I continue to be shocked by how little people invest in their personal development. 

I bet there are more people with mutual fund SIPs than people who read 1 book every year. 

Part of it is of course intent. 

But the sheer number of people who wish to make a change but are unable to do so, if baffling. 

My observation is that people don’t know how best to learn. Content and experiences are available to us in multiple modes. But our ability to absorb isn’t as diverse. 

In my opinion, there are 4 modes to learn 

• By reading 
• By listening 
• By watching 
• By doing 

We all react differently to each of these. Never mind the reasons. 

Infact, we don’t react the same way all the time. For different lessons, our best learning mode may alter. Should alter. 

The best way to drive may not be through reading. 

But the best way to learn to code could be. 

The other important distinction is between learning and getting better. 

“The best way to learn is to do it” is the worst possible advice ever. 

Sure, the best way to get better is to do it. But the learning, the foundation, the basis – cannot always be by doing. 

Go back in time and we all will realize the number of occasions when we have succumbed to the “let me just start doing it and I will learn”. 

We ended up getting bored or feeling inadequate and gave up. 

So next time you wish to invest in a new skill

Play around with the learning modes. Give sometime to each. You may figure something else works better than what you thought. 

Resist the urge to get into it right away before learning the base. 

The best learners know that they need to be a different person each time they learn.