An old, blind man was sitting on a busy street corner during rush hour begging for money. On a cardboard sign, next to an empty cup, he had written: “Blind—please help.”
No one was giving him any money.
A young woman took the cardboard, sniffed, flipped it and wrote on it.
Immediately, people began putting money into the cup. After a while the blind man asked a stranger to tell him what the sign now said.
“It says,” said the stranger, “‘It’s a beautiful day. You can see it. I cannot.’”
- the power of perspective, promoting a virtue vs a weakness instantly draws people in.
Self-directed learners are normal people who wake up in the morning, put on their clothes, and eat their breakfasts. They brush their teeth, check their computers, and feed their pets. Then they ask themselves: Where do I want to go in life, and how will I get myself there?
When self-directed learners choose to go to school, they arrive on time, take notes, and do their homework—because school is taking them where they want to go.
When self-directed learners choose to go to work, they put in long hours, volunteer for the hard tasks that other people avoid, and get promoted—because work is taking them where they want to go.
The difference between self-directed learners and everyone else is: As soon as school or work stops serving their life goals, they don’t stick around. They ditch the well-trodden path, bust out the map and compass, and cut cross-country to virgin territory.
Instead of putting up with a miserable or unproductive school situation, a self-directed learner figures out how to get an education on his own terms. He changes his approach to school, finds a different school, or leaves school altogether.
If work becomes unfulfilling or no longer serves a self-directed learner’s purpose, instead of resigning himself to a life of frustrating or meaningless employment, he takes clear steps to better his situation. He negotiates different workplace responsibilities, interviews for a better job, or starts his own business.
Self-directed learners take full responsibility for their educations, careers, and lives. Think hard about where you’re going, research all your options, and then move boldly forward.
Self-directed learners can be defined as much by what they do as by what they don’t. One thing they don’t do is universally condemn teachers, structure, or formal instruction. They recognize that such methods, when freely elected, have their place.
Self-directed learners don’t spend much time in places where they are constantly bored and unengaged. Self-directed learners don’t hide their passions and interests in order to please others. Self-directed learners don’t give up on their goals at the first setback. Self-directed learners don’t mope when they find themselves in an uncomfortable or foreign situation; they approach life as an anthropologist does, learning whatever they can. Self-directed learners don’t assume they can (or should) learn everything on their own. Self-directed learners don’t worry that if they don’t learn something right now, it will be too late. They know they can always find a way.
An autotelic person needs few material possessions and little entertainment, comfort, power, or fame because so much of what he or she does is already rewarding. Because such persons experience flow in work, in family life, when interacting with people, when eating, even when alone with nothing to do, they are less dependent on the external rewards that keep others motivated to go on with a life composed of routines. They are more autonomous and independent because they cannot be as easily manipulated with threats or rewards from the outside. At the same time, they are more involved with everything around them because they are fully immersed in the current of life . —Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience