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Potential & learning
Bridget Walsh on 24 September, 2011 |

One of the most important components of keeping life interesting, in my opinion, is learning. Too many people get stuck in the proverbial rut of their lives because they do what they know, day in and day out, and don’t challenge themselves to improve, or open their lives up to new experiences.

In Western society we have a disproportionate level of opportunities available to us, and it is a bit of an insult to those less fortunate to not use these opportunities to improve our existence. We have become caught up in our own lives and desires, and detached from the consequences of our choices. By not taking more responsibility for our actions, or more actions towards maximising our contribution to the world, a price is ultimately paid by someone.

As learners from infancy, throughout our formal education, our ‘careers’, right up until the day we leave our skin and bones behind, we all are in possession of a magical tool called the ‘Zone of Proximal Development’. This bad boy terminology explains the proverbial difference between what we can do all by ourselves, and what we need help with in order to achieve. We all have skills, talents, ambitions, hopes and dreams, and through learning and sharing, we can work together to improve our happiness as individuals and collectively as an extended community.

If you’ve ever studied or read about child psychology and development, you may have come across the ZPD idea, courtesy of Vygotsky. He’s got a great bunch of theories and ideas on the development of the learner, and explains the ZPD as “...the distance between the actual developmental level... and the level of potential development...in collaboration with more capable peers...”

Although a concept initially based around the learning of children, the ZPD is something that we can tap into all through our lives, but which so many of us seem to leave behind. When you give yourself the opportunity to develop a skill, improve an ability or take on a whole new challenge, not only do you open yourself up to another opportunity to be happy, but you expand on your potential to contribute to the improvement of the world.

The ‘capitalist’ mindset has our society in a chokehold, and everywhere we turn there’s someone or something reminding us to work too hard, spend too much and flaunt our spoils in order to be happy. Don’t get me wrong, I believe everyone should make a contribution to the world as they are able, and I heartily back the concept of a solid work ethic. Where we go wrong is our reasoning.

Advertising tells us that we too can look like this, or feel like this, or people will like us, or envy us if we buy or partake in what they are selling. We allocate a large proportion of our time and our lives to working in a job that probably doesn’t make us happy (but is just as probably making someone else rich), so we can have a disposable income to buy the things that we’ve been convinced will make our lives better. Ironic of course in our age of packaging & Primark, that our lives seem to have become more disposable than our income!

There is simply so much out there to learn, understand and appreciate. And if we allow ourselves to get stuck in a rut of mediocrity, we limit our potential to be happy. There is a special kind of satisfaction that comes from setting ourselves a goal, and making it happen, even if it is as simple as ticking something off a to-do list. In the right environment and with the right support network our potential to improve is infinite. We just need to open ourselves up to the opportunity to learn.