This gives me goosebumps....
Learning, reading, attending courses, seminars can be self deceiving fake productivity - you could be feeling that you are learning a lot but in fact you’re not having any growth.
We’re making ourselves very busy learning, but in fact we’re still staying exactly where we are.
It’s like we are in the maze and we are going in circles, we feel like we are walking long distances but in fact we keep coming back to the same place again and again.
That’s scary.
The other day a friend, who is also a business owner, asked me how many books I read last year.
I answered that I lost count.
She was amazed, “did you read a lot? How did you manage to do it amid the busy schedule of running and growing a business?”
There is no speed reading skill involved, I simply didn’t count the number of books because I discovered a suffocating truth last year:
“It’s not about how many you read or learn, but how much you actually absorb and apply”
In my last 10 years, I have read more than 300 books. My book shelves are full of books that I have bought and read.
HOWEVER, if you ask me what have you takeaway from these 300 books, my mind would go blank.
It astonished me — how I have read 300 books and failed to say at least 50 things that I’ve learnt from these 300 books (not even 1 thing per book).
As if that wasn't me who was learning and reading. As I've lost all the memories after learning.
That's scary.
I invest a lot in my own education even after college - buying books, courses, seminars, etc.
And that gives me goosebumps when I realized that all the learning is just fake productivity that I was using those books those courses those seminars as entertainment - like watching Netflix instead I learn but I forgot what is about afterwards (just like we consume content on social media and we forget about it afterwards). I didn’t apply what I’ve learned so there’s no growth there’s no learning - no real learning.
That happens when we want to be productive but we not willing to put in the effort to actually do the work.
So we use those books and courses and materials and Resources to fulfill our needs to feel productive.
This is a Wake up call if you are reading a bunch of books, enrolling in a bunch of courses, but not really applying what you've learned (unless you are reading and learning for entertainment purpose).
If you want to grow as a person, professionally or financially, the fake productivity self deceiving learning is not going to serve you.
To really learn, we need to know where we are going why we need to learn. So that we can make learning serve us. So that we can apply what we learn. So that we can actually get the result that we want from learning.
If we don't learn how to learn first, a lot of the "learning" would be just wasted and going down the drain without we realising. And we could feel very frustrated when we feel like we've learned a lot but still we're not getting the result and we want!
Here are the 3 key changes I made after the awakening:
1. I read the book “How to read a book”
How to Read a Book is a book by the American philosopher Mortimer J. Adler that teaches you — — well, how to read a book.
Like active reading, not just read and forgotten.
Basically the principle is the more active you are in reading, the more you get from the book.
For example, having a pen and paper with you when reading to mark down any comments or questions or thoughts or great lines is a way of active reading.
There are 4 levels of reading introduced by this book. Not all books are the same and not all books are worth your time reading from cover to cover.
Knowing whether a book has the information you want and reading with an intention can facilitate application of a book.
That could be a difficult book to read. So in the Profitable Learner, I break it down to 3 questions and a few tactics to help you learn faster and better.
2. I create powerpoint
Powerpoint is a great tool for visual learning.
Essentially, what I am doing is forcing my brain to think when I have to convert what I have learnt from the book (which is in word format then) into visual presentation.
In the process, I have to really digest and understand the information and knowledge in order to be able to visually present it on a slide.
If you have studied about neuroscience, you would know that our left brain is responsible for logical thinking and right brain is responsible for visual creative handling.
So in effect, I am passing the knowledge from a book from my left brain to my right brain, hence processing the knowledge in between. That reinforces my memory and stimulates me to think.
This is an extremely good and fun way if you want to make sure you are reading mindfully.
3. I started making notes
Mostly on Evernote or Notion, I would keep a folder called “studies / books” where I saved all my notes in, but I also journal on physical notebook.
I have shared how to make GREAT notes in Profitable Learning, but here are some of the things that I would note down:
- how I feel?
- whether I agree with the author’s views or not?
- why I learn this?
- what do I intend to do with this knowledge?
- what do I resonate with?
- If the teacher illustrates a point with an example, I would think about any example in my own life that could replace the example and mark it down in my own notes.
- If there is a particular line that I feel inspired, I would also quote it in the notes.
I also provide a few notes making template in Profitable Learner if you need.
All in all,
- we need to stop deceiving ourselves about learning
- The formula for real (and profitable) learning. is : input + output + monetisation , if we only focus on input, we aren’t going to get any results
- we are responsible for growth and learning after adulting, so it’s important to learn how to learn so that we’re not wasting all the efforts and investments into learning that doesn’t provide results in life.
To your success,
Connie
