You Never Know Where or When You Might Learn Something New

A lot of people tend to read and re-read self-help books and listen to self-help talks, etc. These same people are often following the same behavior patterns because they think that the way to attain success is to constantly consume information and hear motivational speeches by successful people.

There's something very important that they're missing though... The path to success is multi-fold... There are infinite ways to follow the path of success and the principle that will guide you on that path can be picked up while reading, listening or watching just about anything.

Rather than continually reading and re-reading (or listening/watching) self-help materials and information on "how to become succeessful" I implore you to try this:

Read, listen and watch whatever makes you happy. Whatever makes you feel the most engaged and interested. If you like listening to mystery audio books, then you should do more of that.

The reason why you should do more of what makes you the most engaged is not because it will simply make you happier (although you'll find that that's a common side effect of doing what you like), it's because of all the information, principles and lessons that you will learn by doing so.

You don't have to look for advice from successful people on how to be successful, you need to walk your own path in life and be conscious about all the things you enjoy. When you enjoy something, you are truly engaged with it and when you are truly engaged with it, you will learn 100x as much as reading/listening/watching the supposed "success materials".

If you're looking for a more practical example, I'll give you one from my own life. I recently made this mental switch to reading/writing/learning/listening/watching things that I'm truly interested in instead of things that are just "recommended" to me by "successful" individuals.

A book that I started reading is called Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. Now, my goal in life is to be a successful investor and be great at identifying and making investments in the future. What possible use is Norse Mythology to a guy like that?

Well I'll tell you: I've already learned several lessons from the mythology that tie into my own life and make my life ever-better. One lesson that I read about was talking about trust and being humble. The Gods in the mythology were tricked into believing that they were weak, even though they are unbelievably strong.

They learned from this lesson that they should be humble about their power, because some could potentially best them in the future. They must continue to refine their skills and never get too comfortable with their current place in life.

How does this lesson tie into my investing? Even if I make 10 amazing investments in a row and think that I'm the best investor who ever lived, I should never forget that becoming comfortable and content will only result in a loss. If I ever think that I'm too good, then I'll never strive to get better and I'll be left in the dust. There's an investing lesson pulled from Norse Mythology.

Norse Mythology is just 1 of the millions of random things that I have an inexplicable interest in, but that doesn't mean I should leave it in the dust and read self-help books all day. I feel truly engaged when I read it and that's what truly matters when it comes to learning.