If You Are Not Doing This, You Are Falling Behind

The education system teaches students how to be students.  In other words, it teaches them how to pass tests, recite memorized information and do calculations.  While those can be valuable skills, the value of knowing all of the American state capitals or the names of historical eras is unlikely to be useful in everyday life.

The result of all of those years of school is often that people stop learning once they graduate.  They associate learning with tests and information they will never use again and stop learning altogether.  Many people go the majority of their lives without ever reading another book because of this association.

The characteristics of the education system aside, there is another repercussion from not learning.  Even a new school graduate’s education is only up to date in the moment.  In other words, even if they learned the latest knowledge, the moment they stop learning, they begin to fall behind.  The reason is because the world continues to evolve and so not learning new things means that they have knowledge of the world of the past. 

This is not to say that you have to be reading many hours a day to keep up to date on the latest information, even 30-60 minutes a week is probably enough to stay current on the latest information you need in your field.  However, if you want to stay at the top of your field, an hour a day, 4% of the day, will keep you there.

So, to stay current and not fall behind in your knowledge, consistent learning is key and will keep you ahead of the vast majority of people.