“Be a life long learner”

How many times have you heard that advice? Me, too. But how do you do that?

I’m sure I’m not alone when I resist learning something because there’s no purpose in my learning it other than to learn it. I need to have a “why” behind learning something brand new.

So, when I think I want to learn something new, here’s how I go about turning that decision into action.

I sign up to TEACH that thing, whatever it is, wherever I can, to whoever wants or needs to learn it.

The Georgia State Defense Force has provided a solid outlet for that need. Before I joined GSDF, I did not know land navigation, search & rescue, D&C (Drill & Ceremony), knot tying, rappelling, wilderness first aid, radio communications, or how to *properly* operate a chainsaw.

Now I do.

And once I learned those things, I volunteered to train other GSDF soldiers to do the same. Not every one of them, of course, but specific topics.

In order to be a solid instructor, I was forced (by me) to learn each subject at a much deeper level.

My first was land navigation.

Before starting GSDF, I couldn’t read a map to save my life. I am hopelessly addicted to Google Maps. Juxtapose that with my wife, whom you could drop off in Fallujah with her eyes closed and she’d be home in a few hours. I get lost going to Marietta from Roswell.

But the training I got in Land Navigation opened my eyes. Now I just “get it”, and I am forever thankful to my instructors who learned it well enough to make me think it was easy.

So they know it, and then I learned it, and now I know it well enough to teach it.

Want to learn anything really, really well? Prepare to teach it.