I happened to work on an assignment where I had an opportunity to interact with retired people. Few were very enthusiastic about life and few were sad. Few were wining and few were celebrating. The people who were happy had one thing in common. They kept learning and innovating themselves even at that stage of life. People who have a learning attitude always look forward to the next moment and next day not to mention they add to their repository of experience and knowledge too. People who stop learning actually stop growing after that they just age. If you want to grow, you need to keep learning. The moment I am writing this and you are reading this, we do not even know how many new pages have been uploaded on Google. We do not know how many new researches have been published in our area of interest. I have a friend who was working in US and recently got married in India. Now she is spending her life as a housewife. However, she did not stop learning and I really admire her attitude. She would go to a book store like Landmark or Cross words daily after her husband leaves for office and would read a book there. She would call me after reading the book and would tell me what she learned from the book she read that day. Amazing! Where there is a way, there is a will.
Mostly we find the excuses not to do something, however, when you really want to do something, you would find excuses for that too. She would say, oh I have so much of free time. Now it may sound bad that someone is not busy but she has made it as an excuse to learn. Wonderful! What can be the better usage of idle time? You are learning, adding value to own life and growing.
Why should I do this? Why should I learn? It is not related to me. At this age, what would be its use? When the computers were launched in India in 80s and Public Sector Undertakings were upgrading themselves from paper work to machine work, the government officials were sent for computer training. The biggest resistance which the trainers faced was the attitude of trainees toward computers. They had a mindset that after few years they would retire and why should they learn new technique as they were able to manage their work without any problem up till now. Few years after that, we cannot imagine our life without computer and internet. I cannot imagine myself typing this book on a Type Writer where I have to erase and rewrite words so many times. Same people who opposed learning computers at that time now depend on internet to connect with their loved ones through chat and e-mail. My uncle was one of them and he laughs at same thing saying if he would not have known how to operate computer, his life would have been much lonelier as he would not have been able to connect with his grandson in USA and he would not have received e-mails from him. He did not learn computers to spend his olden days on computer but it became his friend when he had no one around.
So whenever you are learning something, never think that it is a waste as it is of no use immediately because you never know when you are going to need this knowledge in future which is always unseen. Even if it is of no use to you in future, may be you would be able to help someone else with your reservoir of knowledge? May be you would be able to pass the words of wisdom to next generation? You never know. So keep learning and have an attitude for learning. It would never go waste. Atleast it would make you an experienced person and would give you wisdom.
