How To Be A Lifelong Learner & Why It’ll Change Your Life

I hated reading. I despised it. It was a collection of paper that would make me comatose faster than Benadryl to a baby. Yea, it was that bad.

Horrific. 

My reading routine was simple. Look at the cover. Read the table of contents. Skim the pages. Does it have pictures? No. No thanks.

Then it all changed. 

I decided to be dangerous and try out a new gadget, the Kindle. I ordered my first nonfiction book. Some B.S. series by Dan Kennedy. I was off to the races, never looking back.

I've been a daily learner ever since.

And it’s changed my life. 

Why you need to learn daily

Everyone is eager to go into debt for their education. Many want to learn about business and marketing. And who's teaching the material? A retired teacher on decade-old tactics.

By learning daily you can learn from the smartest most influential people in the world. You can immediately transfer that knowledge into action.

All for less than $25 a week.

By learning daily you'll sharpen your skills in hundreds of areas. You'll know more. You'll do more. You'll be worth listening too.

I read 50 books a year and explore many topics. I've taught myself minor HTML coding, digital advertising, copywriting, sales and cosmic history. 

But the key is, I've learned wide. I've learned areas that will give me skills and a unique voice. 

That's why you need to learn daily.

So you don't become stale and boring.

How to learn daily

Learning daily isn’t for rocket scientists. You need a simple approach...

Create a list

Create a list of topics you want to learn. Once you have the list search out the best 3 - 5 books on that topic. 

Buy all them. 

Then, start reading.

Don't bore yourself to death. If you don't like the book, move on.

As you begin reading more, you'll come across more books (thanks, Amazon recommend list) you want to read.

Save them for later. Or buy them now. 

The key is to always have a list to pull from.

Read often

Reading is a daily habit. Warren Buffett reads for most of the day.

Try getting in 30-minutes a day. Move up from there. 

Here are some ideas:

• Read for 15-minutes when you wake up.  
• Read for 15-minutes during lunch.  
• Read for 5-minutes when you’re going to the bathroom.

See how easy it was to read more than 30-minutes a day?

Make reading a habit. A routine.

Read wide

If you're interested in marketing, don't read a marketing book.

Read Richard Branson's autobiography, how to write copy and other subtopics of marketing. Then pick up a book and learn about the universe.

When you read wide you'll connect topics. It'll open your mind. You'll be more creative.

I'm not into non-fiction.

Gargoyles, aliens, and mythical boys sound interesting. But they don't help me learn key skills.

Use them in your reading wide approach. But don't solely read fiction. Make sure you're leaning heavy on nonfiction.

If fiction is all you read then you might as well be fictitious.

Follow your paper mentor

So you've started reading. You're learning more in your first 4 weeks than your entire undergraduate education. 

Fantastic.

Now start saving your favorite authors, leaders or whomever you admire into an RSS feed. More than likely they have a blog they post on.

If not, follow them on social.

Begin absorbing their material. 

Apply it. Test it. Refine it. 

Always be curious

As you find yourself learning more. Being a sponge. Make sure you remain curious. Be curious about everything.

Always ask yourself questions and seek out the answers:

• How is that done? Why is it done that way?
• Can I do it better?
• How can I do it better?
• What do I need to learn?

Learning is a life lesson. It's life-changing. Always be learning.

Start with books. They'll be the cheapest education you'll ever get.

Go learn and be great,

Nate Anglin

P.S. Learning is apart of my life philosophy of being less ROTTEN. Read more about it here.