Episode 136: PODCAST 150! Life-long Learning

Welcome to another edition of "Around with Randall" your weekly podcast for making your nonprofit more effective for your community. And here is your host, the CEO and founder of Hallett Philanthropy, Randall Hallett. Thank you for joining me, Randall, on this edition of "Around with Randall." A special one today, maybe at least for me. This is podcast number 150, when you put the regular ones like today as well as the special ones that we do around the Great Philanthropists. Number 150! And so I'm dedicating this particular podcast the idea of lifelong learning. And my hope is that if you're listening to this or have heard any of the podcasts along the way or continue to listen down the road that this is one mechanism, one way in which you've embrace the idea of lifelong learning.

And it's important. It's always something I have believed in. It's something that I have thought, as a person, was of value to me. But today I don't want to talk about me as much as I want to talk about why this is really important. And we're going to make sure to delve into some of the thoughts around non-professional growth and the idea of lifelong learning. Lifelong learning to me is best signified by what Socrates said thousands of years ago. Education is the kindling of a flame not the filling of a vessel. I've always believed that education, formal or informal, has been about curiosity, about realizing growth personally, professionally, in relationships. Knowledge, just about the world or the things I'm involved with, I've always felt that it's a critical part of who I am as a person. And the things that are going to be important to me going forward, the idea of lifelong learning or education really can be defined in this idea of self-initiated, and that's going to be important here in a moment.

Self-initiated education is focused on development, personal or professional. And it comes in all kinds of forms and fashions. You're listening to this podcast which is great. I'm very much appreciated. I don't make it about me or about how it's philanthropy. I make it about these 20-minute segments with one core issue to deal with, hopefully helping you get something out of it that can help you with it learning.

But I'll give you another few examples, and these may be then moving into what I was referring to a moment ago is they're not, it's not necessarily purse or professional that's most important. How about taking a class or dance, learning to dance, ballroom dance, or something of that nature. Book clubs. Why not go? There's immense resources at community colleges that are for free about learning skills. If you're someone like me the idea of changing the oil or automotive or combustible engine or that kind of thing, it's really foreign. What a great way to learn something. Maybe you want to write? You'll be hearing me here in the very near future talking about a project that I undertook a year ago that I'm really proud of that's, I think, going to be helpful about writing.

Maybe you want to learn a new language. Maybe you're traveling somewhere. Maybe the idea of traveling is lifelong learning to go to some place you've never been before. All of these are things that can happen inside the personal age. Professionally it's about public speaking. It's about confidence, about knowing about the tactics of your profession. There's always ways to learn but more important is the reasons why lifelong learning and education is important.

The first is that it helps build a healthier body through your mind and keeps you alert. Stagnation, particularly as we get older, becomes a real issue. How do we keep our mind moving even if your body can't? How do you grow?

Number two, professionally people who are lifelong learners are probably moving in their career advancement areas faster than those that aren't. It's about employability. If you have more skills you have more possibilities. I think about what we're dealing with in philanthropy with gift officers. Today we have a real shortage and I'm getting a lot of calls, where do I find great gift officers? I said well first stop looking for someone with 30 years of experience. Go find someone with a fire in the belly who can communicate well, who can get on the phone, and has a sense of resiliency to not take rejection personally. If they show up, have a little motivation, can communicate, and don't take things personally, I can teach you about philanthropy.

It's hard to teach you about those other three skills that only come from self-development. You could learn the idea or build an idea of self-confidence with new skill sets or new learned activities. It actually elongates the career because you have more options when you find your passion, when you find things you love to do. Maybe this is also in the personal in terms of growth and lifelong educational learning, you find your people. We normally don't associate long-term over a wide career with people employed, maybe one or two along the way that are special. But we tend to find ourselves, especially later in life, associating with people. Where our passions are, because we have things to talk about, things to do together and the same premise is there as well.

The other thing is, is that it has a renewed sense of motivation that we are happier when we get up in the morning for doing something we love. Ours have something to look forward to. These are all reasons why lifelong learning is important. The question is how you do it so I want to take into the tactical.

I always end with the tactical. What are the kind of the ways in which, or things you must have, to really make it truly lifelong learning that you have to embrace. And then what's the process to do it. So let's start with kind of the checklist of the must-haves. First of all, it has to be voluntary. What I'm not talking about is professional development, and there's a difference. Professional development much of the time is dealing with or having to figure out what I need to do inside of my career that is mandatory to do my job, to grow professionally, at least the technical sense. The thing about the nursing profession if they want to grow into another kind of nurse, i.e, move up or possibly have other skills, they're looking to maybe be an or nurse rather than a floor nurse or they're looking to do certain specialties. Well they need additional education or development. That's not lifelong learning in and of itself. It can be very helpful and should be done if appropriate. That's not really what moves the soul for most, so voluntary is important, which makes this self-motivated and self-initiated.

We kind of walk into these things early on. In my well, even pre-professional career I fell in love with broadcasting. And you may or may not know this about me not to said they're important, but I used to broadcast television radio sports play-by-play, and greatly enjoyed telling the story of the game through, particularly through the radio. It's a play-by-play announcer. Basketball, soccer, football. Passion. If I won the lottery today I'm not sure I'd stop what I'm doing because I really come to work every day pretty joyous, but I think I'd go back to broadcasting a little bit. I love the storytelling angle of trying to describe what I see with my eyes to someone on the other end who can't see a single thing. That's initiating on my own as a way of engaging with something that might be lifelong learning. The other thing is that when you talk about lifelong learning it doesn't always require cost and I think that sometimes that becomes a hurdle that's tough to get over.

We have a struggle with the idea well I have to have resources to be a life. The amount of free stuff out there is mind-boggling. This podcast is an example. I don't charge for this for this reason. But I'll tell you, one of the greatest resources that no one ever uses in my wife who's just the better seven eighths of who we are as a couple most particularly as a wife and a mother. She's taken my kids our kids to the library, everything's free. The amount of stuff at the library is unbelievable. It costs you nothing to read and to grow. And Abraham Lincoln talked about this in his in kind of the look at how he got to be where he was and he said I didn't have resources I had books. I learned. I learned from those books. Anything worth knowing I learned from the books. To paraphrase, to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln think about the ways in which it hasn't have to cost anything. Church groups, volunteer groups, all places that you can go do things and learn without a cost. Most of the time they're also informal, and this goes back to the idea of self-initiated, is that you kind of grow into these opportunities as they can. And I think about the things that that are not per se professional, to what I do.

Broadcast is a good example. I just fell into it. They needed someone to call the women's game on something called the internet and I said well I'll be glad to do it. I coached and played. Turned out maybe I was okay at it. But I loved it. And then that turned into the next. It was all informal. It wasn't as if this was the career goal or that someone forced me to go do it. It's just of interest.

The other thing that comes from self-education, or self-growth, in terms of this opportunities the idea that it's a lot of times. Self-taught. Yes you can go to the Community College and learn to cook, as an example, or go to the Community College and learn how to be an auto mechanic, or learn about combustible engines. Two examples amongst many. Or go to a dance class and have someone teach you. But most of the time, most true self-driven lifelong education comes from being self-taught. You try something. Try it out. See what happens.

The last thing about what's kind of one of the checklists, kind of the must-haves to really make it work for you is that it's got to be motivated out of personal interest, even if it has a professional connection.

I do so much reading and writing and listening, but I do it because I personally love it. And yes it helps me professionally. I would be the first to admit that the fact that I tear apart the Giving USA numbers when we talk about total philanthropy United States, or I read Supreme Court decisions still to this day, or those are all things in some shape, way or form that are personally driving. But at the end of the day we have a scenario or situation where it's really based on my personal drive. I like it. What is it you like?

So in our last couple minutes together here today to talk about self-education, self-growth, I want to talk about process. So how do you do this? The first thing is, and it seems simplistic but tends to not be the first place I think most people think. What are your goals? Recognize what the goals are. What is it you want? What makes you feel good?

I think about my grandfather, my dad's dad. A very big man. I mean six foot five, broad-chested, broad-shouldered, deep voice. He loved flowers. He loved gardening, particularly flowers. Not fruits and vegetables much. He was always playing with flowers in the house, particularly in the winter. He recognized early on that it was a way in which he just found joy. And that's self-recognized. That's trying things out and going, oh I like this. And this fits with what I want to do. I want to get away from work. I want a place to go to have a respite, in my case with this podcast. It's, I love to teach. What is it that you want? What's your goal?

Number two, to do that goal or those goals, make a list. Think about my mom. Maybe you had the same thing, you get done with what's written. We've talked about checklists before in previous podcasts. Go back and listen. What I'm telling you is, if you don't have a list there's no way to know if you actually got anything done or what you want to do.

Number three is to look for options and realize costs, and we talked about this, there are some lifelong learning that it's going to require some type of of investment, and it may be time but sometimes it's money, some things are more realistic than others depending on where you are in your life. But the key is to look for options, to find the best way for you to embrace it. The idea of woodworking doesn't require a woodworking teacher but you got to have wood. And I got a good friend who does this. Wood's not cheap, depending on the kind of wood you use, so there's all these intrinsic things to figure out what's appropriate for lessons, for equipment, for travel, for whatever it takes that makes you whole in terms of your ability to grow and be educated.

Number four, as you structurally have to include it you gotta have time for it. You got to make it a priority. You remember I talk about priority management in a previous podcast. We'll bring it back in here. I don't believe in time management. We all have 24 hours in the day and 365 days a year, 366 every four years. The question is what are you going to prioritize? If you really want to do it plan it. I love doing this podcast. I hope people out there listening think, hey I get some value out of this. But I actually plan the times that I do it because I want it to be a priority. Sometimes that's a squish, meaning I'm squeezing it in between things. But it's important. I enjoy it. I love coaching my son's team. I love being a better coach. I actually coached before I went to law school. I take time to figure out what kind of drills, things should look like and how do we help the kids improve because I want to engage. I have to prioritize that. What is it you need to do to prioritize what you love to do?

And lastly, it's commitment. You got to give it some time. You can't just jump into it, and I'll use me in cooking as a good or a bad example. I don't know how to cook. Right now is not the time for me to embrace it. Frankly, I'm not even sure I'd enjoy it. But let's say I did. I can't just try one thing and go well, it didn't work. I'm out. It takes time, commitment to perfect that particular area of interest, to learn, to grow. So don't think it comes about it, one-offs. It's about the opportunity to build into it.

What do you need? These voluntary, self-motivated, it's awfully informal. Maybe it doesn't involve a cost. But it might, it needs to be self-taught. And to do so, you got to recognize those goals. You got to make a list. You gotta have, know your options, and what costs. It might be involved. You got to include it structurally so it's a priority and you got to commit to it over a short period of time, at least at a minimum, to make it work. That's the tactical pieces of self lifelong learning. And if you're listening to this, I appreciate your willingness to learn a little bit maybe along with me.

Don't forget what Henry Ford once said. Anyone who stops learning is old whether it's at 20 or at 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. I would have loved to have stolen that quote but it would have been disingenuous and dishonest. It is powerful in its application. Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. You stay young by keep learning and getting better professionally, personally. Find what moves you and you will find lifelong learning, something you can do for the rest of your days.

Thanks always to you for looking at the website and the blogs at Hallett philanthropy.com, 90 second reads, two a week. I think maybe three some weeks. Just things going on, they're literally 90 seconds 400 words something to be attention pay attention to or just to kind of be aware of. If you want to talk to me, reach out to me, or give me a suggestion, or make a comment, it's podcast@hallettphilanthropy.com. Interesting times, things are kind of chaotic right now. What I don't want is for you to think that you are overwhelmed, or not of value, or not making a difference because you are wherever you work, whatever you do, particularly if it's non-profit work. It's affecting people and that's pretty darn amazing. Remember my all-time favorite saying, some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, then there are those who wondered what happened, and what we're talking about here is that you are doing things. If you're listening to this and thinking about what you want to do, and how to be a better person, and helping others, you are someone who's making things happen. If you're a fundraiser, you're looking for other people like that with resources who want to make a difference for the people and things in this world that are wondering what happened. Pretty good way to spend a day, a week, a month, or a year helping others. Now that's pretty cool. I'll look forward to seeing you next time right back here on another edition of "Around with Randall." Don't forget, make it a great day.