Mind Spark #29 - Lifelong Learning: A Spark from an Unexpected Book
- Shujian Zhang
- Oct 24
- 2 min read
Inspired by a book found unexpectedly on my children’s bookshelf.
The other evening, while reading with my four-year-old daughter, I came across something unexpected. When she went to get a drink, I started browsing through the bookshelf filled with my children’s books. Among the colorful covers, one title caught my eye: Success: The Psychology of Achievement by Deborah Olson, published by DK.
At first, I thought it was a children’s book because of its clean design, thick paper, and colorful visuals. But after reading a few pages, I saw it was meant for adults as well. The book explores how we think, feel, and grow. It uses many infographics and visuals to make complex psychological ideas easier to understand. Each chapter breaks down concepts into appealing lessons on motivation, mindset, and personal development.
After reading Lifelong Learning (pages 190-191) in Chapter 6: Success, a whole-life process, I found two short paragraphs that really resonated with me, and I want to share the insights with you.
Learning in Three Dimensions
Knud Illeris, a Danish professor specializing in lifelong learning, proposes that learning occurs through three interconnected dimensions: cognition (our thoughts), emotion (our feelings), and environment (our surroundings). What does this imply?
Cognition is about our personal abilities, including how we think, reason, and make sense of new information.
Emotion includes the feeling component of learning, such as our motivation, curiosity, and the emotions that affect our openness to new ideas.
Environment refers to the social and cultural context, including how we integrate our learning into the world around us and interact with others.
When these three dimensions work together, learning becomes more than just gaining knowledge. It turns into a process of change. We grow in how we think, how we feel, and how we connect with the world and others.
Reaching for Meaning
Portuguese psychologist and education expert Roberto Carneiro extends this idea by describing learning as a process that evolves through stages of information, knowledge, learning, and ultimately, meaning.
We begin by gathering information and facts, then move on to understanding and connecting ideas. Over time, we reach real learning, where we improve and use what we know. The final stage, meaning, comes when we recognize the value and purpose of our learning and how it fits into our lives and something greater than ourselves.
A Lifelong Perspective
Illeris and Carneiro together remind us that lifelong learning is more than an educational pursuit, but it’s a way of living. It means we keep adding new insights as we grow, see, and understand the world differently. Whether it happens in a classroom, at work, during a network event, through reading, reflecting on our experiences, or even by accident while browsing a bookshelf in the child’s room, learning can surprise us at any moment, as long as we keep an open mind. It’s through these moments that we grow, not just in knowledge but in meaning.
Sometimes, the most surprising discoveries lead to the most significant learning experiences.
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