Life is a learning curve.
Every experience is a lesson.
A growth mindset is no longer an advantage — it’s a necessity.
‘Never let formal education get in the way of your learning’ says Mark Twain.
In a world where everything is rapidly changing, the only thing we need to continuously craft and master is ourselves.
Majority of people whether in a structured environment or during their careers, don’t consciously put themselves on an accelerated learning curve.
To live your best life, you have to consistently look for opportunities to demand more of yourself.
Your life and your career is one big learning curve.
At every stage in life, you should know what you are doing, or pursuing.
If you don’t, audit your life.
When life is audited, performance improves.
You are probably due a life audit. Do some introspection.
What is the most interesting /important thing to you right now?
Are you working towards that?
Reexamine your goals in life as needed, and refocus where necessary.
Add a recurring weekly/monthly audit to your calendar, and start reflecting on your weekly actions.
Ask yourself these questions:
What went right? Wrong? What can I do better?
Once you know where to focus your efforts, you can accelerate your learning to get even better at what you do.
Don’t wait for someone to tell you what your next move is. Go create it.
Look for opportunities to disrupt yourself.
If you don’t know yourself better, working with a career coach can be helpful.
Life is a work in progress
The illiterate of the 21st Century are not those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” ― Alvin Toffler
Learning should not cease at any point in life. Every day brings a new opportunity to improve yourself.
Isaac Asimov once said, “Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.”
It’s a great idea to keep learning – learning keeps you curious, enthusiastic and passionate about life and living it.
Henry Ford once said, ‘Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.’
You don’t have to learn everything in one session though.
Learning (normal or accelerated) is more effective when it is spread out over time rather than jammed into a gruelling study session.
An accelerated approach to learning
“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” ―John Wooden
Knowledge provides efficiency and leverage.
Learning curve is the ‘the rate of a person’s progress in gaining experience or new skills.
Your ability to learn better and faster can help determine your success and your potential for growth.
A normal learning curve takes time, a lot of time, because of everything else that could take your time, attention and focus.
When you accelerate your learning curve, you take 100% control and measure your progress based on measurable and timely goals.
So instead of reading a book, or learning a new language when you feel like it, you pace yourself and set up scheduled times over a number of days or weeks.
You can even keep a journal of your progress.
This keeps you on track to meet your learning goals.
Accelerated learners commit to a single course of action over time, and follow their schedule until they achieve the goal and then move on to something else.
They acquire life and career skills in a short period to improve their skills in all areas of their lives.
Master the basic system.
Without systems, we will be forcing our brains to use up its limited energy to make decisions about everything.
Whatever you want to learn or do, find the basic system, principle, or framework and master it.
Whether it’s investing, writing, learning a new language, coding, design, drawing, or learning a new instrument, you have to appreciate the basics.
When I started writing, I followed advice from James Altucher, Seth Godin, Robert Greene and of course Stephen King.
I have recently started investing. I am learning from books about investing.
I currently relying on advice from Warren Buffet and Charles Munger to make the best investment decisions.
Warren Buffett had Ben Graham when he started.
Be a great student.
Apply yourself aggressively to implementing what you are learning — not only will you get better results, but you will accelerate your learning process.
By mastering the basics from the experts, you can avoid making unnecessary mistakes. Whatever you choose to do, master the principles from industry leaders.
Read everything you need to know about the topic. High percentage of top performers spend at least an hour a day reading.
Don’t reinvent the wheel. It’s a slow process.
Learn from others and speed your learning up dramatically.
Make a habit of asking yourself, “who would know about this?” “Who has mastered this?” “Who could teach me how to master this?” “Who does an amazing job at this?”
You will save yourself a lot of time and energy if you learn from the best.
If you want to do exceptionally well you should go to the root of what you’re doing and understand the basic concepts.
Closing thoughts
No matter how talented you are, learning should be part of your daily routine.
Whatever you intend to learn, set personal development goals for yourself, and master the basic principles.
And if you are serious about accelerating your learning, schedule it, choose your frequency of repeats and get started today.
What’s not on your schedule won’t get done.
And remember what Douglas Adams once said, “You live and learn. At any rate, you live.”
Accelerate your learning today and live life the fullest.
This article originally appeared on Medium.com
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