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Education for Life – Recognizing the Importance of Having an Open and Active Mind

“One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.” ~Tony Robbins

Not only is it important to schedule time for your personal and spiritual goals, it is equally important to set time aside for self-improvement and education. Constant learning is essential to prosperity. Never stop learning.

Once you have your plan mapped out and are en route to success, you can begin to focus on broadening your horizons. Devour information wherever you can get it. Every experience is a moment in which to learn something. The more you know (about anything and everything), the better edge you will have over the next businessperson. New information is available all the time, and you need to be constantly learning in order to keep up, but more importantly…to leap ahead. There are herds of people who make excuses. Lack of time is the most predominant one; but if you’re really committed, there are many ways to work around that. If you focus on how you spend your time, you’d be surprised at all of the time you currently waste. If you just adjust your schedule a bit, you can find time you never knew you had.

One of the easiest and most time efficient ways to stay abreast of current developments is through audiobooks and podcasts. You can download these to an mp3player or buy CD versions of the books of your choice. The average American spends more than 100 hours annually commuting to work. That’s the equivalent of two week’s vacation! Imagine the amount of reading you can accomplish if you took this commuting time and made it work for you. This is the quintessential phrase of the day—“Make it work for you.” A savvy businessperson is always looking at the current situation and envisioning how to make that work for him or her.

This is just the beginning. When you look, you’ll find all sorts of minutes during your day that are currently serving no valuable purpose. Figure out a way to use these minutes to your advantage. Time and knowledge add up, so use your time wisely and accumulate wisdom.

Not only is it important to constantly be learning and seeking new knowledge, it’s also important to keep an open mind when new information comes your way. Never prejudge a concept or wave of thought. Inspiration can be hiding anywhere. You never know when a concept you may have learned in a yoga class or read in an autobiography is going to be applicable to your business. When you glean information from activities that are unrelated to your business, you’re capitalizing on time that’s already spoken for. You’re “hitting two birds with one stone” essentially. Keep your eyes open to these learning moments.

Many people think that to be good at business, you have to study business. This is true and will allow you to be good at business. But if you want to be great in business, you have to look outside the box. Take from all areas of your life and apply experiences and ideas you normally wouldn’t even consider into your work. Be a sponge. When you experience poor customer service while standing in line at the supermarket, consider what you can take away from that. The ultimate businessperson isn’t the person who has a business-related education, but the person who has a business-oriented mind enhanced by real work experience who can put to learned work principles in any context.

You also want to make sure that your mind stays active. You don’t always have to be thinking about business, but you should always be engaged in some activity from one of the four planes of life. Always focus on improving. It doesn’t have to be in a mental or work-related way. Improve yourself in all areas of your life: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.

This also doesn’t mean you should never rest. Rest is good and essential. What you shouldn’t let yourself do is get into a rut. For example, if you were in a spiritual rut, you’d be ignoring an important part of yourself. You’d become underdeveloped or stunted in this area and would fall out of balance. It’s important to have priorities and to focus on areas where you’re out of balance. But once business is thriving, you can shift more focus and attention to your other priorities.

The challenge is identifying when you’re out of balance and knowing what to do to correct it. We’ll go more into how to take care of yourself in the next chapter. For now just know that when one aspect of your life is lacking, you are weaker as a whole. You operate at your optimal performance only when you’re completely balanced. That’s when you’ll notice everything falling into place, like a basketball player getting into the groove at the free-throw line. Once he gets going, the shots start falling in as if it was effortless. That’s where you need to be.

Key Points from Chapter 4

Set time aside for self-improvement

Listen to audiobooks and podcasts

Take classes at community colleges and university extensions

Read Ivy League school business books

Look for inspiration and novel ideas in all facets of your life

Keep your mind active and avoid getting into ruts