7 1/2 Habits

A stark reality set in when I finally graduated last winter with my master's degree. From graduation day forward, I was responsible for my own learning. There were no more professors to serve me prepackaged, preservative-laced fundamental gold nuggets of knowledge. No more opportunities to flesh out my ideas in a 20-page research paper. Gone with the required reading; gone with the late night study session; gone with the degree plan with its strictures and limitations. I finally had a choice, a realistic opportunity to say "I want to learn about (insert interesting topic here) ." While I love the fact that there is a surplus of information-ready brain space, sometimes I get overzealous and try to cram an entire lifetime of learning into one session. I want to devour an entire book and expect to retain all of it, but don't really know what I'm going to do with the information once I have it. That's where my problems start. Without an end goal in mind, I often lose the information just from lack of use. In order to retain knowledge, you must put it into practice and recall it on a consistent basis. (Okay, so maybe I did hold on to some of my Theories of Learning and Cognition class from 1999.) I'll read, and watch, and learn, but in the end am I not really just full of useless information until I can put what I know into practice?