“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”― Benjamin Franklin

As children, teenagers, and young adults, learning has most often been associated with formal education — elementary school, middle school, high school, college, and university. While the formal constructs of education enabled us to learn about math, science, literature, etc., we may not have realized that outside of this formal training we were also learning fundamental skills, competencies and mindsets that went beyond what we learned in the classroom.

As children, we probably didn’t realize how play was fundamental to applying our creativity, building our imagination, and interacting with the world around us. As teenagers, we probably didn’t realize how teamwork, communication, and empathy would teach us the soft skills to become better colleagues and leaders. As young adults, we probably didn’t realize that while we were pursuing a higher education to one day hang our diplomas with pride, we were also learning about time management, shifting priorities, financial responsibility, and likely much, much more.

Looking back at all these moments in our own lives, it’s likely we didn’t realize how much we were growing outside the ways in which the system had intended. The moment we do realize this is the moment our journey of lifelong learning truly begins.

So, what does it mean to become a lifelong learner? The term itself almost seems superfluous. Are we not all learning every single day?

When I meet someone new, I learn about a new culture or experience. When I join a new team, I learn about a new department or mandate. When I take on a new role, I equip myself with new skills or apply my own in a new setting. When I scroll through my Twitter feed, I learn from the shared articles or personal stories that fill it every morning. The point is, just like the major junctures in our lives, we encounter learning opportunities every single day.

Becoming a lifelong learner is about learning how to unlock these daily lessons in order to grow just a little bit more every single day.

But how do we train ourselves to see these daily lessons and find the value within them? Here are four easy ways to get started:

1. Create the space to notice they exist

We can all find different meaning in the expression “stop and smell the roses” but in each of these meanings is a united appreciation to create the space to invite new people, memories, knowledge, and experiences into our lives.

Stopping to smell the roses doesn’t have to be spontaneous, it can be as calculated as devoting an hour of your day to discover your surroundings, learn from your network, or have a conversation with someone new.

Each morning, I devote my one hour commute to learning from my online network. I skim through my Twitter feed, read through my subscriptions, and pause to appreciate my surroundings … welcoming whatever teachings the day may offer.

2. Build a bridge for others

Nikos Kazantzakis once said: “True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create their own.”

The transfer of learning is just as important as the learning itself. While this may typically translate into practice, sharing what you learned with others can generate valuable discussions that lead to additional learning or the ability to build a bridge for others to learn themselves.

Building such a bridge doesn’t have to involve a pack of popsicle sticks and glue, but rather a willingness to share what you have learned with your network to facilitate a medium for transferring these daily lessons into meaningful connections, dialogues, best practices, and communities.

3. Explore new opportunities of learning

Let yourself explore. Becoming a lifelong learner means more than just creating the space to learn; it’s also about searching for new opportunities yourself. Unlike the formal education we grew up with, you will not be graded on how you learn, judged on what you learn, or forced to learn only that which you have declared.

If you want to learn about artificial intelligence, digital communications, or even how to bake a chocolate cake … you can! If you want to use Google or Youtube, register in a course, or even ask a question online … you can! We’ve been trained to think there is only one way of learning for so many years, but truth be told, lifelong learners find value through their explorations that more often than not lead to new ways of learning.

4. Give yourself time to reflect

When we give ourselves the opportunity to reflect on what we have learned, we’re able to give our learning new meaning. How we reflect on what we have learned can be different for us all.

“To be reflective means to mentally wander through where we have been and to try and make some sense out of it.”

Whether your reflect on your own, or with others through the bridges you build, this reflection fosters growth, which ultimately is the outcome we seek through the learnings we pursue.

How we learn, where we learn, and why we learn are all questions that have been ignited by my new role with the Government of Canada’s Digital Academy, formed under the Canada School of Public Service. While the Digital Academy strives to help public servants increase their digital acumen — building key digital competencies in data analysis, design, development and automation, disruptive technology and artificial intelligence, and machine learning — at the heart of their work is a desire to answer these questions with new approaches, practices, and partners at the table.

Today’s digital age is forcing us to look at these questions differently — to look at learning differently — but if we only ever look at learning in the constructs of training, and forget to acknowledge the opportunities we find all around us on a daily basis … then we may not achieve the outcome we’re truly looking for.

What’s more is that many people are already building bridges for others and translating these lessons on your behalf. With the Digital Academy, they’re breaking down these lessons in easy reads found on busrides.ca. Open your Medium app, and you’ll likely find a series of lessons learned on topics ranging from business, design, productivity, accessibility — you name it — from people all around the world. Take a look at your Twitter feed, and I’m sure you’ll find a tweet that has transformed into a discussion and evolved into a thread of valuable information.

Learning is no longer limited by the who, what, where, or how.

Opportunities to learn are all around us. It is when we choose to unlock the value behind these day to day lessons, and those we dare to seek out, that we are able to truly accept life as a constant learning experience.

This is truly up to you.