The 9 Small Habits of Highly Effective Super Learners

Your level of success will rarely exceed the amount of learning you do.

“The illiterate of the 21st century “will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”

— Alvin Toffer

Learning is the beginning of life.

It forms the foundation of everything you want to do.

If you want to build wealth, you need to learn how to save and invest first.

If you want to live a healthy life, knowledge about nutrition and exercise becomes critical.

You get the point.

Knowledge is power. Trite to say and even more painful to write. But knowledge begets more knowledge. And learning compounds exponentially over a lifetime.

I sacrifice a lot to prioritize my own learning. My weekday mornings between 5:00 am — 9:00 am are my learning hours.

I usually try to give myself the weekend off, but my curiosity can sometimes get the best of me. When I find a topic that interests me, good luck trying to stop me from diving deep.

Unless someone is dead or dying, this time to invest in my own learning is non-negotiable for me.

I give up time with family, and friends and go out on weekends to read books, listen to podcasts or watch documentaries.

It might sound extreme but learning makes me a better person.

I am a better friend, brother and worker after I am able to invest that time in myself to learn. I can provide more value to others and be of greater service to my community and those around me.

As I’ve started to surround myself with more and more people like me, I’ve noticed a commonality in our learning habits. Here’s what they are.

#1 They Read A Lot of Books

“Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.” — Jim Rohn

I don’t know any smart person who doesn’t read a lot of books.

All the people I look up to are voracious readers.

Naval Ravikant reads a book a week or more.

Elon Musk reportedly read two books a day as a child.

Jeff Bezos devoured books growing up. And still does to this day.

Highly effective learners understand that books are the cheat codes to creating a successful life. You get access to knowledge that took someone their entire life to learn in 300 pages or less.

Just remember if you can read but choose not to means you have no real advantage over someone who can’t read at all.

#2 They Have An Open Mind

A growth mindset creates an environment for learning.

A fixed mindset creates an environment for stagnating.

Super learners view any setback or opportunity they encounter as an opportunity for improving their learning.

Whether you think you can or can’t learn something, you’re right. Your beliefs become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

#3 They Are Able To Change Their Opinions

You are only as young as the last time you changed your mind — Kevin Kelly

Highly effective super learners have strong opinions that are loosely held.

In the face of new data or information, super learners are able to change their opinions.

They do not conform to social norms or abide by dogma. They are committed to finding the truth, not pleasing other people’s expectations.

#4 They Surround Themselves with People Smarter Than Them

“If you’re the smartest in the room, you’re in the wrong room” — Warren Buffett.

Show me who you surround yourself with every day and I can predict how much you will grow in 10 years.

A plant can never outgrow the pot that it lives in.

And you can’t grow to your potential by surrounding yourself with people who are negative, closed-minded, and don’t want to learn new skills.

Super learners surround themselves with people they can learn from. They rather are small fish in a big pond.

#5 They Focus on Self Improvement

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” — Jim Rohn

Fiction will help expand your mind.

Non-fiction will help expand your life.

Read widely to expand both your mind and your life.

#6 They Focus on Finding Their Morning Flow

Everyone has the same 24 hours of the day. But not every hour of the day is created equally.

Super learners know how to leverage their mornings when they are fresh, energized and focused to produce high-quality work.

Using flow, super learners are able to work deeply and be more productive in a couple of hours than more people are in a week.

The value of the mornings is incredibly high. This is why I’ll never understand why people engage in low-value activities like meetings or social media in the morning.

#7 They Fail Frequently and Often

“Go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because that’s where you will find success. On the far side of failure.” — Thomas J. Watson

Learning is failure put into action.

You only learned something because you failed at it in the past.

When you first started to learn to ride a bike, you probably fell, scraped your knee and tried again and again.

If you gave up at the first sign of failure, you would be like my cousin who still doesn’t know how to ride a bike.

Super learners understand that failing is the natural part of learning anything meaningful. They embrace failure rather than ignore it.

# 8 They Embrace New Ideas

Every innovative technology we enjoy started off as a stupid idea.

People didn’t believe anyone would want a computer in their homes.

People rode off making money online as a scam.

Super learners embrace and engage with new ideas. They dive deep into the research and thought leaders before they ride something off as a scam.

The line between crazy and innovative is blurry.

#9 They Are Afraid of Hitting a Plateau

The feeling of not growing or learning is a fate worst than death.

Super learners are not afraid to put themselves in new and uncomfortable situations to learn new things or break their cycle of stagnation.

They will purposely engage with people who hold differing opinions and have conversations to understand their point of view. They look to break their own echo chambers and seek our dissenting voices.

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