4 Hacks to Enhance Lifelong Learning

Learning doesn’t stop once you graduate or stop going to school… or at least it shouldn’t. 

Learning is a lifelong process that evolves as you do throughout your journey. Every new job, relationship, and experience is a chance to learn something new and use that knowledge to increase your quality of life. 

The best part about learning is that you get to choose how and what you want to learn. You can learn about how to cook a delicious dessert or you can learn how to manage your personal finances better. 

The possibilities are endless, but the key to continuous growth is to feed your mind with new information and then act upon the knowledge you possess 

Read Books
I love reading and it is definitely one of my favorite ways to achieve personal growth. There is a book on everything you can imagine which means you can learn about anything you want. 

Mark Cuban is famously known for reading computer manual after manual on the weekends after a night of partying. He knew that if he got one new idea from a book or learned something someone else didn’t, he’d have the advantage.

From physics to animals to sports to fictional stories about magical creatures, reading books provides you with a chance to improve in the areas you are interested in. 

Here are a few books I recommend:
Life Quality and Happiness - The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor
Personal Finance - I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
Overcoming Adversity - Training Camp by Jon Gordon
Daily Habits - Atomic Habits by James Clear
Success Stories - The Third Door by Alex Banayan
Negotiation - Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
Autobiography - Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
Relationships - Elevate Your Network by Jake Kelfer

Listen to Podcasts
Don’t have time to read? Don’t like to read? Podcasts might be your new best friend. Podcasts are great because depending on when you listen to a podcast, it can be extremely time relevant which is great for people trying to stay up to date on current trends/topics. 

The best part about podcasts is you can follow the people you love but also be introduced to new guests on their show increasing who you gather your information from. 

A few podcasts to listen to:
The School of Greatness with Lewis Howes
The Tim Ferriss Show 
Dare to Be Legendary with Blake Pinsker
Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations 
The Joe Rogan Experience 
Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu
Education - The Character Strong Podcast by Houston Kraft and John Norlin
Speaking - The Speaker Lab with Grant Baldwin

Take Online Courses
I recently started focusing on this as I am building out an online course right now that will be called Elevate Your Happiness - 4 Weeks to a Happier Life. While I was doing research, I found this free course on Coursera called The Science of Well Being which originally debuted at Yale University. 

You can access thousands of courses (free and paid) across various platforms to really hone in on a particular area of interest. If you want to be a better leader, there’s a course for that. If you want to get better at setting goals, there’s a course for that. If you want to be better at Facebook advertising, there’s a course for that. If you want to be a better knitter, there’s a course for that.

Conduct Curiosity Conversations
The best way to learn about people is to talk with people. Regardless of where you are at in your career or education, find people who interest you and speak with them. Ask questions and listen to their answers. See what answers keep popping up and pay attention to that. 

I’ve found that many people stop doing curiosity conversations once they reach a certain point in their career, but I’m starting to realize this is where you separate yourself from the pack. 

If you want to enhance your life, these are 4 great ways to start. Each one of these offers a different form of learning and based on y our preference, you should select the ones that fit best with you. 

Elevate in Action:

1. Start a new book this week. If you want to ease into it, make the decision to read and decide which one you are going to start soon.
2. Think about your favorite thought leader, person, or genre and see if they are featured on a podcast. 
3. Think about 5 people who you would love to speak with and reach out to them. 

Jake Kelfer is a lifestyle entrepreneur and life elevator. He is the bestselling author of Elevate Beyond and Elevate Your Network and a high energy motivational speaker on a mission to elevate and inspire millions of people to achieve personal success and happiness. He is the founder of the Professional Basketball Combine which helps NBA draft prospects turn their dreams of playing pro basketball into their reality. He and his work have been featured on Forbes, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, NBC Sports, USA Today, Bleacher Report, and many other major media outlets. Connect with Jake on social @jakekelfer!
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