I’ll be honest with you, I wasn’t the brightest kid in class.. at all. It was not so much that I wasn’t smart enough to get good grades, apart from math, but rather that I had little to no interest in what we were taught.
I passed middle school just and just to get into the college that I wanted to get into. I thought that college would be different in a good way. Well.. it wasn’t. Actually, it was worse. On top of my learning difficulties, I began to party a lot and often slept through entire classes, especially the math class. 🙂
At home, it was quite similar to what happened in school. My Russian parents pretty much forced me to read certain classics that I had absolutely no interest in. I hated it. It actually got me into a bad habit of reading and daydreaming at the same time… you know, when you read a page from a book and realize you don’t remember a single sentence from it because your mind was somewhere else. Well, that’s how enthusiastic I was about those books.
However, it all changed in my early-20s. Realizing that I was in a very dark place and had absolutely no idea of what I wanted to do with my existence, I began to get into self-education.
Before this period of my life, I rarely found a book that I enjoyed. But what I did notice is that if I did enjoy it, it was always a non-fiction book, the knowledge of which I can apply in my life.
So I began reading books on psychology, business, meditation, motivation, success, etc. I also started watching a lot of motivational content on YouTube. I must say, I loved learning on my own. But the very best part of self-education was that it got me out of that dark place that I was in at the time.
Because of how much self-education has changed my life, I want to share with you 10 examples of what exactly it did for me. This way, I hope to motivate you to start spending more time learning for the benefit of self as well.
1. Starting a business
In university, I studied Business Information Technology. And although some IT was taught to us, everything that had to do with the business side was about how to be a professional employee.
By reading books on business and motivation, as well as taking online courses and meeting like-minded people, I finally made the decision and had enough courage to start my own business.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many real business schools out there, if any. So if you want to start your own business, self-education is a must.
2. New connections
When you get into self-education, you will inevitably meet other like-minded people, in real and online. From what I have seen so far, these people are always very motivated, eager to learn, ready to take action and even make mistakes, which is something I almost never saw in college and university.
3. Gaining knowledge
As I already mentioned, I didn’t really like learning in school and college because I felt like most classes were simply boring and useless in real life.
However, with self-education, I really enjoy gaining new knowledge every single day because I get to choose what, when and at what pace I want to learn.
I could have just finished my studies, began working, and never opened another book in my life, which is what very many people do, but I would be living a veeeery boring life. In my opinion knowledge = excitement and opportunities in life.
4. People approach you
Because I started a business and had to learn so many things in-depth about it, my friends often approach me for help, which feels rewarding to be able to help those that are in need of it. Helping others, after all, was the reason I created this blog in the first place.
Also, the more knowledgeable you become from reading books, taking courses, etc, the more you can talk about and the richer your vocabulary becomes. All of that widens the horizon of what kind of people will be attracted to you. In other words, you will have a lot of interesting people surrounding you.
5. Help with anxiety
I used to seriously suffer from anxiety to the point where my panic attacks would force me to run away from classes during my university years. I seriously thought I will never be able to enjoy life again.
However, after having spent a lot of time reading about the subject, I found many different ways of coping with the horrible problem. As a result, I almost never experience anxiety these days, and if I do, I can handle it a lot better than I did before education myself on it.
6. Toastmasters
We all to an extent have stage fright, but mine was on a whole different level.
I remember my university presentations like it was yesterday. I was scared $h!tless! My voice trembled, my legs were shaking and my face got as red as a tomato, which was the worst part of it all. I was extremely self-conscious, to the point where I was wearing a red t-shirt just so that my face wouldn’t seem so red to the audience.
I tried many different approaches to cure my fear of public speaking. I listened to hypnosis tapes during sleep, which obviously didn’t work. But I also read somewhere that orange juice (vitamin C) helps somehow with taking away anxiety.. I drank a litre of orange juice right before giving a speech. Other than wanting to urinate really badly, which kinda make me even more anxious, there was no positive effect.
I knew that once my real job at an office starts, I will need to give presentations, whether I like it or not. Nobody was going to teach me how to do it properly, so once again, I turned to self-education.
I read some material on the subject, which gave some techniques on how to avoid being too anxious, but that really didn’t solve the problem. I knew I needed real experience. This is when I joined Toastmasters, an organization that helps people to master their presentation skills.
Joining Toastmasters was a really big, scary step for me, but I knew that I needed someone, a mentor, a coach, a mastermind group to show me how it’s done and to give me feedback. Joining the local Toastmasters group was one of the best decisions I ever made.
Sure, I am not perfect today at public speaking, but at least I am not afraid of it more than death. I can actually stand up and talk calmly in front of a camera or a small audience.
7. Finding a purpose
As I already mentioned, there was a dark period in my life when I had absolutely no idea where I was heading. I had no purpose in life.
But by getting into self-education, I opened up new horizons for myself. By reading books on different subjects, by talking to interesting people involved in the self-education niche, I found things that really interested me.
Suddenly, life was no longer dull with pointless events happening around me and to me. I finally came to the realization that there are so many different ways in which we can evolve and grow. So many things to try out.
Self-education became the gateway for me finding a purpose in life.
8. Stopped wasting time
Before, I would spend all my free time doing things that were mostly bad for my health. I would hang out a lot, go out with friends to clubs, etc.
Once I got into self-education and finally found that purpose in life, I no longer had the urge to waste my life. In fact, I felt kinda bad about having already wasted so much of it away. After all, time is the most precious thing we have in life. It can’t be bought back.
Now on a Friday evening, unlike in the past, I have no problem staying in and doing some work. I have a goal in life and I know exactly why I need to do that work.
9. Boosted my curiosity
Since I started reading a lot of books and learning in general, I became even more curious about other things as well. I have noticed that whenever I am focused on some subject and I don’t understand some term or event, I begin to google it, which is something I never used to do before.
Having a boosted curiosity is great because it makes you even more knowledgeable to the smallest details. The only downfall is that sometimes when I read something and start googling something I don’t understand, I can get into a loophole of googling the things I don’t understand. My longest loophole lasted a week. After a week’s time, I returned to the place where it all started. 🙂
10. Confidence
This is more of a combination of all the previous 9 points, but I wanted to emphasize this part just one more time.
Ever since I got into self-education, my confidence soared through the roof. I began using a richer vocabulary, acquired knowledge on a vast amount of topics, smoothened out my anxiety and the fear of public speaking, got better at communicating to women, started a business, stopped procrastinating and so much more.
All of the above, as you can imagine, want it or not, will boost your confidence through the roof. I haven’t become “cocky”, but relatively confident, at least in comparison to the old me. It’s one of the most rewarding and fulfilling feelings that any person can have. I truly say this from experience.
In conclusion, I want to say the following. Don’t get me wrong, schools, colleges and universities have their place in society, especially when it comes to professions like being a doctor, policeman, pilot, etc. However, even if the information taught there may seem pointless at times, all schools teach us how to analyze information and think critically, and that’s extremely useful in this world.
But if you are anything like me and you never managed to be a great student due to the lack of interest, don’t just stand still and live with the fact that you are not able to learn. Go out there and start doing it on your own!
Read books, watch educational programs, buy online courses, get mentors, join mastermind groups, etc. All of this will get you very far in life.
Remember this:
Click To TweetFormal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune. – Jim Rohn
This is how self-education has changed my life. Thank you for stopping by and good luck!
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