heart) have a responsibility, not only to ourselves, but also to the people whose lives our lives touch, to learn and then play that learning forward by sharing the information with the people around us.

I don’t think that there is a person on the face of the planet who can honestly say that they don’t need to learn anything because they ‘know it all’. That kind of statement would probably rank right up there with arrogance beyond belief. Yet as adults we often say the words “I’m too old to learn!” or “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks!” What a load of absolute crap!

Childhood for me was full of wondrous discovery and challenge. I grew up on a huge farm and discovered amazing things, every day – each day was an adventure, each day I used what I had learnt the day before and to be sure, I also learnt another new thing to be used the following day. The question now becomes, do I as an adult, take what I learnt yesterday into my adventure today? If the answer is ‘no’, then I, in my own option, have a huge problem! You see, for me, not learning at least one new thing every single day, means that my mind is not being challenged and stretched and therefore I am not growing as an individual.

Here’s the thing – studies have shown that an adult’s brain goes into a decline at a certain age. We all know that ‘older’ or more mature people sometimes have memory lapses. Think about it for a moment – have you ever heard of a child with Alzheimer’s? I haven’t. That should tell you its own story – the minute, as an adult, you give up on learning, your brain will start going in reverse. The message of course is quite simple – keep the mind learning – note, I did not say “keep the mind busy”.

Going about your life on auto pilot is really not doing yourself any favours (or anyone else for that matter). You stop dreaming, you stop trying new things, you stop reaching for the stars – how sad is that?

Set yourselves a target – to learn at least one new thing a day. Read, research, debate and discuss – ensure that your mind is active and constantly being challenged.

So I wonder – like me, do you love having your mind challenged?

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za