The ability to learn is a gift that many people take for granted. Do you?
If you're reading this blog post right now, I imagine that you have a passion and a curiosity to learn more, expand your mind, and level up — just like me. If so, we're off to a great start!
Ever since I was 17 years old I've been studying and learning. I've always believed that the best investment that you can make is an investment in yourself.
Committing to invest in my personal growth has allowed me to become a self-made multi-millionaire.
Self-development changed every area of my life and it can do the same for you. If you want to know how I learn and study to master anything, keep reading!
Watch the video below:
(Click here to watch on YouTube)
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If you want life-long success, commit to life-long learning.
The moment that I committed to improve and maximize my potential as a human being was the moment that everything in my life changed. It's fair to say that I am obsessed with learning and mastering every area of my life. Self-mastery allows you to move toward your goals with discipline, persistence, and focus.
I believe it is one of the core reasons why I have been able to achieve so much success in my life. Anyone can develop self-mastery. It takes the right mindset, strategies, and repetitive practice, but it's possible. This is why I have made it my mission in life to help people like you do just that.
Being able to learn from other people's wisdom is a gift that a lot of people take for granted. For thousands of years, human beings have been sharing their wisdom and knowledge and paying it forward. Fast forward to today's digital world and think about how lucky we are to be able to consume an abundance of information, for free, in the form of books, podcasts, YouTube videos, and blogs.
Whatever problem or challenge you're going through in your life, you can solve it simply by learning from the wisdom and experiences of others who were once in your shoes. How incredible is that?
People always ask me, “Stefan, if you're so successful why do you bother sharing so much of your knowledge with others? Why wouldn't you just keep what you know to yourself?” Simple answer. I am willing to share my knowledge because I have an abundance mindset, meaning that I believe there are limitless opportunities available to everyone.
This is why I don't hoard my knowledge.
Whenever I learn and benefit from something, I share it. Overwhelming research on mindset shows that the way you think about yourself and the world around you can drastically change the way you learn, how you handle stress, and how you create success. I couldn't agree with this more.
I spent years growing and improving every aspect of my life after being in a place of suffering for so long. In my eyes, it is my moral and ethical obligation to pay it forward. Being of service to others has been my greatest gift in life.
There is no better feeling than knowing that your words or knowledge have impacted someone, so much so that they decide to change their entire life. This is why I do what I do. It gets me out of bed every day excited and energized. It's called living on purpose. Before I dive into my daily process for learning and studying, I want to talk about the value of mindset to learning.
My Learning Mindset
Your mindset influences your learning. The beliefs that you have surrounding personal growth will determine your level of commitment to the process. I would like to share with you the three levels that comprise the mastery mentality, which is – knowing, doing, and living.
The first level is knowing. You can know something, but that doesn't mean that you're taking action on it. A lot of people know what they need to do to change their life. However, they aren't doing what they know. Knowledge isn't enough. This is why I have a rule when it comes to my learning process. For every 1 hour that I learn something, I must spend 3 hours taking action on it.
The second level is doing. This is when you are applying what you've learned. However, you can do something once in a while but still not make lasting progress.
This is where the last level comes in – living. This is when you are not only applying what you know, but you are actually achieving results. Ultimately, this is the level that you want to be at. How do you achieve this level of mastery?
You start by humbling yourself and committing to being a student of life. After that, you go deep and focus on one area of life until you master it. As Bruce Lee once said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” Never underestimate the power of repetition.
How I Learn
When I was young, I hated school. There was nothing fun about learning for me. I didn't know what the benefits were to learning, which is why I never paid attention in class. As a result, I did poorly in every subject. I was a C student who barely graduated high school. In turn, I thought that I was a dumb kid.
It wasn't until I had an interest in learning and a purpose for doing so, that my experience of learning changed. When it comes to learning and studying, the first thing you need to figure out is why you are learning something in the first place. The most value that I've ever received from anything was when I invested in things, even though I didn't have the money.
The more that you pay, the more that you will pay attention. You won't value free information in the same way that you will when you pay for it.
When it comes to learning, everybody does it differently. I am more of a visual learner, meaning that I enjoy attending seminars, going through training programs, and watching videos.
I do listen to podcasts, but I find that I am more easily distracted by what is going on around me. This is why an immersive-style learning environment is my favorite way of learning. There are zero distractions and I can go all-in.
Whenever I learn, I take notes so that I can capture the knowledge.
If you don't write down what you are learning, you won't retain the knowledge as much. This is why I use Evernote on my phone to capture my notes. I'll take a picture of Powerpoint slides or whatever it is I'm looking at. Evernote is great because it syncs with my computer and multiple other devices.
I am also a huge fan of reading. However, when it comes to reading I like to go deeper into certain subjects and take my time. Sometimes I pause when I'm reading something and re-read a chapter to really understand what I've read. Similarly, I will take some time to reflect upon a specific chapter. I'm after comprehension and mastery, which is why I don't like to speed read.
If I am going to learn something, it's not enough for me to just learn it. Rather, I want to get the maximum benefit from consuming knowledge. This is what allows me to understand my knowledge on a deeper level and apply it in my life. I like to use a Kindle because I can store a lot of books on one device. Right now, I've got 1,000 books on my Kindle alone.
A Kindle is great because you can highlight phrases that stand out to you, take notes where you see fit, and review them at a later time. If you have a wifi connection, you can highlight words within a Kindle book that you don't know the meaning of and it will give you the definition of them.
Whenever I come across words that I don't know, I look up the definition on my computer or my phone. This helps me expand my vocabulary and range of communication. Once I've got the definition, I get flashcards out and write down the word on one side and the definition on the other. Every day I will come back to new words that I learn and reflect upon them on a deeper level.
What do you have a passion and curiosity to learn more about?
I engage in the learning activities I've shared with you to educate myself and become a more well-rounded human being overall. In turn, I am better able to show up for myself, others, and the world. I hope you feel inspired to take action and apply some of these activities and tools into your daily life.
Give yourself the gift of learning. Personal development will change the way you live, love, and lead in the most powerful of ways. Your future self will thank you for it.
Do you want a mentor who can support you in learning and mastering every area of your life? CLICK HERE to join my Life Mastery Accelerator program!