Dear lifelong learner fellows, I hope this letter finds you well.
You probably heard a lot from this concept that learning is a lifelong process that keeps telling you not to stop learning.
Never stop learning because life never stops teaching. - Unknown
This concept of learning also promises to you that it will give you a better life like...
- Health - If you learn how to eat and exercise right, you will get in good shape and have a long lifespan.
- Wealth - If you learn how to manage your money and how to invest, you will prosper.
- Relationship - If you learn how to talk and treat people well, most people will like you.
- Career - Or even this promise of a society that keeps telling us that we will get a good life and good career once we study hard to graduate from college, and obtain a degree like medicine or engineering.
The last promise on the list is not quite true for me though. We all know there's so much more to learn in life once you graduate, but it's not that simple right?
I've struggled and been stuck in the same place in my learning journey for a long time.
I've been trying to get more of my potential by reading many books and watching many self-help content.
It feels good and productive once I finish reading or watching those self-help content, but it seems like those principles from what I've been consuming don't help me improve in various areas of my life that much.
Wait until you realize that the things you learned leak out from your brain one wink at a time just because you didn't recall, test, or act on it immediately.
Yes, it is a waste of time, and I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only one who gets this feeling.
One learns from books and example only that certain things can be done. Actual learning requires that you do those things. - Frank Herbert
Self-help principles without any implementation will only get you nowhere.
However, with proper implementation, your learning journey would benefit your growth in various areas of your life.
I'm writing this letter to give you an effective framework that I use to level up my growth when I have to learn something new seamlessly.
Unlock Your Potential as a High-Level Learner
You might be wondering what it means to be a High-Level Learner.
According to Bloom's Taxonomy, there are 6 levels of increasingly sophisticated thinking skills, starting from the lowest level which is to remember and the highest level is to create.
I won't go deep into this study but I'll make it simple enough for you to apply right away and I'll give you a clue that if you want to get the most out of what you learn to improve yourself you should aim to climb to the highest level of this study.
A High-Level Learner is a learner who can create something new based on what they've learned so far.
To create, that should be your destination.
But before you get to the highest form of learning, the foundation at the bottom also has a crucial role, that's why Bloom's Taxonomy is visualized as a pyramid.
1) Quote What Resonated with You the Most (Remember)
When you finish reading a chapter or another form of learning source. You will probably find a quote, a key takeaway, or even more that resonates with your senses and makes you think this would be your paradigm shift.
Quote it! grab your notebook and write it down or use some application that will make it easiest for you to quote like Obsidian or Notion
Make a collection of your Quotes Book with category out of them. It will be easier for you than trying to find the quote you merely remember from the original source when you forget it.
2) Reason the Ideas with the question 'Why?' (Understand)
Give reasons for what you learn by simply asking 'Why?' with the messages you quoted before or key takeaways that you try to remember.
Try to make sense of it from the perspective of cause and effect with a question like... "Why this consequence is true as if I do 'A' and 'B' will happen?", or you can try to challenge the idea with a question like "Is this principle rational and really make sense?" and then summarize it in your own understanding.
If you can answer the question with your rationale, then you get closer to understanding the principles they're trying to preach to you.
3) Make an Actionable To-Do List (Apply)
The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you. - B.B. King
This would be the crucial part where you turn the knowledge you learned into a valuable skill. Once you understand what you have learned, it's time to develop it into a skill.
You can't learn how to drive by watching 'How to Drive a Car' from YouTube and then you know how to drive by just lecturing it.
You will know how to drive when you get yourself behind the steering wheel, and make your first step on the pedal, then you practice it again and again.
Make an actionable to-do list for the principles you want to apply. I repeat It has to be actionable that at the end of the day, you can strike through the list if you get it done. Do it enough until those skills become your instinct.
That's how you develop your knowledge into a valuable skill, but if the concept you're trying to learn is about a mindset shift, that you want to adopt, make a note of it somewhere you'll see it often.
The beautiful thing is this, unlike material possessions that can be lost. Once you truly obtain a skill, it can't be taken away from you, it's all yours now.
4) Distinguish Between Principles That You've Applied (Analyze)
Once you apply the concepts you learn in a real-life situation, compare the similar situations that you tried to apply, what works and what doesn't.
Distinguish between similar principles, and figure out what will work best in each specific situation.
This is how you develop your skills to perform even better, and you'll know how to choose the right skill to solve specific problems.
5) Reflect on Your Transformation (Evaluate)
If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. – Lord Kelvin
You should have recurring reflections on your learning journey of the knowledge you learn, and the skills you acquired, this could be a weekly or monthly reflection.
The purpose of this reflection is to evaluate what you learned on how it transformed you so far.
You can reflect on your learning journey from these questions
- Which principle suits my life's situation better?
- Does this framework help me achieve my goals?
- What would I stop, start, and continue doing?
Self-reflection will let you know what principle is pushing you toward your goals or if it doesn't help you that much in progress.
You will see your progress even more clearly if you can measure your progress as a number. You can also use OKRs to plan your goals and evaluate your progress.
6) Invent It In Your Own Way (Create)
In the final stage of learning, if you followed the steps along the way from the low level you would be able to invent your brand-new framework from what you learned so far.
If you are a fan of self-help content, you probably find a lot of frameworks that you can apply in your life like the GTD system or the 2×2 Prioritization Matrix, etc.
These frameworks are powerful and improve the way people deal with their lives, but these frameworks are all made up, and you can just make it up too.
Create your own framework that works best for you, and share it with the world. People might find it useful and benefit their lives like it does to you.
That's it for the High-Level Learning journey from the foundation level to the highest level.
Levels 1 - 3 should be your daily habits of learning new things and this is an example from my learning journal on Notion.
You can grab this Notion template for free by clicking on this link.
Now, I would suggest you to focus on levels 1 - 3 to build your learning habit, and levels 4 - 6 would be about long-term progress, which I'll talk to you about next time.
It takes time to level up our skills and grow as a High-Level Learner. If you don't see your progress on this learning journey just take heart and remember that learning is a lifelong process, and consistency is key to success in this journey.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. - James 1:22
It's time to take action, friend.
I hope this letter helped, thank you for reading.
– Mu