The Simple Joy of Learning on the Job

We all know the thrill that learning can bring: teaching yourself a new skill via a YouTube video; enjoying your first joke in a foreign language; hearing a child read her first full sentence out loud. The spark of learning joy is real and useful. So how can we bring more of it into our professional lives? Start by taking back control of what you read. Have an open mind about what useful learning content even is. MOOCs aren’t just about work skills; they also cover  life skills. This is true of TED talks too: just one of the 25 most popular TED talks is business related. Think more widely still, drawing your learning experiences from the rich tapestry of life: films, conversations, museums, advertising campaigns, speeches, even Twitter handles. Keep track of past and future learning with a to-learn list. Joyful learning is a precious gift in times of boom or bust. As adults and professionals we make too little use of it. While the joy is a worthwhile end in its own right, joyful learning can also be used to ignite individual careers and collective productivity.