The Art of Learning

This book has been sitting on my reading stack for sometime.  Every time I would pick it it up I would say to myself "I'll read this next."  For whatever reason that hadn't happened.  Then when pressed a few weeks ago to commit to my review for March in on JJL, it seemed perfect - a book I wanted to read on a topic completely in line with the focus of this blog - learning.

If you are like me, you enjoy reading a great life story - whether written as a biography or autobiographically, I find life stories compelling and instructive.  When the story is about someone who has achieved at world class levels, it often makes the story more interesting.

That is the case with this book, The Art of Learning, A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence.  The author, Josh Waitzkin is an International Chess Master - he began winning National and World Championships before he was ten.  His father wrote a book about him, that became a movie - Searching for Bobby Fisher. these facts seem to set up a very interesting book.

But that is only the start.  Waitzkin has also become world class in Tai Chi, winning multiple U.S. and World Championships in this discipline as well.  While the author is truly world class in two different areas, he feels his real expertise is as a learner and in this book he helps us as readers on our "Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence"  (the subtitle of the book).

Weaving introspection and powerful examples from the worlds of martial arts and chess and relating all of that to creating more effective personal learning made this book hard for me to put down.  It is well written and full of moments of insight.

I found myself reflecting on another favorite book of mine; Mastery, by George Leonard - another book that explores learning from the context of martial arts.  While these two books do discuss some similar ideas, I see them as more complementary than overlapping.

I don't feel lead to share pithy quotes or lists of lessons learned from this book - not because they don't exist, but because I believe this is a book that will effect each interested reader in a different way and I don't want to be an inadvertent guide to the wrong lessons for you.

I know that next week when I facilitate training sessions and coach co-facilitators I will be more effective because of the lessons from this book.  I know that I will be a better parent, boss and individual learner in the coming days as well for having read this fine book.

If you love reading and love learning, as I assume you must if you read this blog, I urge you to put this book on your reading list.  Just don't make it sit as long as it did on my stack.  Read it when you have some time and are ready to explore your own learning journey.  This book will make your journey more exciting and enlightened.
~ Kevin Eikenberry

Kevin Eikenberry is an author, speaker, trainer, consultant and the Chief Potential Officer of the Kevin Eikenberry Group - a learning consulting company.  He is also the author of Remarkable Leadership - Unleashing Your Leadership Potential One SKill at a Time. You can read his blogs here and here.

Comments

[Steve Sherlock]

Nicely done Kevin. You have me convinced to put the book into my shopping cart and to read at an early opportunity. For me, a day without learning something new is a day not fully spent.

[Rosa Say]

Kevin, I am so happy to know that JJL’s ALAWB provided this reading trigger for you!

Something has changed for me since the time I first turned my own love affair with books into this forum. I used to chastise myself for my non-stop buying of books, vowing not to buy another until I had read all I already had purchased, for I felt like a shopaholic addicted to the buying, and at any given time I could have up to a dozen books waiting in a stack for me – a few still in the same bags I brought them home from the bookstore in!

But then I came to realize that the gathering and the reading were two distinct processes, both so wonderfully useful to me as a learner. I read my books in these themed groupings that give me my “learning focus” at any given time; for instance, I now have one by Ken Blanchard, two by Patrick Lencioni, and two by Michael Port grouped together in this magnificence of closing my own learning-knowing-doing gap with my reading retention (a third learning process from that gathering and reading!)

There is a second grouping with three other authors mentoring me (through their books) within an R&D project I am looking for a breakthrough with in my company, SLC, and after reading Dwayne’s review on Thick Face, Black Heart, I strongly suspect that Chin-Ning Chu needs to be added to that author’s mastermind group!

Now my stack of gathered but unread books are just waiting, fully accessible to me when their time comes. When I look at them, I have this trust in ‘Providence’ that I bought them for a good reason, maybe one I don’t even fully realize yet. It may sound strange to some, but they kinda talk to me when they aren’t yet read. So, no more chastising myself for having bought them, or having downloaded the audio :)

Perhaps that is what happened for you with the Art of Learning too?

[dave]

How in all of creation could any of us here not want to get this book? The Art of Learning? Nice find Kevin.

I too wrestle with the anxiety of "stack of unread books." Their call is even more alluring when the book I might be presently reading begins to stall. When the call drowns out reason I delve into the stack and crack another.

[David Zinger]

I was not familiar with Josh...I have requested the book and watched a could of very insightful on line videos of Josh. If he writes as well as he speaks this must be a very powerful book.

[Angela Maiers]

Kevin, this has been one on my MUST read list for some time now. What a fantastic story of learning and living. A definite staple for all of us who love both. Thanks you for your thoughtful review-you gave me the push I need to get going on this one!