This is exactly the dilemma that Erika Andersen addresses in an evocatively titled article Learning to Learn published in Harvard Business Review in March 2016. This feeling of discomfort towards having to continuously learn something new is universal. Erika Andersen explains: “I’m talking about resisting the bias against doing new things, scanning the horizon for growth opportunities, and pushing yourself to acquire radically different capabilities—while still performing your job” That’s the source of all our discomfiture. The operative words are “while still performing your job.”

Isn’t that a tall ask? It isn’t really so as Erika goes on to demystify. Moreover, she say the struggle is well worth it. Erika quotes Arie de Geus, a business theorist to make her point. After all, “The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage.” 

So, how do we learn to learn? Erica zeroes in on 4 attributes of life long learners and suggests simple mental tools to acquire and boost those attributes in us

1. Aspiration, 
2. Self-awareness, 
3. Curiosity, and 
4. Vulnerability

Besides successful learners with busy career interest also display the following common behaviours: 

• “They truly want to understand and master new skills; 
• they see themselves very clearly; 
• they constantly think of and ask good questions; and 
• they tolerate their own mistakes as they move up the learning curve” 

Here are the mental tools Erica recommends for cultivating the learning to learn attributes: 

1. Aspiration 

Great learners aspire to learn. But what is you don’t feel the urge to learn and the prospect of learning looks daunting? Fear not. As Erica points out it is possible to raise generate the aspiration to learn new skills or to acquire new knowledge 

Mental Tools to Use 

1. Shift your focus from negative to positive. For example gently dismiss the excuses our minds come up with when faced with having to learn something new. Erica’s list includes “It will take too long. The old way works just fine for me. I bet it’s just a flash in the pan” The excuses will  unconsciously reinforce our lack of aspiration.
2. Instead turn the spotlight on the gains of learning. Imagine vividly the future rewards. “That propels us into action” Research has found that shifting the focus from challenges to benefits increases aspiration to do what Erica calls “Initially unappealing things” 

2. Self Awareness 

One blind spot even among leaders with stellar records is their lack of understanding regarding what they know and don’t know and the skills they possess and don’t possess. The roadblock here is the defensive responses our minds come up with when we are critiqued. If we perceive not knowing something as a flaw that we don’t want to admit, then learning is not possible. But self awareness can be cultivated 

Mental Tools to Use 

1. Monitoring self talk can be a good starting point When someone points out our ignorance or lack of skill, encourage internal questions like “Is that accurate? What facts do I have to support it?” 
2. Striving for greater objectivity or a ‘fair witness’  within yourself helps expand self awareness and learn faster and more 

3. Curiosity 

Children are the best models to pick up curiosity from. They learn exponentially because they are unquenchably curious. “Curiosity” says Erica “is what makes us try something until we can do it, or think about something until we understand it. Great learners retain this childhood drive, or regain it through another application of self-talk” 

Mental Tools to Use 

1. What if we feel bored and turned off about learning something that would be good for us to learn? How do we whip up the entusiasm required for learning? Erica’s recommendation is to “ask curious questions” 
2. She cites research by Carol Sansone, a psychology researcher, who found, for example, that people can increase their willingness to tackle necessary tasks by thinking about how they could do the work differently to make it more interesting. 
3. Erica suggests that you  switch to the language we use in thinking about things that already interest you—How…? Why…? I wonder…?—and drawing on it when you need to become curious. “Then take just one step to answer a question you’ve asked yourself: Read an article, query an expert, find a teacher, join a group—whatever feels easiest” 

4. Vulnearbility 

Says Erica “Once we become good or even excellent at some things, we rarely want to go back to being not good at other things”. But life long learners allow themselves to be vulnerable enough to accept being an amateur or a novice by managing their self talk. 

Mental Tools to Use 

1. The best mindset to adopt would be to admit “I’m going to be bad at this to start with, because I’ve never done it before but I can certainly learn with pracice”  
2. Research has established that “when people are encouraged to expect mistakes and learn from them early in the process of acquiring new skills, the result is “heightened interest, persistence, and better performance.”

Today a sales professional has to constantly to learn new things to make a difference to Customers in markets marked by rapid change and continuous uncertainty. Learning to learn is to them the gift of a life time. 

Read the HBR article  here