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Hey!
I just met with an amazing group of self-directed learners.
They were members of MoL, a wonderful community in which my friend Alex Bretas guides people through the world of self-directed learning.
I met Alex about 3 years ago and the first thing I thought was: he’s a Brazilian me! 😉
Alex has been self-directing his learning for years now and has been sharing his journey beautifully. He has written amazing books, I love his blog and MoL Academy has been a great success.
If you’ve ever read my work on mentorship, you know that Alex is the perfect copilot for me. We learn with each other and from each other. Every time we talk we either find out we’re reading/listening/watching exactly the same things, or we can give each other the perfect recommendation. But it’s more than information exchange. It’s an encouraging bond. Whenever I feel not so sure of what I’m doing, or I feel like an imposter: I can look at Alex and think:
‘See! Self-directed learning is amazing! Look how well Alex it is doing!’
And now here comes the crux of the story: I would have never met Alex if I hadn’t learned out loud. If I hadn’t shared my story online, I hadn’t have shared all my learning on Emma’s College - how would Alex have found me?
This is not just hypothetical. The proof is in the fact that Alex found me on LinkedIn after I shared Emma’s College there. All it took was a kind message from him, a quick call (that ended up lasting 2 hours) and we connected.
So many fruitful connections and learning communities never come to life because we do not share what we are learning.
And that’s such a shame!
For so many years of our lives, we never have to learn out loud. After all, in school, we are already put into a learning community (a class) whether that community is effective for us or not.
After that, many people feel shy about what they are learning. It can be uncomfortable to feel like a beginner. You might want to wait until you are a little better before sharing your new hobby/interest/profession/skills.
But I’m telling you: don’t.
The sooner you share what you’re learning, the shorter you’ll actually be a beginner.
Why?
Because learning goes faster when you do it together! As soon as you start sharing, you’ll see that people love to help!
(Social) learning is so essential to our human essence, that whenever you show you are learning something, people jump to the occasion to help you. You’ll get forwarded great sources, people will connect you to experts in their network, and you get recommendations left and right.
Trust me, all you have to do is take the first step and who knows, you might make a new friend like I did :)
So, what is something you have been trying out lately? What is something you’re learning? And who can you tell about it?
Go get ‘m,