There are a million and one ways to think of lifelong learning, but to me, the most important component of lifelong learning is that of self discovery. Lifelong learning and self discovery is as much a matter of academics as it is willingness. For a person to be engaged in the life long learning process of self discovery, they must be open and willing to learn and to ask hard questions of themselves.

This week we took the "Big five" personality / strengths assessment and evaluated our outcomes. There were both surprises and expected revelations. Yet one of the most interesting elements was seeing how people tended to respond to the results that they either did not expect or traits that they interpreted to be negative. Participants often tended to be defensive about these results, but after introspection and discussion, these initial responses were overcome and people shifted to accepting and even believing how it was possible for that unexpected trait to exist in their life. Only once they had come to that conclusion, were they able to begin a new level of learning and self discovery.

In order for lifelong learning to take place we must be willing to learn. And, when it comes to self- discovery, we must not hold rigidly to beliefs and biases about ourselves that stop us from making new discoveries.

Lifelong learning also applies to academics and job skills. In today's rapidly evolving and ever-connected age, there really is no such thing as having completed one's learning. Every day there are 100 new developments and technologies/processes to evolve and adapt to, in order to stay cutting edge. If we want to stay at the front of the pack, we must always be involved in learning and striving for more each and every day. "The unexamined life is not worth living" -Socrates