At present, new technologies in many fields are growing exponentially, rapidly subverting the business world, and artificial intelligence is gradually replacing existing jobs. Many people are thinking, what kind of ability do we have to adapt to this changing era?

Sail against the current, if you don't advance, you will retreat. The correct strategy for us to master our future destiny is to turn ourselves into lifelong learners!

But there are too many kinds of knowledge, and they are updated quickly. What should we learn and how can we learn more effectively?

I hope the following two aspects of sharing can help you to avoid detours and gradually develop a good habit of efficient learning that suits you.

0 1 is more important than learning itself, and it is to improve "learning ability"

Netflix released a documentary about Bill Gates-Walking into Bill: Decoding Bill Gates. In the film, Gates' reading speed reaches 150 pages per hour, and at last he can remember at least 90% of the content, which makes many netizens exclaim that Gates is really a "reading terminator"!

How did Gates do it? When he shared the secret, he mentioned three words: learning ability. Simply put, you can quickly get the essence of a book and quickly turn it into useful abilities in work and life.

The word "learning ability" was first put forward by Professor Forrest of MIT, the father of system dynamics, in 1965, which refers to the comprehensive embodiment of a person, an enterprise or an organization's learning motivation, perseverance and ability. Visible, want to improve learning ability, need to start from these three aspects.

Motivation to learn. Find out why you want to learn. So what if you don't learn? Keep studying. It is lifelong learning, not fishing for three days and drying the net for two days. Where does this perseverance come from? The ability to learn. What to learn, and how to learn to turn what you have learned into practical work and life abilities? The answers to these three questions will be discussed in the second part of this article.

In fact, as early as centuries ago, the great British philosopher Bacon said: "Knowledge is power, but more importantly, the skills to use knowledge." Only when this famous saying was widely circulated, most of us only knew the first half.

Writing here, I also want to share this sentence in the Tao Te Ching:

"In order to learn, it is a daily struggle." Simply explaining this sentence means "the more knowledge a person has, the farther away from the Tao." For example, if some people understand the loopholes in the law, they will be able to do things that meet the requirements on the surface, that is, "harming the public and enriching the private interests", while those who do not understand these loopholes will have no chance to do such things.

Does Lao Tzu object to our study? Of course not.

Laozi is reminding us that in the pursuit of knowledge, with the increase of knowledge and knowledge, don't forget to remind ourselves that besides "learning", we should also "Tao". A person who doesn't know about legal loopholes and doesn't do bad things is naturally more remarkable than a person who knows about legal loopholes and doesn't do bad things!

In the wisdom of Laozi, he promoted "learning" to a higher level.

Therefore, lifelong learners should not only strive for enough knowledge and application ability, but also put honesty and moral quality in the first place.

More important than learning knowledge is to improve the "learning ability" that can be transformed into the right path!

How can I improve my learning ability?

This part discusses how to improve learning ability from three aspects: motivation, perseverance and ability.

First, about the motivation of learning.

We should ask ourselves an essential question first. Why "lifelong learning"?

Yes, if we are willing to go with the flow and live where we go, it is understandable not to study.

I have talked about this topic with many friends around me. If we can accept living in a rental house, riding a bicycle and running a small business, our family and children will be happy to live with us, without complaining or being unwilling, and keep a heartfelt happiness and smile every day, then this is also a happy living state, very good!

But in real life, more and more of us are still pursuing a more efficient and quality life, or hope that through our own efforts, we can make our work more successful, let our families have better housing, let our children have a better educational environment, and take our parents and children out to see the distant world. ...

Once we participate in such social competition, we must constantly improve our cognition. In today's era when the iteration of knowledge updating is getting faster and faster, if you want to stay behind, you must keep learning. Cognitive ability determines our understanding of the real world. Different cognitive abilities determine the size of our world.

Second, about the perseverance of learning.

Perseverance and persistence must come from internal drive, and the key is to establish a growth habit thinking mode.

I don't agree with the saying that there is no limit to learning, and I don't agree that a person can really grow up by external supervision and rigid "self-discipline". For example, children's willingness to learn a course must be based on interest, even if it is only because they like teachers; A child who loves reading extensively since childhood will be full of all kinds of question marks in his mind. When he came into the classroom with questions, the classroom and the teacher became his "tools" to answer questions. Such children's grades are generally not bad.

So do adults. What kind of people do we want to be and what kind of life do we want to bring to our families? This is the source of our follow-up. In this process, there will be difficulties and challenges. What should I do?

Professor Carol Dwek of Stanford University introduced the "growth thinking mode" in his book Lifelong Growth. Contrary to the fixed thinking mode, people's intelligence and ability are unchanged, while the essence of the growth thinking mode is that people's ability and intelligence are variable and expandable.

It is true that in real life, different families and educational backgrounds will pull people's "starting point" far away, but there are always stories of "grassroots" entrepreneurship success. In fact, it is not difficult to find that they all have a common feature, that is, they are not trapped by the existing conditions and resources, but open a growth-oriented thinking mode, actively create conditions conducive to growth, and put them into down-to-earth sustained action, and finally achieve breakthroughs and achievements that ordinary people can't reach.

When we strive for an exciting future, our hearts are full of longing, happiness and self-confidence. This heartfelt desire, like a beacon of our life, can guide our boat of life to the other side of hope no matter how many difficulties we encounter in the process!

Third, about learning ability.

How can lifelong learning be effective? Here are three suggestions.

First of all, it is to establish its own knowledge system.

When sharing his reading experience, Bill Gates emphasized that to build a knowledge framework of his own, all subsequent learning should focus on enriching this framework.

I have a profound personal experience about this. I used to work in the logistics industry, and later I became interested in consulting and training. For me, the minimum knowledge this new industry needs will involve business management, human resource management, organizational behavior, sociology, education, psychology and other fields, and I will start preparing in the next six years.

First, I got the certificate of "Human Resource Manager (Level 1)" five years ago, and I have a basic understanding of the training of human resource management in enterprises. 20 17 was admitted to the on-the-job MBA, and learned management knowledge systematically, so that I had a more comprehensive understanding of several major systems that need to be paid attention to in enterprise development, and at the same time insisted on reading books in related fields. In addition to these basic "necessary knowledge", we should pay more attention to major events in global political, economic and social development, understand the latest changes and trends in the business field, and often browse information such as technological changes in target industries and development trends of well-known enterprises. In short, they are all accumulated and learned around the consulting and training industry.

That's just work. In fact, everyone should regard themselves as a complete "person" when building their own knowledge system. Besides work, they should also reserve time and energy for their own life and hobbies, such as food, travel and sports. Rich and interesting life is more conducive to our long-term willingness to practice lifelong learning.

After the establishment of the knowledge system, all learning is "targeted", and the efficiency and benefits are naturally more intuitive.

Secondly, "reading history makes people wise", reading is one of the important and simple ways of learning.

Charles Munger said: "All the smart people I met in my life (smart people from all walks of life) don't read books every day-no, none of them. You may be surprised at how many books Buffett reads and how many books I read. The children laughed at me. They thought I was a two-legged book. "

It can be seen that reading is important for career success. Through extensive reading, we can not only enrich and expand the existing knowledge system, but also read as much as Gates and master knowledge, which will naturally improve the reading efficiency and income in the future.

When I say "reading history makes people wise" here, I don't just mean history books. No matter in which field, all the knowledge published in books is already the "history" of this field, and it is the experience or lesson that others have already practiced. Apart from the simple changes in theory, technology and application environment, most of the problems we face in our work and life today were encountered by many people more than a decade ago, decades ago or even hundreds of years ago, and even a major dilemma we face in our life may be very similar to the situation of the protagonist in a literary work.

Therefore, through reading, thinking and in-depth communication with others, we can find the answers to most questions.

Finally, recommend a reading method suitable for professionals.

There are many ways to read efficiently, and I strongly recommend the McKinsey Elite Efficient Reading Method written by Mr. Yukio Akashi. In the book, I shared some ideas such as "learning methods, reasonable allocation of time and more important application", among which "the most important application" is the main reason why I recommend this book. The author introduces a simple and practical tool "Reading Archives". After reading a book, these four questions should be recorded in the file:

A. the purpose of reading this book;

B. Gains and feelings after reading;

C. What will happen after reading this book?

D. what will you do in three months and what will change?

It is said that "open book is beneficial", and for professionals, you can't talk about gains in general. If you can only absorb a little valuable information from every book you read, and then form a behavior change, practice more and make it your habit, then you can really turn knowledge into action, that is, go back to what Bill Gates said in the first part, and really improve your "learning ability".

Read thousands of books and take Wan Li Road.

I hope everyone can sort out their life goals, learn and grow in the direction they want, and meet a better self.