The choices for learning are all yours to make, based on your interests and the time you have to devote to it. My own choice was to return to school. I had left classrooms and academic texts behind me many years before. But I felt some nostalgia about my student years at university – the comradeship with fellow students, the contact with professors who were masters in their fields, the introduction to subjects and authors which posed a challenge to my settled beliefs and assurances.

I chose to pursue a Master degree in philosophy at the London School of Economics. The world of metaphysical ideas had always been an interest of mine. I had even entertained early on the possibility of pursuing a career in academia. My life’s path had set me, however, on a career in international finance, which inculcated in me the practical considerations of the business world. But I knew there were other horizons to explore and from which to derive inspiration. Everything about the return to the settled world of academic endeavour pleased me. It gave me a new urge to live and to stay alive. It also revived in me an inherent interest in social values and in making a difference in the world by contributing to society. I gained a tremendous boost in self-esteem by putting myself through the rigours of my studies, as if the effort were a re-affirmation that my life was really just beginning, that one career was only a step towards other possibilities. The experience also opened d my eyes to the value of lifelong learning. I now take regular courses and attend seminars on a variety of subjects. Meeting younger people at these events has given an additional zest to my life and kept me young.

Each individual’s path to learning is unique. Some of my friends have taken on the learning of a new language because it forces the mind into the gymnastics of acquiring the structure, sounds and meanings of its words. While  exploring the language, they also discover the culture which lies beneath it. Whole avenues of new pursuits are revealed, which they pursue in books, travel and exchanges with native speakers of the language.

One friend, a botanist,  took up astronomy. She said that after a life spent delving into the forest floor for new specimens she felt the urge to examine a bigger picture of the universe. She read voraciously about stars, galaxies and the universe,  in books and on the internet, acquired a beginner’s telescope and set out on the discovery of what she described as the voyage of our own spaceship – the earth – through the solar system, the constellations and the exotic objects of the “deep sky”.

Some of us will want learning to simply deepen our understanding of a field or subject we already master. The point is to never stop learning, never close up the shutters of the mind.

I'm also convinced that creative expression is one of the principal elements for staying young and healthy. The concept of prescribing music lessons for individuals in their older years may be a far more important and cost-effective healthcare strategy than ever imagined. The goal is not to create concert pianists and baritones, but rather to open the senses to the enchantment and beauty of making music. Joining a choir is just as effective as taking up the guitar lessons you abandoned as a teenager.

Winston Churchill had no shortage of accomplishments in his life. Yet in his autobiography he reveals his life-long torments by depression – what he called the “black dog” that pursued him. Late in his long life he took up painting, mostly landscapes and still-lifes. His paintings will not compete with Van Gogh or Cézanne but the act of seeing nature through the eyes of a painter, dissecting and assembling the elements of colour, form and disposition,  gave him a new view on the living world. Churchill lived all his life with that childlike sense of new awakenings and discoveries, especially in his later years.

What will work for you? Which discipline, hobby or pursuit can be shared with others, adding the benefit of like-minded company? You will meet new people to share your delight in whatever activity captures your imagination. You may even learn to create something beautiful with others that you cannot achieve on your own.

At the very least you will be more likely to start the day humming a tune, admiring a sunrise, anticipating a new discovery.