Chinese Saying
Learning is like rowing upstream, not to advance is to drop back.
There is one critical success factor to earning more, accomplishing more, and experiencing deep pleasure in life: it can be summed up in the Habit of Study. Here are five strategies to increase your motivation for study.
Connect With WHY
One of the key success factors that separates the average from the achievers is the habit of studying. Successful entrepreneurs and professionals study more than the average person. While other peers in their field of business are just getting by, the successful person has made a habit of absorbing more information faster and more thoroughly than her/his competition.
Have you figured out your mission and vision in life? What key results are you hoping to accomplish? Whether it's a financial or career goal, or whether it's making a difference in the life or lives of others, you want to have a clear picture of the benefits that study will bring you. Once you realize how study can benefit you, you'll have a lot of the motivation you desire.
Get Up Earlier or Stay Up Later
Make studying a habit! I suggest that you start off by tracking your time for at least two days. Buy a cheap day planner that includes hourly time slots and keep track of what you do from hour to hour. You may be surprised at how much time you spend watching TV or playing video games. Once you've got the data, try cutting out 30 minutes of TV or video games and substituting that with study.
Also, you can start setting your clock 5 minutes on Monday, then 10 minutes earlier on Tuesday, and so on, in order to start going to bed earlier. Get up 5 minutes earlier on Monday, then 10 minutes earlier on Tuesday, and so on. Use that extra time as an investment in study.
Be Creative With Your Senses
In this day of smart phones and video, you can harness your senses to truly retain the information you study. Here's an example: take notes, read them into your smart phone recorder, and then listen to them later while running or working out. I used this method in grad school to ace many tests. Because I combined both my seeing and auditory senses, I was better able to absorb the information in front of me.
Blog About Your Studying
This might sound a bit far fetched, until you read about Pat Flynn from the Smart Passive Income Blog. He was studying for an architecture certification exam, taking notes on a personal blog as a way to remember his key concepts, and before he knew it, the blog started growing! Because of that blog, he is now working in his own blogging business full-time!
You, too, can summarize the key insights from your study, share it on a blog, or e-book, or YouTube video, or teleseminar, and monetize your study!
In the process of putting something like this together, you will learning in the most effective manner: by putting into practice that which you have studied!
Make A List Of Your Most Important Subjects To Study
For example, if you are going to start your own business, you may want to study accounting, leadership, business systems, sales, and marketing. Don't overwhelm yourself with trying to study too many subjects at once. Rather, pick one thing and study it in depth. then move on.
On the other hand, you may also want to allow yourself to browse multiple subjects a couple days a week so that you don't get too stuck in one routine.
In conclusion, if you will apply these strategies and make study of your most important subjects a priority, studying from 30-60 minutes per day in your key areas, you will pull far ahead of your competition. You will read more, digest more, and have more knowledge to apply in your business and professional life than many people get in a lifetime!
