My informal training
this past month has brought wonderful people across my path, from the
pharmacist turned journalist, Tolu Ogunlesi to Jon Gambrell, AP Chief
Correspondent in Nigeria, to Bukola Kogbe, the HR guru, and Harry Akinola to
Jimi Tewe, all very seasoned speakers and instructors. Hearing them teach about
significance makes the heart beat faster because of wide dreams and
possibilities awakening.
My notepad is loaded!!! My storage device almost full with slides and audio files, and yet there are other meetings to attend still, another workshop in a short while, and the notes may keep piling.
If one would write exams for what has been acquired in knowledge per month or quarterly like we do in formal settings, how well would one do?
For most people, we
tend to pay more attention to our formal education, we attend classes
religiously, cram our notes and study hard to pass our exams, which in most
cases, these knowledge seem not too relevant in life scenarios. We would
actually be better developed and increase in value if we pay more attention to
our informal classes as life seem to impact more through the informal setting.
I think I've learnt valuable practical lessons from the informal than the
formal.
We all need to
befriend our notes more. Apart from seminars, workshops, training or even
church, some of us write our spur of the moment ideas, inspirations and
thoughts in our notepads, the burning sensation that hits us when a speaker
says something we agree with or find fascinating makes us write those words
down, and that sensation can be relived if we will go back to the notes later.
Don’t we feel like we
could conquer anything when we are just done with another life improvement
teaching? Don’t we get energy to want to take on much more from those
workshops? Then after a week or so, the note pad is closed and some, if not all
the inspiration we got is almost evaporated. Go back to that note!
There’s a lot one can learn from an old note, you may even find those ideas and actions plans you were inspired to put down on how to take your life to the next level you never executed. You may get inspired to take on a task you've found challenging or seemingly impossible.
See; Life brings exams too like the school system, except that there are no timetables and the exams are always impromptu, they come disguised as new challenges or opportunities, only those who have taken their informal classes serious are able to excel. They have gone through their notes and they have applied the knowledge learnt. Would you pass?
Read your notes frequently, you’ll be a better person, listen to that podcast again, put the audio book on your phone and listen to it. Go through the slides again. Do whatever has to be done, wisdom lies in applying knowledge.
