365 Secrets of Success

10. When Successful People Learn Something New, They Immediately Apply It

As I write this post, I’m sitting in my car. I’ve just heard something that made me realise an opportunity that I never knew I had. This is a prime example of immediately applying what you learn.

I was listening to a brilliant seminar on productivity. I’d just parked my car. The speaker said something like this:

“Extremely productive people use different environments to accomplish different things”.

So, I applied what I’d learned, straight away. 

Now I’ll be honest and admit that this isn’t always the case, and sometimes it’s just not feasible to do that at the particular point of learning. In that instance, you should write down what you have just learned, with a time limit by which point you will have actioned the new idea.

Why does this matter so much? 

In my experience, there are two main reasons for habitually applying what you learn as soon as possible, and they are related to what Robert Kiyosaki classifies into two distinct types of knowledge.

The first type of knowledge is theoretical in nature. It doesn’t necessarily have an application in the now, but it might well influence the way you think. The other is practical – knowledge you can apply right now which can produce a significant impact on the outcome of your current activities.

It’s this second practical knowledge that we should pay closest attention to. This type of knowledge, if correctly applied, will set us on a new direction, or perhaps enable us to achieve results that have been out of reach up until the point of learning.

The crossing-point for us is when we actually apply what we have learned. In my experience, if I don’t apply such knowledge, it can have the reverse effect: my mind becomes stressed because there is a yearning to fulfil this new understanding, to try it out.

If I let the new knowledge sit there in my memory, it nags me, reminding me that the insight I’ve gained remains locked up inside my head. It demands application, screaming “Just do it!!”.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s not always possible to apply what you learn immediately, but it’s better to put yourself in an environment where you can have the time and space to follow through on that new knowledge subsequent to gaining it.

In other words, if you listen, read or watch something where you know there is a strong chance that you will learn something new, make sure that you have set aside enough time to be able to apply what you’ve learned straight away.

The impact of this on your mind is phenomenal if you make this into a habit. It builds positive feedback, gaining you mental energy to be stretched into new territory that was hitherto unreachable.

Try it, and feedback below!