“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.” – Albert Einstein
Recently I saw a TEDx video of Ingrid Bianca Byerly. She taught on 3 semesters at sea voyages. This is a cruise which sails with about 500 undergraduate students between the ages of 18 and 22.
There was also a small group of Lifelong Learning retirees. She mentioned one common thread between the two groups, which was “what am I going to do for the rest of my life. ” In youth you could ask “what would be my career.” But in retirement you normally ask as to” what is my purpose”.
These lifelong learners show to the younger students that learning together keeps your mind awake. There is no end to the learning that you can do.
If a school child’s ability is recognized and nurtured, they thrive. The same is true of the elderly. In retirement you ask as to what I am going to do for my personal fulfillment and enrichment. The retirees are getting the degrees they never finished. They are taking art classes that they longed to do all their lives. They are picking up musical instruments, they are running marathons.
In the past few months, I attended some online courses on Coursera. Like most elderly Indians, I am frugal at heart, and choose free courses if possible.
The first course I took is “The Science of Well Being” conducted by Professor Laurie Santos. This course from Yale University is one of its most popular ones and has been taken by about 4.5 million persons of various ages.
In this course you will engage in a series of challenges designed to increase your own happiness and build more productive habits. As preparation for these tasks, Professor Santos reveals misconceptions about happiness, annoying features of the mind that lead us to think the way we do, and the research that can help us change. You will ultimately be prepared to successfully incorporate a specific wellness activity into your life.
92% attendees have given it a 5-star rating. It is taken by a large number of students and there is even a teen version.
From this course, I learnt that giving and doing something for others makes us happy in the long term.
Another online course that I took on Coursera is “Finding Purpose and Meaning In Life: Living for What Matters Most” from the Univ. of Michigan. It is an excellent course conducted by Prof. Vic Strecher. The learning objectives of this course are:
*Recognize the definition of purpose in life as: “A central, self-organizing life aim.”
*Apply the concept of “self-reflection” to identify what matters most in your life.
This course teaches some simple but powerful techniques like Loving Kindness Meditation and deep breathing. Following these makes us happier.
People who have a well-articulated purpose are able to handle challenges in life much better. More so if the purpose is self-transcending, i.e., aimed at serving others.
Let’s come back to my blog. Being a proponent of Lifelong Learning, I adopted a self-transcending purpose to help people embrace Lifelong Learning and, as a result, lead better and happier lives. This blog is the means to achieve that purpose and lead a meaningful life myself.
Picture from Unsplash