Embracing the Joy of Learning: 3 Steps to Make Adult Learning Enjoyable
Even when people start studying, many do not keep it up for long. They might open a textbook, only to find it pushed to the corner of a desk or the bottom of a bag a few days later. There are surely many people who have had that experience. On the other hand, there are adults who continue to learn happily, absorbing new knowledge in the gaps of their busy daily lives.
Where does this difference come from? Is it because they all possess special talent or an extraordinary amount of willpower? I do not think so. Perhaps it is just that many people give up right before studying becomes truly interesting.
The process of learning has a structure where, although it starts with mundane tasks, your perspective opens up once you cross a certain point. This time, I would like to unravel the three steps through which learning transforms from a boring task into active enjoyment, incorporating my own experiences.
There is no such thing as studying that is fun from the start
No matter the field, the beginning of learning is always a boring and arduous task. Many adults fail because they run just these first few meters and decide it is not for them.
From my own experience in building work systems and studying investment, there is no such thing as studying that is fun from the start. There are clear stages before learning turns into something interesting, and it is only natural that if you do not understand that process, you will not be able to endure the darkness in front of you. The process of making adult learning enjoyable can be divided into three stages.
Step 1: Triggers and Collecting Dots
All learning begins with a small trigger, such as anxiety about the future or a bit of curiosity. However, a painful period of mundane memorization and inputting unfamiliar terminology continues for a while after that.
If we compare this to building a plastic model, it is close to the state of just cutting out small plastic parts from the runner (the frame connecting the parts) without even knowing what they are for. You cannot see the overall shape, and you do not feel any fun. Therefore, many people drop out at this stage. However, the only trick to getting through this period is to accept that this is the time to collect parts for assembling a large work later.
Step 2: Cross-referencing with Past Experience
When parts—that is, dots of knowledge—increase in your head, a certain change occurs. It is a phenomenon where newly acquired knowledge begins to be associated in your mind with past events you have experienced in your work or life.
For example, there are moments when a rule you read in a book overlaps with the cause of a trouble you once faced at work. Or, you might feel a slight hook where the background of an event mentioned in the news becomes slightly visible. You do not understand it perfectly yet. It is a period where you have a vague, yet certain, premonition that something is beginning to connect, like seeing the outline slightly in the darkness.
Step 3: The Connection that Opens the Black Box
When you repeat cross-referencing, one day a moment suddenly arrives when the dots you have collected connect with your own experience. The knowledge that existed individually until then becomes one mass, and the entire three-dimensional structure emerges all at once. It is that feeling when the last piece of a puzzle fits into its designated place as if it were sucked in.
This is similar to the pleasant, clear feeling when scattered foreshadowing is resolved at the end of a mystery novel. The studying you were doing out of a sense of duty switches to active enjoyment before you know it. This process of satisfying intellectual curiosity becomes the greatest driving force for learning.
A world where learning is with you
The state of being unable to help but enjoy learning is not a talent, but the result of a process. Collect parts, cross-reference them with past experiences, and wait for the moment the puzzle fits. By just believing in this path and moving forward, anyone should be able to feel the joy of learning.
Once you experience this connection even once, the way you see daily scenery and news begins to change little by little. You become able to understand the intentions behind street signs you have passed by until now and the structures of business by connecting them with your own knowledge. It is a feeling like the resolution of the world going up one level.
If you are currently worried that studying is painful or that you cannot keep it up, it is not because you lack talent. You are just standing still before the first joy. Please, try to take steps forward, even if just a little, until the moment the puzzle fits perfectly in your head. Beyond that, a new daily life where learning naturally becomes fun should be waiting for you.