Many of us give more priority to formal education and less to self-education. And that’s why the moment many leave school, they consciously or sub- consciously stop learning. Self- education is more about accepting life as your teacher. That way, you don’t stop learning.Learning should be an important part of our everyday life because true education is not just about going to school. It is about personal development. Therefore it should be continuous. To create a better you, you need the wisdom that life offers and one way to gain that wisdom is to become a student of life; an intentional learner. Here are ways you can achieve that;

Question Everything: Like I always say, what you do not know is mostly connected with questions you’ve not asked. Don’t just take things the way they appear. As a matter of fact most things in life are not usually all they appear to be. Be curious enough to ask questions and seek answers to them. Do not accept general opinion or age long traditions just because they are widely accepted. Challenge status quo. Learn to dig deeper! As long as we are depending on safe solutions, prejudiced judgments and fixed ideas, our mind will be closed to discovering our own truth.

Be Vast In Learning: One of the important skills you need in life is learning how to learn. Learning shouldn’t be limited to only your academic discipline or occupation. It is important to develop a broad understanding of the world in general. Watch out for things that interest you in your environment and even things that do not interest you. Often times we think we know only to discover that we don’t when it matters. The solution to that is Read! Read!! Read!!! All you can. Just keep increasing your knowledge base with each passing day. Don’t ever get satisfied with the little you have known. Stay hungry for more. The internet has made this a whole lot easier. If you are looking at the right places there’s a whole lot of valuable information and knowledge one can acquire on daily basis.

Approach Issues With An Open Mind: Learn to approach issues with an open mind and not a bias one. Don’t assume you already know. You can be wrong. Nothing suffocates true wisdom like assumption. Don’t automatically assume or conclude that something is the way it is because you have always believed so or were taught to believe so. Try to look at issues from as many perspectives as you can and make your judgments based on the facts rather than on pre- conceived notions and prejudices.

Reflect More: Learn to take time daily to go through your thoughts and experiences both the positive and the negative ones. To achieve this, you have to get into the right state and environment. The truth is life is teaching us every day; the problem is that we are not mindful enough to learn. Look for the Lessons there is to whatever you experience (There’s always a lesson). Reflecting gives you that opportunity to learn the things life has been trying to communicate to you through your thoughts and experiences (personal and non-personal). It helps you learn from your mistakes and empower you with great insights to create a better you. It gives you a better understanding about yourself and the world around you. Like the great philosopher, Socrates once said “An unexamined life is not worth living.”

Increase Your Level of Awareness: To learn from life, you need to develop keen interest on what is happening around you. Watch people; observe events with keen interest. Don’t relate with your environment passively. Get interested enough to be a participant rather than a spectator. Learn to live in the now by being conscious of your environment. Let little things that others would probably just shrug their shoulders and move on without a thought grab your attention. Often times we learn more from those seemingly “little things.”

Learn From “others’ Wisdom”: I have found out that every one of us contains a different body of knowledge. What I mean is that you may never understand something exactly the same way some one else will likely understand it. There are people who their experiences and exposures have taught a lot in life. Many of them may have learned the hard way. You do not have to wait to experience all they have experienced to learn what life has taught them (You may not survive it all). When you come across people like that, you do not need a sooth-sayer to tell you. Listen to what they have to say. They are likely talking from experience. According to Confucius, “By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is the noblest; second by experience, which is the bitterest; and third by imitation which is the easiest.” He was simply saying that the easiest way to learn wisdom is through others’ experiences.

Explore Your World: Be adventurous. Sometimes we can only learn by getting involved. As a matter of fact, we experience life by getting involved. Get involved in meaningful activities. That way you will find the opportunity to implement and express what you’ve learnt and know what works and what doesn’t. Travel; meet people of different cultures. When you try new things, you tend to discover some aspect of yourself and life that you may not have known. Learn to explore your world. It will not only help you recognize your flaws, fault, weakness, strengths, it will also help you to constantly update your understanding of the world around you. That’s what self-education is all about.