Self-Education: 7 Things That Make You A Student of Life

Many of us give more priority to formal education
and less to self-education. And that’s why the
moment many leave school, they consciously or sub-
consciously stop learning. Self-education is more
about accepting life as your teacher. That way, you
don’t stop learning.
Learning should be an important part of our
everyday life because true education is not just about
going to school. It is about personal development.
Therefore it should be continuous.
To create a better you, you need the wisdom that life
offers and one way to gain that wisdom is to become
a student of life; an intentional learner. Here are
ways you can achieve that;
Question Everything: Like I always say, what you do
not know is mostly connected with questions you’ve
not asked. Don’t just take things the way they appear.
As a matter of fact most things in life are not usually
all they appear to be. Be curious enough to ask
questions and seek answers to them. Do not accept
general opinion or age long traditions just because
they are widely accepted. Challenge status quo. Learn
to dig deeper! As long as we are depending on safe
solutions, prejudiced judgments and fixed ideas, our
mind will be closed to discovering our own truth.
Be Vast In Learning: One of the important skills you
need in life is learning how to learn. Learning
shouldn’t be limited to only your academic discipline
or occupation. It is important to develop a broad
understanding of the world in general. Watch out for
things that interest you in your environment and
even things that do not interest you. Often times we
think we know only to discover that we don’t when it
matters. The solution to that is Read! Read!! Read!!!
All you can. Just keep increasing your knowledge
base with each passing day. Don’t ever get satisfied
with the little you have known. Stay hungry for more.
The internet has made this a whole lot easier. If you
are looking at the right places there’s a whole lot of
valuable information and knowledge one can acquire
on daily basis.
Approach Issues With An Open Mind: Learn to
approach issues with an open mind and not a bias
one. Don’t assume you already know. You can be
wrong. Nothing suffocates true wisdom like
assumption. Don’t automatically assume or conclude
that something is the way it is because you have
always believed so or were taught to believe so. Try
to look at issues from as many perspectives as you
can and make your judgments based on the facts
rather than on pre-conceived notions and prejudices.
Reflect More: Learn to take time daily to go through
your thoughts and experiences both the positive and
the negative ones. To achieve this, you have to get
into the right state and environment. The truth is life
is teaching us every day; the problem is that we are
not mindful enough to learn. Look for the Lessons
there is to whatever you experience (There’s always a
lesson). Reflecting gives you that opportunity to learn
the things life has been trying to communicate to you
through your thoughts and experiences (personal
and non-personal). It helps you learn from your
mistakes and empower you with great insights to
create a better you. It gives you a better
understanding about yourself and the world around
you. Like the great philosopher, Socrates once said
“An unexamined life is not worth living.”
Increase Your Level of Awareness: To learn from
life, you need to develop keen interest on what is
happening around you. Watch people; observe
events with keen interest. Don’t relate with your
environment passively. Get interested enough to be a
participant rather than a spectator. Learn to live in
the now by being conscious of your environment. Let
little things that others would probably just shrug
their shoulders and move on without a thought grab
your attention. Often times we learn more from
those seemingly “little things.”
Learn From “others’ Wisdom”: I have found out that
every one of us contains a different body of
knowledge. What I mean is that you may never
understand something exactly the same way some
one else will likely understand it. There are people
who their experiences and exposures have taught a
lot in life. Many of them may have learned the hard
way. You do not have to wait to experience all they
have experienced to learn what life has taught them
(You may not survive it all). When you come across
people like that, you do not need a sooth-sayer to tell
you. Listen to what they have to say. They are likely
talking from experience. According to Confucius, “By
three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by
reflection, which is the noblest; second by
experience, which is the bitterest; and third by
imitation which is the easiest.” He was simply saying
that the easiest way to learn wisdom is through
others’ experiences.
Explore Your World: Be adventurous. Sometimes we
can only learn by getting involved. As a matter of fact,
we experience life by getting involved. Get involved in
meaningful activities. That way you will find the
opportunity to implement and express what you’ve
learnt and know what works and what doesn’t. Travel;
meet people of different cultures. When you try new
things, you tend to discover some aspect of
yourself and life that you may not have known. Learn
to explore your world. It will not only help you
recognize your flaws, fault, weakness, strengths, it
will also help you to constantly update your
understanding of the world around you. That’s what
self-education is all about.

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