The title of this article might sound a bit harsh, but I am a firm believer in lifelong learning. Keeping your mind active and positively challenged undoubtedly improves wellbeing, longevity and prosperity, which is one of the reasons I decided to embrace business coaching.
We find out new things every day, like a new walking route or that the price of something has gone up, which happens a lot these days! But this is not necessarily learning.
For me, learning has different levels. I can understand conceptually how something works, but that doesn’t mean I’m learning, instead I put that in the category of “I found out something new.”
To turn that into learning we need a context and a plan. When I decided to add business coaching to my skill and knowledge set, I set up a route, outcomes and plan that enabled me to do so. I had to shed all my preconceptions about coaching otherwise I get the “I know that” syndrome and cut myself off from learning. A helpful stance that I take from my mindfulness practice is “come with a beginner’s mind”.
Like many, I do not learn and retain something until I start doing it, so implementation is very important. Until you implement, whatever you’ve learned stays at a conceptual level.
Ultimately the hardest part about learning is implementing. It is easy to put it off, to become disenchanted as the going gets tough but perseverance will get you through and enable a whole new outlook on your world, professionally as well as personally.
If you’d like to find out how Shirlaws frameworks, methodologies or training can help you grow both your business and skill set please contact us.

Shekhar Varma Business Coach
Shekhar coaches business owners who want to grow their business from lifestyle to scalable, with revenues of between £1M – £5M.
With 30 years’ experience working with, and in, all sizes of business, Shekhar is committed to finding the right strategy for each business and its unique challenges.