Learning – Self-Improvement or Changing the World?

Have you ever asked yourself why you keep learning?  What are you gaining from those hours of Self-Improvement?  Why you are spending all that money on books, webinars, and courses?  Probably  at one point in your past someone told you it was a good idea, you picked up a book recommended by a mentor, or saw some positive results from a presentation,  and like me, you were hooked.  However, today I have to ask, why are you still doing it?
For most of us, Self-Improvement is a solitary pursuit. Reading another book, taking another course, learning another skill.  We collect these achievements like merit badges, and truly something to be proud of; most people in our society avoid learning like it’s a contagion,  so if you have even read one book in the past year ( or simply this blog to the end) welcome to the minority. 
The problem is most of us are secret agents.  We learn, then keep this new knowledge or skillset as part of our secret persona.  We are selfish with our learning; we learn for the benefit of ourselves,  not to master to such a depth as to teach and benefit others.  Ironically we learn from experts that are willing to share wisdom amassed from years of experience, then keep this information to ourselves as we pursue our short term agendas.  Let’s stop learning for the sake of learning, and change our Self-Improvement mindset to learning for the sake of teaching.
The title of this blog is “Learning – Self-Improvement or Changing the World”.  When you read the title you probably thought I would tie Learning to Global Warming or World Peace, however the world I challenge you to change is yours.  The next course you take, book you read, presentation you see, challenge yourself to have the eyes, ears, and mind of a teacher.  Learn not only what is new to yourself, but look for what may be relevant and of value to share.  Create a blog post, a youtube video, or simply a Facebook update.  Share your value and knowledge.  Not only will you have better retention and learn at  deeper level, but you might just inspire someone to pick up a book themselves!!
Hope this helped.  If you found value in this post, please comment and share below, and as always, if there is something I can do to help, let me know.
Keep reaching for your Peak.

Mike Hisem