Learning Through Doing

I believe I will never finish learning.

This is both a powerful and scary attitude to have. Constantly seeking to learn new things leads to a perpetual cycle of self-improvement, if done correctly. You will constantly grow as a person, and seek to grow in areas you identify as weaknesses. Yet through learning, one truly gets a sense of the sheer volume of things out there to be learnt, as well as your own ineptitude. As Socrates said: "The only thing that I know is that I know nothing."

I am still a young man, and have plenty of learning and life left ahead of me (hopefully), but in my short life, I have already discovered the single most important thing that drives my learning process. INVESTING IN YOUR LEARNING.

For example, a few years back I took an interest in learning to code. I am near-illiterate in the use of computers, so the prospect of being able to write my own working code both excited and terrified me. Images of the green 1's and 0's from the matrix flashed before my eyes (shows you how little I know), and I pictured myself being able to run entire programs from the comfort of my own bed. I duly signed up for a free coding course on Code Academy , being a massive cheapskate and all, and began working on a basic course in JavaScript coding.

Yet therein lies the very essence of my problem. FREE. No commitment, no investment, no repercussions for not following through, not even a small sign-up fee to force you to take the course seriously. It goes without saying that I currently posses no coding skills- I gave up on the course when life got a bit too hectic, and haven't gone back to it since.

On the other side of the coin, I developed an interest in cryptocurrencies at a similar time. I was fascinated by the underlying technologies, the problems they could potentially solve, and of course the possibility of tripling your money in a matter of days. I made the decision to put some of my savings into Bitcoin, which as a student with minimal disposable income was a big call, and subsequently moved it around into various different currencies. Having some skin in the game changed everything. I read articles, watched videos, chatted to people with superior knowledge on the subject to me (which could have been literally anyone, as I was clueless), and generally tried to be proactive about acquiring knowledge in the subject. This caused me to invest in some coins that have done quite nicely for me, to discover cloud mining sites and faucets, and to discover this wonderful platform! I also had a similar experience with investing in shares, and as a result have learned a tremendous amount about the world of finance, all through taking the leap and putting down some of my (minimal) money to force myself to be engaged.

I'm not saying you can't learn without investing in a course, and when I say investing I'm not strictly referring to money. There is a wealth of free information out there that can help you to grow and develop as a person, and you should make the most out of that. But for me, if I truly want to learn, there needs to be an inventive (read fear-inducing deterrent). I am an easily distracted person that loves flexibility, thus the structured nature of learning often makes me feel caged in. The only way I'll subject myself to that is if I know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel (in the knowledge I will gain) as well as a train in that same tunnel chasing me towards that light (which is often the financial cost incentive).

I know my own shortfalls and weaknesses- I have a weaker will than most, and am a champion at procrastination. Those with superior mettle and concentration strength can ignore this entire post and continue going about their business as usual. But for the rest of us, to whom the idea of spending your spare time reading articles about a topic gives them a faint feeling of nausea, then I couldn't recommend this tactic enough.

Feel free to share any comments or thoughts.