Not a Resolution, but an Undeniable Expectation
What did you learn today? That’s a question my mama used to ask me every day.
So think for a moment…
What was it that you learned today?
In the US, maybe you’re just learning about pennies being discontinued and how merchants are dealing with the challenge. Are you going to be paying for the round up to nickels?
Maybe you’ve learned about Instacart and retail outlets using dynamic pricing. You and I may be in the same store buying the same product one or two minutes apart, and we may pay different prices than one another.
That is dynamic pricing and why stores like Walmart are not putting pricing on the products or shelves. If you’ve rented an apartment recently, you may have had the same experience dependent upon the time you signed your lease.
Is it legitimate or fair? That’s another discussion, but the fact is that you need to be aware. You need to learn about what’s going on.
You can learn about things after the fact (be reactive). Or, you can learn in advance (proactive) and take action to help yourself.
Being willing to learn and wanting to learn will help you your entire life. And if it helps you, it will help your teen, too.
Learning is growing. How many times have you heard or thought, “If I’d only known that before…”?
Here’s another truth about learning: people are happier when they are learning.
You may be thinking about your son who hates to go to school. You’re thinking he’s not happy. If that’s truly the case, it means he’s not learning. Something is keeping him from learning. And there’s a very good chance it’s missing study skills which is why I do the work I do as a study skills tutor.
People want to become better. You want that promotion at work. You want to be elected to that position on the board. Your teen wants to win contests whether they’re academic or extracurricular.
Abraham Maslow has self-actualization in the top tier of his hierarchy of needs. Learning lets one become the best version of oneself.
Since learning is so important, it’s time to make it a priority for you and for your teen(s).
It may sound silly, but the first priority we’re going to start with is sleep. Sleep helps your body, and it helps your brain. If you learned something new today and really want to remember it, you’ll need sleep time in order for that new information to move from your short-term memory to your long-term memory.
But just for the record, even when it moves to long-term memory, you’ll still have to work with the information. If you don’t, you’ll forget, and that’s not real learning.
Understand that learning isn’t just book learning. Learning happens everywhere, every day, in and out of the classroom.
My mama was grandad’s assistant growing up. I don’t know that she volunteered, but she was the one beside him when chores had to be done. More than once, that included plumbing repairs. From grandad, she learned the concept that to keep water flowing in the right direction there had to be downward slope.
Today, there was a break in the freezing weather and snow began to melt. Mama was outside working on her downspouts where she has water barrels in the summer. The snow melt from the roof has to be directed away from the house to keep water from her basement.
I saw some interesting “piping” in her backyard today. A sluice had water running through it. Under it, some recycled guttering caught the sluice waterfall and took it at least 10 feet from the house. If the sluice mechanism stays in place throughout the snowfalls, it will work well until summer when the rain barrels are back in place.
If some part of the sluice fails, she’ll try something else. She’ll be studying information on the internet and applying what she knows about moving water from her dad until she has a working
solution.
Learning never ends. Choose to learn. Don’t ever feel like you “have to” learn something.
While sleep matters and has helped mama remember her plumbing lessons, applying what she has learned is also important. She’s worked on the plumbing in more than one house, so she was able to apply that knowledge to the snow melt today.
Despite the snow melt and rain, mama’s basement is still dry.
Learn things that will help you. Learn things that you enjoy. ANYTHING can be relevant to your and your teen’s interests if you’re willing to put in the work.
I’ve learned things under pressure like changing my first tire in the rain. Sometimes, the time for learning isn’t a choice. When that’s the case, do your best and learn what you can. There’s learning in failure, too.
However, it’s a good argument to learn when you’re NOT in a bind.
Being in a bind or stressed inhibits learning. Stress can reduce your memory and focus. Think about a time when you only remember bits and pieces because focusing on just one thing was too much to ask.
Think about a time when stress made you unable to tap your memory. A common example today is the frustration of forgetting a password that you’re sure is right. The more times you enter it, the more irritation builds. That’s why stress-reduction and nervous system regulation techniques are so essential.
Knowing that pressure reduces learning, it’s best if you and your teen learn and practice with new information often with as little stress as possible. It doesn’t mean the material is easy to learn, but that the environment encourages learning.
Cramming for a test works for some, but most crammers have forgotten the information they crammed within the week. Not being able to remember or use the information isn’t learning.
Yet, none of this matters without study skills. Studying is the process of learning. Good time management prevents the need for cramming and gives teens the chance to learn without the pressure of a ticking clock. Add in a little organization and some memory strategies and learning becomes fun for everyone, including you and your teens.
In 2026, don’t make a resolution about learning. Take the time to make it a goal that becomes a routine. Then, when someone asks you what you learned today, you’ll have a great answer.