Question from a reader -
"An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory." So how do you weigh learning vs. action? (implementation).
I've had great potential all my life.. but wasted it from being unfocused or a lack of discipline. Also I love learning.. too much. Too much information can quickly be paralyzing. I love the internet marketing niche. I have gone the whole 4 hour work week, Education of Millionaires, Uncollege type route. I've had success.. my own website.. and recently the launch of my own course. Recently I've been following a paleo style diet.. walking everyday and working out three times a day. I'm starting to use TimeDoctor and I plan to build a time diary fashioned off of yours. I sincerely appreciate any response or help. Take care.
D
D, I get this question sometimes.
You know what?
It's a false dichotomy.
You learn far more through action and implementation than you do through study. The retention rate of learning through passive study is very low, whereas the retention rate of deliberate study combined with taking action is much higher.
If you wanted to, say, get the most out of How To Win Friends And Influence People, you'd read 1-2 chapters per week, and try to practice the particular skill for that week.
If you wanted to, say, get the most out of a very tactics-oriented book on marketing, you'd go through it slowly, take out every concept that resonates with you, and immediately run a test of how the concept works.
Hell, you can do this with biographies, too. Read "Titan" by Chernow about Rockefeller, or "The Rise of House Rothschild" and stop every half of a chapter to imagine how it'd be applicable to the modern world -- and then do that action, immediately.
You'd learn more about your subject matter by doing it this way.
You know why people don't?
Because when you're learning only, you can't fail.
It's passive. You're not the actor. You're just calmly receiving knowledge.
I mean, that's fine, reading for pleasure is fine. But serious study requires action. There's a reason that when you learn chemistry, you go to labs and actually mix chemicals and do experiments instead of just studying a book.
Studying for pleasure is fine, if you're honest about the fact that that's what you're doing. If you're studying to train and get better, you need an action component alongside it to max out the chance of learning the lessons.