Self-care Sunday ~ Teach yourself

You spend your first chunk of life in school, being forced to learn things that bore you and often seem purposeless. School is less about learning and more about conditioning you to detest learning. Multiple choice tests encourage shallow thinking. It counteracts second-guessing, reassessment, and reevaluation — all the things that open your mind to new ways of thought.

Knowledge is an amazing thing that can enhance your world and give you more power. There is so much information out there and it’s just waiting for you to utilize it.

Do not go about the world expecting others to teach you things. Do not rely on school being your only source of education. And do not shortcut your way to knowledge through money. Otherwise, you will never learn the things you were meant to learn. You will always be a consumer and never a creator.

Find your passions and focus on them. Give yourself more than one, but never more than four or five, different subjects to explore and challenge yourself. You will find more joy in life and realize that you are much smarter than you thought. Let yourself make mistakes and feel like a fool — just keep on building. You can never go backwards unless you stop.

How do you teach yourself:

• Look up articles online (check your sources.)
• Read books about your favorite subjects.
• Invest in whatever equipment or resources you need to exceed.
• Talk to people with more experience in whatever you are pursuing and be open to their advice.
• Use your imagination — some people see imagination and knowledge as polar opposites, but they actually can enhance each other.
• Do it — the most effective way to learn something is not through reading, watching, or listening — but through actively doing it yourself. Experience is the best teacher!

It is vital that you teach yourself things you are passionate about. Otherwise, you are much more likely to lose motivation, burnout, and quit. Knowledge is so grand and overwhelming that if you want to conquer any subject, you must be able to commit yourself enough to get deep.

How do know what specific knowledge awaits for me? How do I find my passions? Next week I will discuss…