With no apologies to The Righteous Brothers, I may have lost that learning feelin’, I want to bring it back but I am conflicted as to how I want to bring it back.

Throughout the lockdowns, people around the world were doing new and different things, and one of them was online learning. Some of it was forced, namely when schools closed their doors and moved to virtual. Then there were people like myself, who purposely sought out online learning. Where this was a global movement of sorts, it didn’t start out that way for me, as I would like to share before I go on.

At First, Forced Into It

My first online course was not by choice. I was signed up to take Certified ScrumMaster training in mid-April, 2020 in person. The course was a 2-day program offered at a hotel outside of Milwaukee, and I was planning to stay the night there to get the most out of it.

Without needing to completely restate that painful time, I was later informed the class was going to be offered online instead. Really? How? You couldn’t take any Scrum classes online up to that point, as they were highly engaging with whiteboards and Post-it notes all over the walls. To compound things the company that offered the course wouldn’t allow me to postpone it and said I (ok, my employer) would lose the registration fee if I didn’t show up virtually. As I wrote about shortly after I took the course and passed the exam to be a Certified ScrumMaster I ended up having a great instructor, great classmates and it turned out to be a great overall experience.

So The Graduations Hang On The Wall

After that first class, it felt like everywhere I turned there were online courses being offered – both at work and from learning platforms for free or reduced prices. Some of these platforms offered free weekends, who couldn’t pass that up? As it was alluring I took many courses online, certainly many more than I had in the past.

At the conclusion of most classes, you could download a certificate of completion in PDF format. Where I knew many people who simply ignored them, I collected them like Happy Gilmore did large checks and printed them out, hanging them inside the cabinet doors of my work desk. As the doors only held 6 certs, I would replace older ones with newer ones, keeping the “major” ones up all the time and replacing them all at the end of the year. The picture above is of the certs I just took down that I earned in 2021.

Is The Feelin’ As Intense Now?

Now we are a month into 2022 as I write this, entering year 3 of restrictions that vary depending on where you are in the world. As I worked from home years before it was, um, trendy, my situation is different, coupled with where I live in Northeast Wisconsin. In short, I am out more than shut-in, have more options and with that normalcy I am not seeking out other things to keep me occupied. Towards the end of 2021 I didn’t end up taking many online courses.

When I took down the above-pictured certs, I started thinking more about learning in general, part of which was the catalyst for me writing what you are reading right now. To try to get some of that learning feelin’ back, I recently took a couple of courses offered on LinkedIn Learning. One was on having a more positive workweek, the other on NFTs. As you may guess, I have the certificates from these hanging on the inside of my desk cabinet doors.

Planning To Bring Back The Feelin’

Even with the few nuggets I learned from those 2 most recent courses I tool, they were not really fulfilling to me. Why? I pondered this and realized there was nothing really driving me to take them. I scrolled through the list of courses on LinkedIn Learning and said, hey, this may be interesting. Early on, motivations like maintaining a shrunken amygdala drove me to take courses. Now I need more than them being a simple prop to occupy my time.

So I am working on a plan. The elements of the plan will include what I “need” to learn and what I “want” to learn.

For what I need, it will include video presentations and books on Scrum, as I need to complete education hours in order to maintain my certification. There is also the software and services I will be using in my work to either get ahead on or for just-in-time training.

For what I want, a few are obvious, but I need to put more time into what else I will take. I want to learn more about livestreaming in general, and specifically around the software and hardware needed to take the basics I know to the next level. I also want to learn more about soccer. As a relatively astute swim Dad, I am lacking in soccer, a sport one of my kiddos has switched to and is doing amazingly well at. However I don’t always see where there’s an offsides on the field, and don’t know a lot of the rules and strategy on the sport. Beyond these 2, I am not sure if I want to take on a new hobby or interest, and am open to suggestions from anyone out there in the peanut gallery.

Deconstructing That Learning Feelin’

We should always be learning ... something, whether in formal courses or from real-life experiences. For the former, there’s an investment required, and with any investment it must be done wisely. Even with different motivations and time schedules, I am excited on bringing back that learning feelin’ and want to make sure I approach it with a purpose-driven plan I have the ability to complete. Do you agree?

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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