The Importance of Education in Personal Growth

Education is a powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

This sentence pronounced by the legendary Nelson Mandela perfectly depicts the importance of education. The education of an individual starts with the first asked question, and it finishes with the last - meaning that it can (and it should) last a lifetime. It has serious impact on your personal growth, which, later on, influences your relationships and success in the business field. By enriching your brain with new and valuable information you are improving its ability to think, analyze and process.

Starting Early on

The truth is that a child starts learning as soon as it opens its eyes. A child is exploring and discovering the world by playing, touching, smelling, observing and later asking. The first contact children have with formal education is usually the kindergarten, but there are various options for pre-kindergarten education. In fact, children can benefit immensely from attending an early learning centre, because it creates the perfect foundation for lifelong learning. Children who start their education early create a healthy learning habit and consider things such as reading, as a normal part of life, instead an annoying chore.

Education Cycle and Personal Growth

Both for the kids and the adults, education starts by asking a question and continues on to gathering objective information and placing them into appropriate context, where it is assimilated and processed to become a knowledge which widens the learner's horizons. Widening the horizons is necessary for personal development, and it goes way beyond formal education. If you are in your 40s and choose to read a major work of literature such as Ulysses by James Joyce, your horizons will be broadened by the very act.

Education and Self-Confidence

In the words of Indian author, Chanakya: "Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth". This implies that your self-image will be clearer and more positive the more you learn. Knowledge is a lifelong asset which can never be taken away from you and can always be updated. There are several ways learning can improve your confidence. It improves your standing in society, it makes you feel good about yourself, it allows you to put forth your ideas more eloquently, it provides a firm foundation for a career, it allows you to always enhance your repertoire, it provides many opportunities and, in the end, it plays an important role in your financial success.

Beyond Formal Education

"Schooling" is not the only acceptable form of learning. Further knowledge and skills should be acquired throughout your entire life. Lifelong learning is a path for the ones with positive attitude toward learning, both for professional and personal progress. It is different than formal education, because it is a voluntary act. People can decide to learn many things because of their development, including some skill (sewing, car mechanic), their origin, history of the place they live in (or some place they are traveling to), work-related topics or basically anything that will challenge their minds and lead to that previously mentioned widening of the horizons.

The Skill of Learning

Learning is a skill also, and you need to master it, especially if, during your formal education, you were by-heart learner. Remember that prerequisite for learning is your willingness. If you struggle to feel positive about learning, you will probably not do well. Effective learning means that you should find information which you will later translate into knowledge or skill. Always take notes, examine, question and reflect on everything you have learned.

Lifelong learning carries a number of benefits to continual personal and professional growth. In immortal words of Henry Ford: "Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young."

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