Goodwill Learning

Going through exam days and the days prior to it were painful. But watching my brothers at home go through the same pain now is not nearly as hurtful to me as it was for me to go through it. They’re in the classes 9 and 10, and are busy stuck in the race to meet society's goals to get a cut above 90 or whatever, so as to land a decent seat for classes 11 and 12 (or PU 1 (Pre-University) and PU 2 as it’s called in Karnataka).

The ability to produce good results consistently, be it in academics or in a sport, or in acting often has the same underlying basis: that of being a good student of the subject. Being a student comes with the implication of being a superior learner. What then makes for ‘good learning’? Here are 5 points in their order of importance that I think makes sense.

1) A desire for the subject: It’s another way of saying 'you’ve got to do what you like'. A desire for a subject is so paramount to the learner and for learning, simply because it makes the learning process much easier. The desire is like a drug; an anesthetic. You don’t feel the pain of the learning process. This one factor is of such giant importance that placing it anywhere but one would be undermining it to a large extent. History has scores of literature to support this fact.

2) A teachable attitude: I can have all the desire in the world to learn cooking, but if my attitude towards learning stinks, I’m not getting anywhere close to making tasty pasta. And attitude towards learning could mean a whole lot of things – patience, subduing one’s ego for the benefit of learning, stickability to the subject over a period of time, asking questions and not questioning everything, curiosity and initiative, and so much more.

3) Superior Coaching: The saying goes that when the student is ready, the teacher appears. And the converse is true as well. A student who wants to learn and is willing to pay the price for it will, by the Law of Attraction, bring in a coach into the circumstance. And superior coaching can bring about (and always does) the difference between doing well and a stellar performance.

4) A competitive fire: The connotation of the word ‘competition’ to mean dog-eat-dog is rampant today. But this is not that kind of a competitive fire that I’m referring to here. It’s that traditional and boring meaning that you’re Principal in school told you about: each day, am I getting better than I was the previous day. It’s that competition with the self.

5) Rote repetition and mastery of the basics: Once these four factors are in place, it’s time to sharpen the pencil, learn the technique and get good at it. Unfortunately, most of us put this at number one. Learning the basics, sticking to it and repeating it over and over again is really the key. There’s nothing fancy to the big win. It’s very unsexy, but who cares; it works all the time.

What other factors do you think can be added to this list?

And btw,here's a great video that captures the essence of being a student and great learner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKXFGVMO3pc