“…We must immediately expand our vision beyond standard educational institutions. In our cultures of today – and of tomorrow – parents, peers, and media play roles at least as significant as do authorized teachers and formal schools…if any cliché of recent years ring true, it is the acknowledgment that learning must be lifelong.” – Howard Gardner
Cultivating your mind is more important than anything else you can do to prepare for personal and professional success. Why? Because the modern world is unpredictable. The whirlwind of technology changes our lives so quickly that there’s no way to anticipate how the future will look. Your industry, your job, and even your day-to-day life may be very different 10, 20, or 30 years from now. The only way to get ready for what comes next is to create the mental infrastructure to thrive in any environment.
In past times, people could “finish” their education and move on to professional life. Today, learning is an essential part of just about any job. Imagine if a computer repairman, doctor, teacher, or librarian decided he was done learning just a decade ago. The results would be disastrous.
My article The 3 Types of Learning & Why You Won’t Want to Ignore Any of Them discusses the most important types of knowledge / ability to acquire. Professor Howard Gardner’s book Five Minds for the Future focuses on the most important ways to cultivate your mind for future success. Below you’ll find a summary of his five “minds” as well as my own thoughts on how independent learners can develop these traits.
The Disciplined Mind
The disciplined mind has mastered at least one way of thinking – a distinctive mode of cognition that characterizes a specific scholarly discipline, craft or profession.
People need to know how to do at least one thing really well. The ability to focus and develop a deep knowledge will help anyone stand out from the generalists. Whether you’re an athlete, a professor, or a musician, learning how to embrace your subject on an expert level is the only way to excel.
Development Idea: Research shows that becoming an expert takes around ten years or 10,000 hours of focused work. If you know what you want excel at, set aside daily time to develop your abilities. If not, take a few moments to contemplate your passions.
The Synthesizing Mind
The synthesizing mind takes information from disparate sources, understands and evaluates that information objectively, and puts it together in ways that make sense to the synthesizer and also to other persons.
They call this the information age for a reason. With internet access and a library card, a person can look up just about anything. The problem is that many people don’t know how to process the massive amount of information they encounter. Learning how to synthesize this knowledge (i.e. combine it in a way that makes sense) can help you find meaning and see the big picture in your profession and life in general.
Development Idea: Take note of new-to-you ideas, theories, and events whenever you’re reading or having a discussion. Then, watch to see where you hear about them a second time. I’m often surprised when I read about something for the first time and then see references to related topics three or four times during the following week. Combining this additional information helps me have a deeper understanding of the whole. [click to continue…]
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