Key Takeaways
- Taking a proactive approach to learning and self- improvement can have huge benefits for physical and mental well-being.
- Studies have shown that an open-minded approach to ongoing education can have big impacts on our social lives and career opportunities—and can even help stave off Alzheimer’s and dementia.
- There are many ways you can embrace lifelong learning, from expensive college courses to free online tutorials and your local library.
The title of a bestselling book once claimed that everything we need to know we learned in kindergarten. We respectfully disagree.
Sure, the foundations of a good life might emerge when we’re very young. But we think it’s better to become lifelong learners—seeking out new knowledge and building new skills well into our 50s, 60s and beyond.
And it turns out science agrees. Engaging in a lifetime of learning can potentially have some major social, emotional and cognitive benefits.
With that in mind, consider what it means to be a lifelong learner—and how you can take steps to keep your curiosity up, regardless of how old you are!
What is lifelong learning?
For many of us, the bulk of our learning occurred during college or grad school, or when we started on our career track. But, of course, learning new things needn’t ever stop. Although there’s no formal definition of lifelong learning, it essentially means you seek to continually improve skills and acquire new competencies, in an ongoing and motivated pursuit of new knowledge.
Such learning tends to happen outside of a formal educational scenario. High school lasts four years, and so do most colleges. Master’s programs and Ph.D.s take another few years. All are done with the end goal of a diploma or degree. Lifelong learning, in contrast, can take place at any time and in any form—from rigorous instruction to dilettante dabbling—and is done purely for the sake of it.
Enjoyment and edification are important motivations for lifelong learning, which does not need to be academic. Acquiring new professional qualifications counts too. So does gaining new practical skills. Or even learning more about yourself, with a focus on insights and personal betterment. It can take the form of evening classes at the local community center, auditing courses at a nearby college, online learning, workshops, seminars or even just voracious reading.
So what’s the key to being a successful lifelong learner? Many personality traits can be important to the journey. For example:
- Curiosity is key among lifelong learners—having a restless mind that’s regularly seeking to be filled with new knowledge and intellectual stimulation, new experiences, and new ideas.
- Lifelong learners are open to new concepts and new perspectives, able to hold two competing ideas at the same time, and capable of shifting their thinking as they learn new facts. Lifelong learners are motivated and resourceful. They seek out new avenues to explore and new means by which to gain the specific knowledge they’re after.
- As they work to improve themselves and hone their skills, lifelong learners are thoughtful about ways they might incorporate their learnings into how they live their lives.
Key potential benefits of being a lifelong learner
In general, lifelong learners, by nature, are often more adaptable and able to roll with the vagaries of an ever-changing world. They’re more prone to have the critical thinking skills that are necessary to thrive in an information-saturated media ecosystem. They’re also often more resilient when faced with challenges and obstacles, as well as more self-disciplined and self-aware.
Research has shown many benefits to staying intellectually curious and pursuing new knowledge throughout one’s life. Consider that a typical 65-year-old American woman today can expect to live another 20 years, while a typical American man that age has a life expectancy of another 17 years.1 It’s also true, unfortunately, that as people live longer lives, their risk of cognitive decline also increases.2
The good news: Studies have shown that staying mentally fit—exercising our minds just like we do our bodies—can help stave off Alzheimer’s and other dementia symptoms.3
Lifelong learning can also generate important social and professional benefits that come from getting out of the house to meet and network with other smart, driven and curious people. According to a Pew Research Center poll, those people who pursued self-directed learning found professional, social and psychological benefits to doing so.
Indeed, in a world where the job market is fast-changing—with at least one Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development report showing that nearly 33% of job types are set to see “significant changes in how they are carried out”—it’s hard to overstate the importance of ongoing learning, training and professional development.
Among others who have engaged in earnest with lifelong learning, 65% said they’d broadened their network of professional contacts, and nearly half (47%) said it had helped them move up the ladder in their own workplace. Twenty-nine percent said exploratory education had spurred them to find a new job, and 27% said it had encouraged them to seek a different career path.
Meanwhile, more than four in five (87%) said the ongoing pursuit helped them feel “more capable and well rounded.” Nearly 70% said they’ve gained a new perspective on how they live. Nearly two- thirds (64%) said it had made them new friends, and more than half said it fostered more worthwhile connections to their communities.
Lifelong learning options
So what are some ways you might hone your own lifelong learning skills? There’s a whole universe of learning options with widely varying levels of time commitment and price—from intensive, monthslong study programs at world-class universities to free online courses to how-to books you can buy (or probably borrow at your local library).
Here are just a few examples:*
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), has an Institute for Lifelong Learning designed to foster the practice of learning around the globe. If you’re feeling very serious about the importance of ongoing education, consider learning more about the Hamburg, Germany-based institute (www.uil.unesco.org/en/ unesco-institute), which seeks to create the conditions for lifelong learning by offering research, capacity building, networking and more, all focused on lifelong learning. Each year, the institute hosts many interns, scholars and visiting researchers to help advance that mission.
Closer to home, another august institution has lifelong learning programs of its own. At Harvard University’s Professional and Lifelong Learning program (pll.harvard.edu), a wide array of executive education and professional certificates are offered—in person, virtually and in some combination of both—for serious adult students seeking to broaden their educational horizons and burnish their intellectual bona fides. The courses, which generally range in length from two to six weeks, are offered across a broad spectrum of topics—from public policy to digital health, Tai Chi to “managing happiness.” Registrants can also explore classes covering a broad swath of what humanity has to offer: art and design, computer science, social sciences, theology, and more.
That said, you don’t need to go Ivy League to enjoy the fruits of lifelong learning. Chances are very good that a local college or community college near you offers a broad selection of courses you can sign up for, or maybe even audit for free. For example, the University of Southern Maine’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (usm.maine.edu/osher-lifelong- learning-institute) offers a long list of liberal arts and science-focused courses catering specifically to students age 50 and older. “There are no entrance requirements, grades, and tests,” according to USM. “It’s your experience and love of learning that count, no college background is necessary.”
And of course, you’ve probably seen the commercials for the Master Class series (www.masterclass.com), where a galaxy of luminaries in their respective fields host in-depth online courses on topics including acting, writing, food and drink, business, technology, and much more. Some examples: cooking classes with Gordon Ramsay and business strategies presented by Disney CEO Bob Iger.
But formal education sessions, whether in person or online, are only one way to pursue your lifelong learning goals. Some ideas that involve getting out of a lecture hall include:
- Slip an apron over your head and take some cooking classes with a local chef or restaurant
- Get greasy learning useful car repair skills with a local mechanic or vocational school.
- Sign up for glassblowing lessons.
- Sit down with the Great Books of the Western World series, containing 517 works written by 130 authors.
There’s no shortage of fascinating things out there in the world to learn and experience. Don’t let them pass you by. Keep your mind and body engaged and energized by new ideas and skills, and you just might find yourself discovering whole new worlds that help you live your best life.
1 Pallavi Rao, “Charted: Average Years Left to Live by Age,” Visual Capitalist, November 29, 2023.
2 Alzheimer’s Association, 2024 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures, 2024.
3 Ruth Flexman, “Lifelong Learning: A Key Weapon in Delaware’s Fight Against Cognitive Decline,” Delaware Journal of Public Health, September 27, 2021.
* Examples are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute recommendations.
VFO Inner Circle Special Report
By John J. Bowen Jr.
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