Live life fullest by learning new things everyday
It has been
a month since my last post, as I have been pretty busy with some side projects.
Entrepreneurship is a tough journey, but it definitely enriches one with so
much knowledge and experience in a very short space of time.
Learning actually
requires some work. Unlike reading a storybook, where you flip the pages,
follow the development of the plot and savour the ending, learning requires you
to constantly revise what you acquired. It is thus important that you determine
your own style of learning and have the tools ready.
Taking me
as an example, I have an ipad with me almost everywhere I go, and everything I learn
something I would record my takeaways in the notes app. I like its
functionality in being able to sync a copy into my gmail, which I could easily
refer back and refresh my learning at my free time. The key here, is to record down what you have learn, occasionally refresh and think about your lessons. If
I feel the inspiration, I would blog about it – exactly what you see me doing
now.
Try something new
And thus…. The
first tip will be to try something new in your life. Do something you have
never done before. If you are stuck in lectures and tutorials most of the time
(well, studying is learning), squeeze out some time to try something new. It
could be a dance class, a new language, starting a blog, etc. Most importantly,
it must be something you have never tried before. In my case, I
am pursuing the development of a new product, and every day I am faced with fresh
obstacles that teach me the difficulties of business.
Meet (different) people
If you do
not have the time to engage in something new, a less time-consuming way is to
meet people. Everyone knows something you don’t, and this fact is stark if you
have dinner with a group of friends. You will realize that knowledge is
concealed in the cheerful banter, where friends share their experiences and what
they have seen and heard recently. In fact, I am a fan of Never Lunch Alone, as
every meal is an opportunity to interact and learn from somebody.
Of course,
meeting with new and different people is strongly encouraged. That way, you
will hear something new, or even have the opportunity to reinforce or hear a
different opinion on what you thought you had already knew. The basic rule for
this tip is that you have to remember that
“Everyone knows something you don’t”
and thus definitely
worth talking to no matter what the occasion. Friends are generally the best
people to learn from, and it is recommended to eat with different circles.
Break your routine
This final
tip does not require you to spend additional time to start a new project or to reach
out to people. In fact, it is so powerful that it just requires you a little
effort to press your reset button. The reason that you feel that you have
stopped learning is things are becoming like a routine. You become a machine
doing the same thing every day, which is toxic in that you stopped learning new
things but instead develop muscle memory. The trick – is to break your routine.
The sheer
amount of ideas to change your routine is immense and inexhaustive. Some ideas
is to leave home half an hour early, eat breakfast somewhere else, run in the
day, go to your destination from a different route. At work, you could schedule
your meeting in a café rather than in the office, use a different toilet, hang
out with a different group, etc. You will be surprised at the potential of a
small change to the routine. Keep a lookout and discover what is different, and
you might generate new ideas and learn something new from there.
