The “How-To Learn to Learn?” process.
No school, college, or institution teaches you how to learn to learn. That’s why I’m sitting here writing this article, to tell you that you can’t go through life without actually knowing how to learn. Otherwise, you’re gonna miss out on the greatest lessons in life — which often happen outside of the classrooms.
For instance, life might seem like a difficult task. Truth is, it’s much easier than what you think when you’ve realized that most of it is based on learning curves; and the only way to really take advantage from them, is by recognizing the lessons hidden in every stumble. You can’t be afraid of jumping from one learning curve to the next. Experiencing different curves keeps you out of your comfort zone. This is one way of reaching personal disruption. The learning process is a language we must all understand; but, how do we learn that language? How do we learn to learn?
There are some things we need to teach ourselves. (Grab a pen and a paper, it’s time to start taking notes.)
Learning how to learn means taking action, being proactive, having initiative, but most importantly, recognizing opportunities. It takes the right mindset to be able to conquer it. In what I’ve learned, the right mindset means: creating personal algorithms to clearly define the way that you learn and the way that society evolves and behaves. Once you have mastered that technique, you will be able to truly understand the meaning behind many things.
The brain is ridiculously complex and I know little about it. Nonetheless, I’ve been trying to understand what happens inside my brain when I want to learn new things. So, I’ve decided to come up with this somewhat of a model that pretty much sums up what the process of “learning how-to learn” is to me.
- Curiosity is one of the most influential drivers of human behavior. It awakens an urge to discover, explore, and learn what can lead to incredible achievements. There’s a limit to what institutions teach you, or us, making us oblivious to the topics that can only be self-taught. The more curiosity you cultivate, the more your levels of excitement increase. When you experience high levels of excitement, your brain releases a directly proportional chemical known as dopamine. Dopamine can be addicting, and so is curiosity. The best way to learn how-to learn is to get addicted to curiosity.
- Information seeking is a fundamental step on the “learning to learn” process. It provides you with databases that you’ll potentially need at some point. To constantly gather data, keeps you up to date with what’s happening with your surroundings. It also adds value to you and will most likely shorten your learning curve.
- Focusing helps you manage your time into doing activities that move you in the direction of what you want to learn. When you’re focused, your productivity increases by making your learning process more efficient. To stay focused, your brain needs to stop and prevent all distracting thoughts.
- Mind-mapping is a technique that lets you get information in and out of your brain in a highly effective way. This is a creative and logical process where people take-notes, brainstorm, and make-notes to a point where they literally map out every thought in their brains. The brain processes information better when it’s visual. Grab a canvas: map it, doodle it, glue pictures on it, color it, quote on it; in fact, splatter all your thoughts on it.
- Overcoming barriers can get addicting, and that’s exactly what you should want. This addiction will lead you to desire new knowledge, empowering you to leave conformity to the side. The hunger will make you haunt for the opportunities to overstep new obstacles and obtain more knowledge. This is the moment when you become a real hustler.
- The results driven mindset is what you should ultimately aim for. Once your through with the “learning to learn” process, your mindset will be totally different. From now on, your approach to every situation in life should emphasize on acquiring new knowledge from them. That’s what the result of this process should be.
This six-step process will ignite inquiry, but it will teach you how to challenge your brain. Changing your psyche is a powerful decision, but it’s the only way we can truly open ourselves to valuable knowledge and self-teaching.
Learning is one of the most satisfying actions of life, and it’s usually taken for granted. We are often so boxed in and concentrated on learning one thing — or way too many things — that we end up learning so little to nothing. (It’s time to grab your highlighter! Make sure you highlight this in your notes.) Now that you know the idea, it is time to teach our peers and future generations about the power and importance of learning to learn. You will no longer be satisfied with just what is taught to you. You will learn to see the hidden lessons within the curve. You will learn to learn.
Keep hustling,
MG
