When you’ve lived through decade after decade, you’re going to have amassed a large amount of knowledge, experience, and understanding about things that people younger than you may not be privy to yet. Because of this, many older adults feel compelled to share everything they know with those of younger generations. The trick here is that many younger people don’t necessarily love the idea of learning from people that they don’t relate to, especially if they’re older and in assisted living facilities. However, people of more advanced years really do have a lot that younger people can learn from.
If you’re older and want to be able to share your knowledge with younger people, here are three tips for sharing your experiences with them in a way they’ll appreciate.
Allow Them To Ask All Kinds Of Questions
One of the best ways to allow people to learn from you is to give them the chance to ask you questions.
In many cases, people are curious about things that you may not think to address or that might even make you uncomfortable. But for many younger people, topics that may have been taboo before simply aren’t anymore. Knowing this, you may be able to share more of your knowledge if you’re willing to talk about things that are more personal and of interest to younger people. However, you can always get creative with deflecting questions you really aren’t comfortable addressing.
Build Off Of Their Ideas
Oftentimes, younger people are more comfortable in collaborative environments than in more rigid and structured environments. With this in mind, you might want to create an atmosphere where you’re brainstorming and working together as you build up to sharing your own ideas and experience.
To best do this, consider asking them what they think about something and then coming up with your own opinion as well. As you build off of each other’s ideas, you’ll both be able to see the value in one another.
Be Open To Learning From Them, Too
No one likes to be preached at without having their thoughts and experiences shared as well. So if you want people to respect you when you’re speaking to them, you need to show them this same respect.
One way this can be done is to be open to learning from them just as you’d want them to learn from you. When there’s something that you’re not understanding, turn to your younger associates and ask for their guidance. Then, when they need help, they’ll be much more comfortable turning to you, too.
If you have experience and knowledge that you’re wanting to share with younger generations, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you learn how this goal can be accomplished.