Rapid Improvements

There is one important key to effective learning you must have: motivation. Self motivation can make the difference between success and failure in your learning experience. If you are motivated, the learning process will be enjoyable for you and you will be able to absorb the materials fast. On the other hand, if you aren’t motivated then learning will be a burden for you and it will take much more time to understand the materials.

I’m sure you can attest it in your own experience. Motivation is such a differentiating factor in learning. That’s why it’s important to ensure that you have the motivation to learn.

To find the motivation, you should look at the subject you learn in a positive way. How can the subject help you in the future? How can it help you succeed in your career and life? Don’t think about how boring or difficult it is. In addition, take the subject as a challenge that you need to overcome. Make it fun.

One aspect of self improvement is learning. You need to learn if you want to grow. But everyone has different learning style. If you don’t learn using a style that suits you then you might not be able to learn as fast as you should.

There are three learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Visual learners learn better by using visual inputs like pictures and video. Auditory learners learn better by using auditory inputs like speech and song. Kinesthetic learners learn better by doing activities that involve them.

What is your learning style? You can find out your learning style by using tests like the one in the book Accelerated Learning for the 21st Century. Identify your learning style and try to learn as much as possible using that style. By doing this, you will significantly boost your learning rate as you are absorbing information in the best way for you.

You need to have a big dream if you are to achieve something significant in your life. But the problem is: how can we find our dream?

In my opinion, a good way to find your dream is by finding what matters to you. What is the thing you care so much about? What is the thing that makes your heart discontent? This is a problem in the world that matters to you. Everybody has different answer to this question and that’s fine. What you need to do is finding yours.

There is one more question that I think is key: what is the thing that makes you feel that you have made a difference in the world? The feeling of making real difference is often the sign of your dream. If you can come up with your answer to this question then the chance is good that you have figured out your dream in life.

To be productive without being busy, you should work only on meaningful tasks. But there is a potential problem here: you can spend your whole day without getting your meaningful tasks done. How should we handle this problem?

One good way to handle this is by setting some most important tasks in the beginning of the day. Think about your priorities and choose the tasks that will give you the most return for your time investment. Set them as your most important tasks for that day. Then, focus on finishing them first before doing other tasks. If you follow this simple rule, you can always be sure that you get the meaningful work done. On the other hand, if you put off the important tasks to later time in the day, there is the danger it won’t get done.

So don’t do things in the wrong sequence. Start with your most important tasks. Work on them first. Get them done and you can then work on your other tasks.

There are many things you can potentially do every day. In such a situation, it’s easy to get busy with doing a lot of tasks without accomplishing anything important. But there is a big difference between being productive and just being busy. You could be busy without accomplishing something meaningful in your work. On the other hand, you could also accomplish something meaningful without being busy. Which one do you prefer?

Of course, it’s better to do meaningful work without being busy. If you can be productive without working over time, then why not? That’s why it’s important to distinguish between being busy and being productive. Are you being productive or just being busy?

One thing you can do to be productive without being busy is to do only the most meaningful tasks. Don’t waste your time doing something that is not meaningful. Instead, spend your time on doing the tasks that will give you the most benefit in the long term. If you consistently do that, you will be a productive person without necessarily being busy.

While there are many kinds of possible obstacles on your way to success, there is one that could prevent you from taking even the first action. It’s your failures in the past. Having failures in the past may intimidate you as if you will always fail in the future. They can discourage you to the point where you are afraid to take action.

Don’t let your past failures prevent you from having a bright future. The fact that you failed in the past says nothing about your future. In fact, your failures means that you already try. It also means that you have a lot of lessons that equip you for the future. Having failures in the past actually makes the situation better for you, not worse.

So make the decision not to be discouraged by your past failures. Learn from them and let them go. You have better things to do.

How big is your dream? The size of your dream is important because it greatly influences how far you will go in life. If your dream is big, chance is you will achieve great things in your life. On the other hand, if your dream is small then it’s difficult for you to achieve anything significant in your life.

Why? Because your dream affects your perspective. People with a big dream will see the world differently than those with a small dream. They know they need to work hard and smart. They know that they need to keep improving themselves. They know they need to be optimistic to overcome the challenges.

Since they have a better perspective of the world, it’s no wonder that the people who dream big will also achieve more in life. So enlarge the size of your dream. Be dare to dream big for a great future.

In order to achieve success, there is no doubt that you will go through difficult times. Challenges may come, problems may arise, and some people may go against you. In such a situation, it’s easy to get discouraged. That’s why you need something to keep you moving forward. That thing is perseverance.

Perseverance can help you go through difficult times. Perseverance makes you see further than what is right in front of you. While the challenges in front of you may seem big and intimidating, you know that there is something much better available for you ahead. So instead of being discouraged, you keep pushing forward and reaching out for the best that you can have.

Once Thomas Edison said that failure is often caused by people who stop without knowing how close they are to the finish line. I like it. Don’t stop in difficult times. Make perseverance your friend. Who knows, perhaps finish line is just around the corner.

It’s difficult to be effective if you are overwhelmed with a lot of commitments in your work and personal life. Just think about it. If you have ten commitments, how much time can you allocate to each of them? Not much, I’m sure. Compare it with the situation in which you have only five commitments. In such a situation, you will be able to devote more time into each of your commitment and thereby make them work better.

If you spread yourself too thin by having a lot of commitments, there is the danger that you won’t be able to accomplish anything valuable at all. There is always a minimum threshold you need to pass in order to make something valuable. If you devote too little resources to something, the chance is small that you will be able to pass the threshold.

That’s why it’s a good idea to reduce the number of commitments in your life. Choose only the essential commitments and eliminate the rest. By doing so, you will be able to increase your effectiveness. Not only that, you will also have more free time that you can spend with your loved ones.

How good is that?

Sometimes we are too busy to enjoy our life. There are so many demands we need to satisfy and so many responsibilities we need to handle, that we barely have time to appreciate our daily experiences. If you always rush throughout the day, the chance is small that you will be able to enjoy your life. To the contrary, your life will always be full of pressure.

You need to slow down to enjoy your life. Don’t be in hurry to accomplish a lot of tasks. Do fewer things but choose the ones that are most influential. Then slow down. Enjoy what you are experiencing right now. While you are eating, enjoy your meal. Taste it. When you are walking, look at your surrounding and feel the fresh air.

If you do this, you will be surprised by a lot of small things you’ve never noticed before. As it turns out, there are a lot of simple beauties around us, if only we are not too hurry to notice them.