Quite often participants come into group coaching or training with the idea, that there will always be something they will be able to learn.

To me, this is a very useful approach to those occasions when someone joins an event or a situation without having planned for it.

It’s also a way to benefit from something that happens by surprise, whatever the surprise might be.

It however is less useful, when it becomes the main attitude towards life and learning. One might say, that It’s the second-best option. It helps to deal with the disappointment that a plan doesn’t work out as expected, which happens more often than planned.

What it doesn’t do, is allow for direction, for knowing what the learning is for. It requires one to go back to the learning and investigate how it can become useful, where otherwise one would come back to the learning with a question of how to make better use of it.

While it may allow for an incredible richness in knowledge and ideas, it also requires a great memory to be able to pull things out when they become useful. Which rarely works knowing how fast new learning is forgotten if it isn’t used.

This isn’t about remaining focused on doing the right thing or on having a purpose.

It’s about our ability to give our activity an intention, may it be to enjoy the conversation by making it enjoyable for both.