Hi folks,
at first welcome everybody to my “blog”!
Usually you need not welcome everybody to your blog, because you have your regular readers, but I think in this case it makes sense, as I could bet nobody ever read something of me here. The reason is obvious: There is not much there, at least yet 
That is also the reason I put “blog” in quotation marks; I have installed a wordpress and use it for my website, but to tell myself a blogger the regularity is missing.
Why that long introduction? Although I do not write a lot, I do read as much as I can. A part of this is reading blog subscriptions, and one of those blogs is Litemind.
When I woke up this morning (my day continous until I sleep, so correct would be yesterday morning) I read their newest entry Lists Group Writing Project, and thought: Well, I like making lists. And I never did any group blog thing before, so I thought: Great, I always wanted to do such a thing! I thought about the things which currently occupy me. And then I had the idea: List Motivators for Informal Learning!
In short, in my opionion, Informal Learning is intentional, non-formal, that means not-externally-organized or formally degreed learning. Find out more about it in Wikipedia. (I think they lack the intention there.)
I started my list early in the morning with about 50 ideas after an hour and a half, then I had to go to university, on the way another 20 came to my mind and the rest in my lectures 
The interesting thing is, all the way along I thought: OK, I’ll do 10 that’s enough, after that: I have some more ideas, lets do 25. Hey that was easy, do I get another 25? – and so on.
After this brainstorming I reorded the list and put some ideas in clearer words, but just in the case you do not know what I mean with a point or you want to know more about it, do not hesitate to ask!
Also I am glad of all comments, espacially some additions, to improve our list. What helps you to motivate yourself?
But now, here we are:
100 Motivators for Informal Learning
- expand your knowledge
- do official certificates, NVQs, etc.
- self-fulfillment
- a step to wisdom
- earn acknowledgement for what you know
- it looks impressive when you read a book in public
- visualize what you did (tick boxes, cross lists)
- you are doing projects, not tasks, it is important/meaningful what you do
- understand the world better, why things happen
- enjoy the feeling of knowing more than your teacher/lecturer
- participate in competitions and win prices
- go to a library and feel the knowledge
- improve your life, character, personality
- train your brain, stay mentally fit
- meet people, improve your dating chances
- become a specialist
- become an information centre, group others around you
- become/stay part of the knowledge-based society
- can become the foundation block of later formal learning
- compare yourself to others
- do small steps, break it down to bite-size chunks
- enjoy that others tell you how good you are
- exchange knowledge
- expand your horizon
- feel that you max out your potential fully
- get others to motivate you
- helps you to go in for your career
- helps you to have better ideas
- improve your self image
- keep record of what you learned
- learn from others
- learn things nobody knows, than you can show off
- learn things that make you unique
- how would your life be if you do not learn this?
- learn what else you can do with your life, find new hobbies
- make a contract with yourself
- make a portfolio
- make knowledge your selling point
- make your knowledge public and discuss with others
- new things to think about
- new topics of conversation
- tell others what you do, then they will ask you
- if you don’t, you will fall behind
- think positive about what you do
- treat it is as a challenge
- understand others better
- you can cope better with your life
- you get independent from others
- you get more creative
- you get recognized when you talk about what you have learned
- you grow personally
- you know that you are better than others
- you get better
- let others certify you, or certify yourself
- gain qualification
- makes you attractive
- plan and stick to your plan
- you enlarge the knowledge of the world
- get rid of demotivators
- replace a bad habit (something useless) with it
- learning is fun
- you are free to learn what you want, nobody controls or limits you
- satisfy curiosity
- you will be able to teach others
- you do not want to stay dumb
- nowadays it is more important to be able to learn new things well, than knowing a lot
- it is different to what you do normally
- learn self mastery
- clearify your ideas
- try if time pressure (dead lines) help you
- learn only what really makes sense, which definitely helps you later
- become irreplaceable in your company
- if you are stuck, do something different
- feel being a student again, you probably miss that time
- you won’t like idleness/stagnation
- remove everything that prevents you from learning
- share books with others
- learn about learning, that makes learning more productive and fun
- it interests you
- it is something useful
- set goals and reach them
- avoid being average
- knowledge is/makes you sexy
- earn mony with your knowledge
- be successful
- be the best in a topic and know it, become a specialist
- become a model for others
- enjoy the smelling of a new book
- better job chances
- avoid the fear of missing something important in your life
- boost your status
- build/establish a learning network
- emulate your model
- get asked by others to help others
- be proud of your bookshelf (your library of what you know)
- get happy
- learn with others
- reward yourself,when reaching a milestone
- talk intellectual/wise
- find your own motivators for informal learning and add them to this list
After successfully submitting my list and reading thoroughly through all of the other great lists, I decided to give my votes to these ones:
100 Resources To Improve Your Career, Relationships And Money
10 Ways To Improve Your Personality
7 Tricks You Need to Fight Procrastination
Thank you everybody for having such great ideas of lists and participating in the project! I wish everbody good luck and am already looking forward to the next group writing project
[...] 100 Motivators for Informal Learning by Marcel Ackermann [...]
[...] 100 Motivators for Informal Learning by Marcel Ackermann [...]
[...] 100 Motivators for Informal Learning by Marcel Ackermann [...]
[...] 100 motivators for informal learning by marcel ackermann [...]
Hi,
Nice list of 100 motivators. I use some of these myself, and they have served me well.
[...] 100 Motivators for Informal Learning by Marcel Ackermann [...]
[...] 100 Motivators for Informal Learning by Marcel Ackermann [...]
[...] 100 Motivators for Informal Learning by Marcel Ackermann [...]
[...] by Lori 15 Tips to Prevent Repetitive Strain Injury and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome by CSS 100 Motivators for Informal Learning by Marcel Ackermann 10 Ways to Survive the Writers’ Strike by Cynthia Boris 100List – 100 Things [...]
[...] 100 Motivators for Informal Learning by Marcel Ackermann [...]
Great list!
[...] 100 Motivators for Informal Learning by Marcel Ackermann [...]
Thanks for the vote, Marcel. It is much appreciated.
My favourite “motivator” in youe list is
88. enjoy the smelling of a new book
Two thumbs up!
[...] 100 Motivators for Informal Learning by Marcel Ackermann – Among all of 100 items, which ones would actually motivate you to learn things by yourself? Would you be able to come up with even more motivators, as suggested in the final item? Alternatively, you could take the 100 existing items, divide them into groups and then write articles discussing each group. Note, for instance, that many of the motivators deal with self-confidence and even vanity. What do you think about it? If your site belongs to educational niches, how could you use those motivators to help teachers and/or students? [...]
[...] 100 Motivators for Informal Learning by Marcel Ackermann [...]