Learning

I know it’s a tough one but hey, people that succeed are people that learn. They study; they read or listen to eBooks. Although I titled this point Reading, lots of folks aren’t geared that way anymore, and since we live in an age where audio books and online courses are abundant, you must take advantage and invest in yourself. Jim Rohn, one of my favorite mentors since I was in my 20’s states: A person that works hard at their job will earn a living; a person that works hard on themselves could earn a fortune.” He truly believed that the more you invest in yourself, the more you will accomplish in life, the more harmony you will have in your life, the happier you’ll be in your life, the more you’ll be able to give back to the world at large through charity or works.

I listen to audio books (everyone should) and started working on myself. Permit me to come out straight with you on this point; there’s no shortcut or substitute for learning than to learn. You have to come to terms with the fact that you have to read or listen or watch to become more functioning and productive. You have to find a way around the difficulty, hardship, and boredom even, which comes with studying.

You have wide access to myriads of materials with which you can invest in yourself. Investing in yourself is going to cost a bit of money, but as the phrase goes, the investment is in you. The first thing I’ll suggest is for you to buy yourself a 12.95 membership to Audible, either US or CDN so when you’re in your car (synchronize your phone with your car if you can), when you’re commuting or in transit (get a good headset) you can be learning and not wasting precious time. Commuting and getting from one place to the other now has a whole new meaning to me. That time is learning time! I used to hate it, especially during the first couple of years I was sick and struggling with anxiety. I didn’t want to leave the house and to get in the car was yucky. But now I look forward to listening to one of my audiobooks in the car, which is my number one place for learning and uplifting. When traveling on planes, I read, but in commuting, I listen. To be honest, I’m one of those people that sometimes buy a book twice. I tend to buy the audiobook first and after that buy the hard copy if I want to study and make notes. Books can also go places my electronics cannot, like beaches and the sun. Books never run out of power and don’t offer ‘other’ distractions like Candy Crush. A significant amount of study has shown that non-electronic reading and writing make more lasting impressions on the mind. Synapses in our brains are designed to react to certain impulses, and the written word is a huge part of that. So, if you are reading, highlighting and taking notes, you’re interacting with the learning and your brain stores the information better and recollects faster.

Now of course we have no place to commute to so when you go for a walk or just want to lie down on the couch and get off your computer, listen to a book.

Knowledge is a beautiful cycle, and we’ve broken this in our world today. It’s so broken, and one of my goals is to facilitate people to bring back the culture of learning into our world. We are not going to facilitate change anywhere or around the world if we do not invest in ourselves and share with others.

Learning exposes and acquaints you to perspectives of great minds, past and present, sometimes taking you out of your comfort zone. It sharpens your mindset and increases your power of reasoning and judgment. So, learning is an absolute necessity for people that want to be high functioning, it is no different from executing a new habit, and I’m here to call bullshit on excuses and procrastination.