Beginner's beginners guide. #1- Education.

[Account Closed]

These next few post will help to better fill in the gaps from the beginning to where I am currently.

Education.

Congratulations! 

If you made it this far then you have made the active effort to educated yourself in some way or fashion. 

Never before has the human experience had such a buffet of knowledge to digest. As a result the magnitude of information that is circulating can be so anxiously burdensome that many fail to begin because there is no obvious start line. You sorta just have to dive in anywhere and sift through all the misinformation and learn what's best for you. 

Personal education and improvement is essential for the success of your future endeavors, however, too much of anything can be bad for you.

There are two sides of the sword with self education, on one sharpened side the benefit helps to alleviate the stress and anxiety of not knowing. Which establishes and builds confidence. Whereas the opposite side of the blade is too much self education. This can cause an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy, helplessness, worthlessness, self pity and doubt which erodes and destroys confidence.

After reading the Holy Scripture of self education books (Rich dad poor dad) I realized how terribly wrong I've been doing everything. The book had such an impact on me that I devoured any and all books on financial, business, real estate self-help etc. As well as devoting hours to podcasts, webinars, seminars, youtube videos and on and on and on. A whole year of this thinking that if I learned enough things will begin working out for me...they didn't. As a result I did learn a lot, so much so that it began to become repetitive (which is the obvious sign that one should act on what they've learned.) I began to notice as the more I learned, paired with the lack of action, I began to lose that drive, that confidence, that motivation to take on the world head on and thus the death spiral of self doubt began. Luckily there cannot be darkness without the light, this pulled me back from the education realm and I resumed my normal life feeling as though I had failed, but the education remained. As a result the self pity began wearing off over time and I began to feel motivated again and so pivoted into action.

I also realized that unless you apply what you are learning it soon is forgotten. The brain holds on to that which is useful and dumps the rest. Hence why "Are you smarter than a 5th grader" was such a hit.

Reading and hearing of the successes of others can help remind you that it's possible, but too much can lead you to believe everyone BUT you is accomplishing success. 

Life is a continuous learning experiment. Never stop educating yourself and do so in healthy moderation.