Month: April 2017

How To Leverage The Internet To Learn Anything!

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You know that you can find anything and everything online. Many people spend their time online shopping or perusing social media. Why not use that time to learn something new?

There is so much more on the web that you can use to help enrich your life!

Learn new things for free

Gone are the days that you needed to pay a great deal in order to learn new skills!

There is a shift in the workplace, where skills may soon outweigh a degree. While there will always be a place for college, these days you can teach yourself just about anything for free, or very little.

Want to learn about something? Google it. Pretty simple, however, given enough time researching you can learn quite a bit.

Want to learn to code? Check out Codecadamy. Need to change the breaks on your car? YouTube. Need ideas for a DIY project? Pinterest.

There are also sites like Udemy that offer free, or very cheap ($10), classes on just about anything you want to learn.

Rather read books? While not free, Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited offers access to a library of books for $9.99 per month.

Not looking for anything in particular? Sign up for a free daily email course through Highbrow. You pick a course and they send a short lesson to you each weekday by email. There are lots of topics to choose from art, business, productivity, travel… You get the picture. They have both free and premium memberships. One of these lessons leads to me starting this blog.

If you are looking for more specific topics, do a Google search for blogs in that space. You would be surprised the level of knowledge that people share for free. Some may even offer courses of their own on those topics. This brings us to the next topic…

Connect with like-minded people

Whether looking for information, or advice on an idea, the online community is a great resource. If you like the way someone looks at things, reach out to them. Collaborate and share! You can sign up for their newsletter, or contact them directly. Social media works the same way too.

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”- Jim Rohn

Be careful who you spend your time with. Surround yourself with people that lift you up, and inspire you! Those that help support your goals, and hold you accountable. While there are downright awful people on the internet, there are so many great ones willing to help. You just need to find them.

Final thoughts…

Pick something you always wanted to learn, and go learn it. Anything. If you don’t end up liking it, just move on to something else. Nothing is stopping you, and most likely cost you nothing but time.

Make a commitment to yourself. Begin with small goals to ensure you reach them.

Don’t worry if you spend time on topics that don’t support what you do for a living. Everything learned in personal life will apply to business in some way. You might even start doing something you never thought you wanted to pursue. Like writing…

Leverage the people around you. You would be surprised what your coworkers know, and what they can teach you as well. Interact with people. Network. The more people you connect with, the more opportunities that come your way in the future.

There is so much content out there and ready to be consumed. Be careful not to become overwhelmed!

Too much research, not enough work…

glen noble - www.unsplash.com

I have spent way too much time researching the right way to blog. You know, so I can generate all that awesome side hustle money.

Not sure if you have heard, but some people make a ton of money blogging. I’ve been hoping to join the crowd in an effort to enjoy the extra cash!

Turns out that creates a lot of pressure to make your blog look a certain way, posts that bring great value to your readers, and tons of analytics. So, that just lead me down the rabbit hole of “how to” and “this is exactly how I got 10k views my first-month blogging” type posts.

These people post some really good stuff, but a lot lead to selling a class or their book. This is really good for the business side, and I give them kudos for making it happen! Not sure that is what I’m looking for though.

There are a few that really do post some great content on life, and how to get the most out of it. That’s what I have really been looking for!

Too much business, not enough real. I get enough of business at work. What I really want is the real!

Thus, my change in focus. No longer am I going to focus so much on making the perfect site, or even the best content.

I’m happy with the way the site is looking, so done with that. I feel like I know just enough that if I want to monetize the site I could.

Now, it’s time to actually focus on writing. That was what I wanted to do all along. Rather than regurgitating the trendiest topic, I’m going to write about what’s really going through my head and life.

Also, going to start turning my daydreams into short stories. That should make for an interesting project.

I’m hoping readers appreciate this approach, and eventually, I think they will.