Learning for Pleasure

Learning is hard. It takes effort. And it is rarely associated with pleasure. However, I’d argue that we also crave learning. Not necessarily the learning we do in school but the learning about things that spark our interest. After all, the favorite word of kids all around the world has to be “why” for a reason.

Learning can be enjoyable.

Studying vs Learning

If asked, I’d say that I love learning but I don’t really enjoy studying. At first glance that doesn’t seem to make much sense, so I’ll try my best to explain what I mean by that (which is hard because it’s purely based on a feeling).

I always find myself wanting to know new things or wanting to learn a new skill but when it comes to the effort that I’d have to put into it, the enthusiasm suddenly fades.

The thought of learning is exciting while the thought of studying kind of does the opposite for me.

I associate studying with the long hard process of trying to press information into my brain, which may or may not be successful. Whereas the word ‘learning‘ has an association to the understanding of a topic for me and the fulfilling feeling of success.

Learners High

If a study session goes really well you can find yourself being so absorbed in the material that you forget everything around you. You forget the time, you might even forget to eat and you could also find yourself actually enjoying it.

This might not happen very often but when it happens it’s a very blissful and satisfying feeling. It’s like a long awaited reward for your efforts.

I usually find that this occurs when you’re really immersed in a subject and also (start to) understand it. But to get to that point you have to start somewhere. And the start is probably going to be hard because for most things you’d like to learn, it’s likely that you’ll have to start studying before you can cross over to learning. But when you get there it is a lot of fun.

It’s all about balance

Almost everything can be enjoyable if you approach it correctly (personal opinion). If you start to learn something with the wrong headspace, a.k.a. “I can’t do this“, “This is too hard“, “I could be eating ice cream instead“, this is exactly what you’re going to feel like.

When you face learning with a mindset of positivity, a.k.a. “I get to learn this“, “It’ll be so great if I can speak to locals in x country“, you’re going to make it way easier on yourself.

If you overwork yourself on the other hand you won’t be happy either. So in order to find a good balance between pleasure and work (even if you find pleasure in your work) you have to take breaks. And once you’ve figured out that combination that works for you, you’re less likely to dread the studying, you’re more likely to keep it up and find the bliss in learning.

15 minute rule

Some days it seems almost impossible to motivate yourself. Don’t worry, it happens to everyone. What I like to do if that happens is follow the “15 minute rule”.

It works like this:

1. First you set a timer to 15 minutes.
2. Then you just start and try to work on whatever you’re working on for 15 minutes with as much focus as you can get out of yourself.
3. When the timer goes off and you still don’t feel any more motivated you can stop for the day and try again the next.
4. But usually the task doesn’t turn out to be as bad as your brain makes it out to be and you’ll be likely to continue.

I’d like to hear from you. Do you enjoy learning? Do you regard it as a necessity to achieve a better outcome? Or do you have a different approach completely? Let me know.