Maintain Your Motivation to Learn

When we aren’t involved in classes or a skills-building career, we can lose opportunities to learn new things, along with the resulting cognitive benefits. Seniors Guide writer Terri L. Jones examines why older adults often lose their motivation to learn and what they can do to get it back.

When adults don’t challenge their brains to learn, it’s like what happens with students on summer break: they backslide. On the other hand, continuing to try new things and learn new skills not only encourages social engagement and leads to personal growth , it also helps seniors maintain their cognitive abilities.

This cognitive benefit was demonstrated in a study of older adults (ages 58 to 86) enrolled in three weekly classes for three months. With seniors’ attention and working memory tested before the classes and after the classes ended, their scores compared to adults 30 years younger and continued to climb over time.

Decline in motivation to learn

On the other hand, this recipe for maintaining brain function isn’t as easy as it sounds. In a different study in Norway , researchers found that when people reach their 50s, their motivation to pursue new activities and learn new skills tends to drop. It could be because of all the years of enforced learning, from school through careers, or society may have convinced them that they’re just too old to master new skills.

However, MIT neuroscientists also found a neurological explanation for this downturn in seniors’ drive to try new things.

It’s a brain thing

Using mice, this MIT study found that a specific circuit in the basal ganglia of the brain is responsible for sustaining motivation, particularly in learning to make decisions about new activities based on assessing the pros and cons. And with age, these circuits in the mice’s brains became weaker, resulting in the rodents losing the desire to engage in this type of cost-benefit analysis. Conversely, when the researchers reactivated the circuit, their motivation shot back up, comparable to their more youthful drive.

Scientists are now exploring drugs or other treatments that might stimulate this circuit in seniors’ brains and help them recapture their zeal for learning.

Use it or lose it

Below are some tips to help you regain your motivation to learn and inspire and embolden you to learn something new.

1. Take things slowly

Break an activity down into small, more conquerable pieces. If you want to learn to crochet, start with a YouTube for a simple project and noodle around with your hook and yarn for 15 minutes at a time.

Personally, I started with dishcloths and after many hours and a lot of trial and error – i.e., uneven squares and ripped-out stitches – I mastered the dishcloth. After that, I moved on to scarves and ponchos and, within a year, I was making a complex Amigurumi lamb for my great nephew!

Related: The benefits of learning a new language

2. Share the experience

Join clubs or sign up for classes that are specifically designed for seniors, so you’ll have support and be surrounded by people your age as you broaden your horizons.

When Martha decided to learn the ukelele, she took a short introductory class and then joined a group of new musicians, like herself, who play for an audience at libraries and senior living communities. By playing together, they sharpen each other’s skills and keep each other accountable to keep playing.

Related: Benefits of learning a musical instrument

3. Look on the bright side

You probably won’t be great at that new skill the first day (or maybe even the 100th), but that’s OK. Instead of obsessing over your mistakes, focus instead on those small accomplishments like the new stitch you finally got right or the chord you mastered on the first try.

Denise is taking golf lessons and finding the sport to be very difficult. When she tops or slices the ball, she’s being patient with herself and giving it another shot. Soon her successes will outweigh her failures.

4. Repeat performances

Remember other times when you were reluctant to try something new. After your first shaky attempts, you finally got the hang of it. Pretty soon, you probably began to enjoy yourself!

Related: The benefits of dancing

Once you start dipping your toe into new experiences, your confidence can grow and with it, along with your motivation to learn and to do it again. Pretty soon you’ll be hooked!

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