Learning and Fun

I've talked with Clients and colleagues for years about why we focus on making learning fun when we do training. I've taught trainers and instructional designer how to do it. I've even written about it.

But in the last 24 hours I've been thinking about it in a different way.

In some quiet moments of reflection as we finish preparing for a major promotion for my book, Vantagepoints on Learning and Life I realized something.

I've had it backwards.

Actually, I haven't exactly had it backwards all these years - we still should do what we can to make any learning experience as fun and enjoyable as we can. But it is more than that. We also need to remember that learning we are passionate about is fun itself. It doesn't necessarily require extra help.

You see the work, effort and planning that has gone into this promotion has helped me learn a lot. It hasn't all been easy, but what I realized today is that it has been fun.

Really fun.

Or as my friend Bernie DeKoven says, it has been deep fun.

We are learning beings. I believe that learning is one of the things that truly makes us most fulfilled in life. And fulfillment brings some amazing fun.

We should do all we can to make the learning process more enjoyable and fun. And we need to remember that learning - both the process and the result - is fun itself.

I'm more convinced than ever of the link between fun and learning, I just realize now that the link is stronger than I've always realized.

Go out and learn something!

Have some fun.

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