“If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.”

I would like to challenge each of you to be “determined to learn” and put forth the energy necessary to learn whatever it is you’re learning at the moment. This is tough because the things you have to learn , let’s say, in school aren’t always that interesting. But here’s the thing to remember: “practice makes permanent” (remember that from last month‘s article?). When you are determined to do something your brain figures out a way to make it happen. If you do that with everything you try (even the things not so interesting) you begin to create a habit. It’s just something your brain gets used to doing and so you do it all the time. This will inevitably lead to success.

You can think of your efforts to learn as opportunities to create lifelong skills (kind of like practicing for a sport or music) and this may help you plow through the less interesting tasks or the more difficult endeavors. So when you have a particularly ridiculous assignment or one that is really hard tell yourself that you’re building skills that will help you for the rest of your life. It may not make the task easier but maybe it’ll give it more purpose.

Teresa Mastison Sensei