I recently got some raised eyebrows from my musical accomplices when I told them I was taking guitar lessons. They know me as a long-time professional guitarist, musician and composer, and a music teacher with a classical, university-based formal music education.

Their surprise caught me off-guard for a moment, then I explained my belief that professionals—in any field—keep learning. This is the difference between a 20-year career, and a one-year job repeated 20 times.

Besides, it’s fun!

Teaching is Learning

I have been a teacher for a long time. My first job was as the music teacher in the lone music store of the small town where I lived. I was 14.

Since then, I have taught a number of different subjects in a variety of settings: from private clients to major universities; medical centers to career colleges. It doesn’t matter what you call it—teacher, mentor, instructor, professor—it’s all about passing on the experiences we have worked to accumulate.

Every good teacher is also a good student. Not just at the start, but for the duration of their careers, their lifetimes. There is no such thing as becoming "the best.” There is always somebody who can add to your knowledge; someone who knows something you don’t, or can do something that you can’t.

Beginners' mind is an important component of a lifetime of satisfaction and well-being. There’s an old admonition that you can’t add anything to a full cup: people who believe they know it all about any subject become crystallized in mind and time, and they stop growing.

Allow yourself to learn; endeavor to not be the smartest person in the room.

Learning is Growth

I have been a student far longer than I have been a teacher. I have several degrees and certificates, but I have also studied many things outside the realm of formal, school-based education: aviation, SCUBA, martial arts, philosophy, religion, spirituality, and much more.

And the best learning experiences are not rote and boring: the most effective learning, of course, is experiential.

For instance:

- You can talk about playing the guitar all day, but until you have it in your hands, you don’t really start to learn about the instrument.
- It’s one thing to read about how Haussmann restructured Paris; it’s a completely different experience to stand at the top of the Eiffel Tower and witness the results.
- I have always been fascinated by tigers. When I went to to Thailand and spent some quality, one-on-one time with them inside their enclosures, I learned much more in a much shorter period of time than I otherwise could have.

After a lifetime of learning and teaching, you might think I would be ready to call it a day. But you’d be wrong. I’m still a teacher; still a student. I find a profound joy in learning and teaching that I can’t replicate in any other pastime or occupation.

Learning and Happiness

All of this brings us to the connection between learning and happiness: I have decades of lived experience that support my contention that life-long learning is a major part of life-long happiness.

The two are intrinsically interwoven at a number of points:

Discipline. There are few experiences that can rival a formal education for the acquisition and maintenance of discipline and personal responsibility. An ability to delay gratification, tolerate sacrifice, and commit to your stated personal values is required to excel in a structured learning environment.

When you are young, it’s difficult to realize that saying “no” to the debauchery and excesses available in your late teens and 20s can lead to decades of a better life. Harder still is the fact that your peers frequently don’t share the same sense of commitment and responsibility. The peer pressure to blow off your studies and go party is a powerful thing, but those who can withstand—or at least moderate—the distractions are happier and healthier than their peers in the long run.

Competence. At a base level, we all need to be able to provide for ourselves and in many cases, our families. This leads to the age old trade-off of the hours of your life for some kind of compensation. As everyone learned very quickly after landing their first job, the question is how to maintain the best compensation for the least sacrifice of your hours on the planet.

In almost every case, the answer to that question is to become competent.

It doesn’t really matter which pathway you choose on the road to become good at something. If you want to be a psychologist, you have to spend many years in college and grad school. If you are a tradesman, the ancient and still-effective tradition of undertaking an apprenticeship is probably your best bet.

The reward for enduring all those years of college or apprenticeship is two-fold: First is the ability to command a higher wage for your superior abilities. Second is the satisfaction of using your mastery to benefit others. Both lead to increased levels of happiness throughout your life.

In addition, mastery of something that you enjoy is its own intrinsic reward. If you’re called to be a musician or a plumber or a neurosurgeon or a dancer or a pilot, your life satisfaction will increase as you get better at the craft you have chosen. There is a well-deserved pride in being good at what you do.

Community. With the popularity of Internet courses, it is entirely possible to learn in a vacuum (which is better than not learning at all). But you lose something vital when all of your learning takes place in absentia. I have spent many hours teaching, and learning online. My personal opinion is that it is a poor substitute for the “real thing.”

Don’t get me started: as an educator and educational administrator for decades, I have ample evidence that—no matter how clever the automation that claims to make up the difference—less learning takes place online. This is a long discussion for another time, or perhaps one best left unsaid.

Community is a big part of learning in any face-to-face situation. The socialization inherent in a classroom—no matter how informal—is frequently as valuable as the information gained per the syllabus.

Think about high school. If your experience was anything like mine, and like most of the people I have spoken with about the subject, the main thing you learned was how to get along with your peers (and your instructors). The time you spent learning to navigate cliques and early romances and BFFs (and BFFs who became mortal enemies, and vice versa) and team picks for PE, and whom to sit next to on bus rides for band or choir or football or swim meets—likely still serves you in your daily life. You probably can’t say the same for American History, English and pre-calc.

It is a well-documented non-secret that “soft,” interpersonal skills are often more valuable than “hard,” technical skills. Socialization experiences from high school and college are the training ground for how to develop—or fit into—healthy communities in later life. Community is also a powerful boost to mental and physical health (we will have much more to say about community in future discussions). 

And the benefits of in-person learning communities remain valid, no matter your age.

Fun. It’s good to gain new skills and information just because the topic interests you. I recently got my FCC amateur (“ham”) radio licenses, because I frequently take long solo trips into remote areas that may not have cell service, and because my childhood friend’s parents were licensed, and the concept of a personal radio station has fascinated me ever since.

The same learning experience can hit differently for different people. I got my pilot’s license because it was challenging and fun (man has thought about flying as long as man has existed, I reckon). My son, Cade, is getting his aviation training because he is becoming a professional pilot. It’s not just an adjunct to his purpose; it is his purpose, at this point in his life.

Mindset. Everything we’ve talked about so far ultimately relates to mindset. Focus and clarity are necessary to choose a path. But the discipline and optimism required to pursue and master that path will hone your mindset into a powerful force that will shape your life, and enhance the lives of others. 

Purpose. When you become competent at something, the satisfaction you feel is part of—and in turn reinforces—your purpose. The only way that you will be able to navigate the rigors of mastery in any subject is to have a sense that your efforts contribute to the meaning you have chosen for your life. 

There is no endeavor of which I am aware that doesn’t have days of discouragement. If you’re in grad school, there are certainly many nights where you are reading the same paragraph for the 15th time and are too tired to make sense of any of it. On those nights, you may well wonder if you’re really doing the right thing. In pursuit of a trade, there are similarly periods of time where you feel like you’re behind; that you’re just not “getting it,” no matter how hard you try.

In both cases what is required is the ability to push through the plateaus in your learning experience and get to the other side; to continue to progress. But if you don’t have a sense of purpose in these pursuits, it can easily start to feel too hard. If you don’t commit to a course of meaningful action, you may find that you ultimately take the path of least resistance, sometimes for a lifetime.

I can unequivocally state that my personal experience in dealing with thousands of people, personally and professionally, is that those who have chosen and committed to a purpose—to competency and mastery of a field that interests them—are healthier, wealthier, and happier than those who just pick up whatever job looks like it might be OK for a short period of time. Even if those short-term, meaningless jobs pay well for a while, they are usually devoid of the pride and satisfaction of a career well spent.

Learning is Hardcore

And so we come to an inconvenient and possibly unpleasant fact about learning. There’s a reason that the word Hardcore sits in front of the word Happiness in these discussions:

We weren’t put here to take it easy.

Our physical bodies, our bones and muscles, atrophy unless we push them. Strength and flexibility are “use it or lose it” propositions.

Our ability to think and reason and grow mentally likewise grows weaker unless it is consistently challenged. Learning is the best way to age-proof your brain.

I believe that there is more at stake here than cognition and physical strength, however. I have seen that joy and satisfaction wane when we are not spiritually, mentally, and physically engaged. We become brittle and unable to deal with life‘s challenges. We lose our resilience in the face of the adversity that is part and parcel of being alive. And all of that is antithetical to long-term happiness and well-being.

I realize that I am repeating myself here, but these Hardcore Happiness topics are a marathon, not a sprint. Learning is not something you do for a while and then stop. Learning is not a chore that you have to endure until you graduate from high school and then never learn anything again. Learning is long-term maintenance, as is taking care of your physical body.

Learning keeps us sharp and enhances the quality—and length—of our lives.

Keep Learning

As best as I can tell, the meaning of life has two parts: to experience everything that we can while we are here, and to help others in their own journeys. When I learn, it facilitates the first part of that proposition. When I teach, I get deep satisfaction from fulfilling the second part.

Don’t stop learning once you’re an adult. That tendency is understandable, because you may have had an adverse reaction to high school and maybe college, and you never want to open a textbook again. And as an adult, you don’t “have to.” But that’s not the point of learning.

If you are an adult and feel as though you are just marking time; that nothing new and exciting is on the horizon, your body and mind are telling you to choose a purpose, and learning is definitely a part of that purpose.

As always, the responsibility is yours. You are responsible to choose your purpose, then search out opportunities to learn, and stay current and relevant. Don’t give up on your opportunity to Create Your World; to experience your own Hardcore Happiness. It’s your right.

Besides, you got something better to do?


——

Here are five recent, peer-reviewed studies illustrating the benefits of adult and lifelong learning, with a focus on cognitive health, resilience against decline, and sustained well-being:

1. Takeuchi et al. (2023) – Adult Education & Dementia Risk
Study: Takeuchi, H. et al. (2023). 
Key Findings: Adults attending education classes showed better retention of fluid intelligence and a lower risk of developing dementia over five years—even after adjusting for prior cognitive ability and genetic predisposition.

2. Wang et al. (2025) – Later-Life Learning Delays Cognitive Decline
Study: Wang, N. et al. (2025). Key Findings: Engaging in educational activities in later life correlated with a nearly six-year delay in cognitive decline, based on longitudinal population data.

3. Leanos et al. (2023) – Learning Multiple Real-World Skills
Study: Leanos, S. et al. (2023). 
Key Findings: Older adults simultaneously learning several new skills (e.g., Spanish, painting, tech use) reported substantial long-term cognitive improvements, particularly in working memory and cognitive control.

4. Bindoff et al. (2021) – University Study & Cognitive Trajectories
Study: Bindoff, A. D. et al. (2021). 
Key Findings: Participants enrolled in university study programs in their 60s displayed consistent improvements in memory and verbal learning compared to a control group over a seven-year period.

5. PLOS One Feature (2025) – Curiosity & Cognitive Reserve
Study Insight (2025): A featured summary from PLOS One found that while general curiosity may decline with age, “state curiosity”—interest in specific topics—often increases in midlife and beyond. This curiosity supports cognitive reserve, neuroplasticity, and healthy activity in the prefrontal cortex.


References

1. Takeuchi, H., et al. (2023). Effects of adult education on cognitive function and risk of dementia. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 15, 1066734. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2023.1066734

2. Wang, N., et al. (2025). The impact of later-life learning on trajectories of cognitive aging. Innovation in Aging, 9(5), igaf023. https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaf023

3. Leanos, S., et al. (2023). The impact of learning multiple real-world skills on cognition in older adults. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 15, 1137031. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2023.1137031

4. Bindoff, A. D., et al. (2021). Studying at university in later life slows cognitive decline: A longitudinal analysis. Aging & Mental Health, 26(7), 1333–1341. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2021.1957788

5. Hultsch, D. F., et al. (2025). State curiosity in midlife: Associations with cognitive reserve and brain health. PLOS ONE, 20(4), e0298765. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0298765



The Hardcore Happiness podcast is live - in video form on YouTube, and in audio form wherever you listen to podcasts. Tune in every Thursday for the latest episode. Click here to go to the podcast page where you can see past episodes and listen to the latest. Come subscribe so you never miss an episode.



To learn more about how to use these concepts or to inquire about working with me, you can contact me on the Hardcore Happiness website, the comments section on my Substack or Medium accounts or the Hardcore Happiness blog page. If you have found value in this article, follow my Instagram account for daily insights, or my X account for occasional tweets. To support this community, you can donate through my Patreon account.




- JWW