Just Keep Learning

It’s back to teaching Mah Jongg for me. Having had Covid in December makes it not that dangerous for me so I am happy to do it. Today I had 24 new students in two classes and tomorrow I have another 12. Next week I add two more classes adding 24 more new students. Fifty-six new learners in the month makes me very happy.

I find that the people who take classes and learn new things regularly are the smartest. They don’t necessarily start out as the smartest, but constantly exercising their mind in new and different ways helps.

At the end of some classes I taught, when I already knew who the best students were, I asked people when the last time had taken a class of learned a new skill. Not surprisingly the top students were constant learners, it didn’t seem to matter what they were learning. The best students had recently learned everything from Pickle Ball to coding.

It did not seem to matter if they were learning things taught in classes, like Mah Jongg, or self taught like learning new needlepoint stitches from a book. It also didn’t matter if they were learning physical or mental things.

If you haven’t set a goal for the new year, try picking a number of new things you would like to learn. It could be as simple as learning to bake bread or as complicated as learning a foreign language. You can find how to learn about anything on You Tube. My favorite thing learned there was how to fix my own dishwasher when the repair man said it would be three weeks before he could get there.

My attitude about learning new things is if others can do then why can’t I. Like when I taught myself how to build a retaining wall. Learning how was not the hardest part, but lifting all those blocks was the killer part. What do you want to learn how to do? Your brain will thank you.