First Thing is to Determine When Too Much is Too Much
I love learning! I want to be better than I am. I want to know more than I do now. I also want to learn how to build a great business that helps others find solutions for building their dreams.
There is so much that I don’t know. If I’m going to have that profitable business and be the best me, I need to learn how. Over the years, I’ve wondered if I was spending too much time and money learning, but really never came up with a clear answer.
So, how much time and money should be invested in learning?
What is the appropriate amount of either? According to Josh Spector there is a balance of learning and doing. Learning is valuable, but will never be as valuable as doing. He makes a great point when he writes,
“There’s a reason Nike’s slogan isn’t “Just learn it”.”
Time spent learning makes us feel like we’re working hard. There’s less risk with learning than doing. Learning is more internal. If we ‘do’ something and it doesn’t work…others can see that we failed.
There are learners and doers.
People naturally fall into one of these two groups. Learners don’t get as much done as they would like because they spend too much time learning. Doers don’t get as much done as the could because they don’t know of any other way to do it. Consequently, neither group gets as much done as it could if they would find a balance.
So what is the right balance of learning and doing? Josh recommends spending 80% of your time doing. He also says one of the best ways to learn is to do.
This caused me to think back over my construction career and how I learned all of the things that I now know how to do. These things weren’t learned from an online class or from a book. They were learned working along side someone who knew what they were doing and showed me how…and showed me how…and showed me how.
The important thing is to be clear about your goals, determine what is needed to accomplish them and begin to move in that direction.
Above all you need to know whether you’re learning to avoid doing or to give you the knowledge you need to move forward and accomplish your goals.
Doing is learning! Find the right balance for you.
