A lot of people use their free time for many different things. Whether it's watching a movie, watching TV, or just laying around. How are we supposed to get ahead in life if we're not focused on learning? Learning new things can make your life easier, you figure out new ways of doing your daily tasks, among other things. It allows you to gain new skills, which will give you more resources if you want to make significant life changes.
Work To Learn, Not Earn
We often get jobs to make money. We will accept anything that pays us the correct amount. Instead of looking at the extra benefits for each position. Some positions may pay less, but they may teach you a lot more. These skills can you be used elsewhere. Which can help you get an even better job in the future! Sometimes we fail to recognize, that we are hurting ourselves by looking for the highest paying job. That sometimes also working for free, is better than working for money. Learning new things allows us to use those skills forever. Whereas the money will eventually run out. You pay your bills, and it's gone. You learn something, and you can apply it to many different fields.
Applying What You Learn
We often don't use the things that we learn. Motivational books, and we look at quotes. But if we don't apply these things we won't grow it will be worthless. All that time we spent reading or looking at the stuff will be a waste. If you learn a new skill, it's important to practice it. Often we don't realize we are exercising our powers when we are. Sometimes skills can transfer to other areas of our lives, without us realizing it. My ability for art often gives me an eye for a variety of things, not just art. I often notice the small details. If I didn't like to draw, I might not see these things. This is why it's important to learn things that are relevant. Don't just learn about everything, unless you're going to be using those things.
This Is Why School Sucks
Education is often not relevant; we learned so many things in school that we don't use in real life. But the practical skills that we need aren't always taught. Things such as cooking, cleaning, and financial literacy. We are often taught outdated things, such as how to write checks. Instead of learning how to use cryptocurrency or using an online baking website. We are told that we need to invest, but we are not taught how.
These are things. Unfortunately, we have to prepare ourselves. Most parents have shown us. When I talk about learning, I'm not necessarily referring to school. But you can't take classes related to what you want to learn, which may speed up your education. If these are things, you're going to going to use, that it may be worthwhile. But we often are forced to take classes that don't help us in any way. Such as extra complicated math that will never use. Or reading books by authors we may never read again.
It's essential to invest in yourself, and part of investing in yourself is learning. Learning something that should happen every day not necessarily in the classroom. People are often willing to spend in their appearance, their business, or their schooling. But we often fail to invest in our learning topics. This is something that should change, trying to use our time as wisely as possible even when we are resting. Growing ourselves and learning has a significant impact in the long-term.
Your title got me real quick because, for me, there is nothing like free time. I have grown with the mindset that every single minute should be judiciously maximize for a satisfying life. I like the way you made it look more real to me today, however, before now I was into the habit of just being a workaholic with the sole aim of making money but your write-up had made me see that you can learn on your free time and not just want to earn
. For details!
I've got some mixed feelings about what you said, mostly I agree with you, but I think it's on a sliding scale that moves the percentages with age and experience.
Absolutely - focus on learning, especially when you're young. Take the job that will teach you the most towards your goals and utilize it. Being a delivery driver often pays better than doing an entry level job in your chosen career path, but delivering packages may not move you along your career path. It's better to suck it up and get the skills and experience.
Yes - implement what you learn. In my particular case, and I assume that of most other people you can read up on how to do something all you want, it will never give you the same amount of skill you will get from doing it - repeatedly. I found the best way to learn something well (in most cases) is to grab your tools, jump in head-first and do it. After you get it done, go back and read the directions. You'll be able to figure out what the directions actually meant afterward, correct your mistakes if you made any, then you'll do it better next time. I know it's counter-intuitive to read the directions after, but I've learned the knowledge cements itself better that way.
If you can, start with a government job BUT DON'T STAY THERE (military service counts). Government jobs tend to come with a lot of training. You're likely to get multiple classes very relevant to what you want to do, all of these certs add up and look good on a resume. Don't stay at a government job however - they tend to be incredibly insular from the rest of the industry - almost like you're working in a parallel world where reality doesn't matter. Move on after one, two years tops if you're starting out. If you're winding down in your older age they're not a bad thing to settle into.
If you plan on higher education:
Work first.
With the exception of a vocational school I fully recommend going to work at an entry-level position in your chosen field for a while, learn the lingo, get a feel for the post-school world and gain a few skills. When you go to school later - after a year or two of working - you will have a more realistic view of the world, you'll hopefully already have some money saved up to pay for classes, and you should much more easily out-compete your classmates on grade-curves since much of what you'll be dealing with will be old hat to you. You might even be able to test out of some classes.
Pay attention to what your career field actually looks for. I'm in the technology field - industry certifications will carry you further than college degrees will in this line of work. Maybe college isn't the ride course for what you want to do.
When you get older don't be afraid to get those certs and change what you do a bit. Never stop learning, but make sure what you've learned works for you - if you find yourself stagnating at a job sometimes you have to move-on to move-up. Don't be a afraid to find someone else to work for, or if you can pull it off, work for yourself. People rarely get rich working for someone else.
Volunteer work is another good way to get experience and learn. As it is hard to get work where I am without a work reference, I have just got my shifts set up so I can start again where I previously was, helping to get a work reference and show I don't just sit around...
Except on my days off where I sit around and stream. ;)
excellent post.
I appreciate it dear.
👌👌👌👌👌👌👌
@resteemed your post
This becomes more and more a thing for me as life goes on. I was watching a baseball game on TV with my buddy and his dad yesterday and all I could think was how they do this all the time and that was 4 hours of learning nothing. I like my leisure, but that is half a work day lol.
Excellent publication. I liked what you wrote and, apart from that, you're right in everything. It is always worth learning, maybe not now, but later that knowledge may be necessary, that's why you have to learn a bit of everything.
If we we are privileged to have the luxury of thinking about anything outside survival alone then the 'work to learn and not earn,' advice is golden. For those who cannot but earn to survive though, it may be impracticable
You may have tried some hobbies when you were younger: knitting, cooking, chess, painting, dancing ... You never really persevered because you did not care, or you did not find anyone around you with whom to share it. In order to occupy your free time, you might be able to pick up a hobby you have left or discover a new one closer to your interests.
Finding the hobby that suits you best and practicing it regularly not only helps you relax but also allows you to develop your creativity and meet people with similar interests.
You're quite right, learning is very important for human beings, especially in the long run. The knowledge we acquire over the years will help us pass it on to our children or simply to be more prepared for different situations. It is important to have a mindset that learning is central to our lives.
I've learned so much more since I've been out of school because I've been in the pursuit of knowledge without the rigid guidelines of state mandated tests. One of the rules I live by is to never be disappointed in myself as long as I'm trying my best. Since I'm self-propelled, I work hard too so I'll have a day for a Netflix coma once in a while just to quiet my brain. LOL
This reminds me of something Robert Henri wrote in The Art Spirit when he said that "All education is self education" :)
I think everything is based on the desire that we have to overcome, because it is useless to want to do it but not have the motivation enough or the desire to carry out these activities because if only we are conforming with what we know and do not try to go beyond in any way so Conformists with our lifestyle and that limits us to see beyond what we can
Free Time Should Be Used For Learning but unfortunately humanity has become a robot because their pathetic iPHONES. This is the worst living era.
Great post by the way.
Actually I have to much free time because vacations you know. But you that's right, so I am team watching movies and read some books hahaha procrastinate is my profession. Good post, regards :-)