The best money you can ever spend is money invested in your own mind, expanding the quality of your knowledge and increasing your ability to take control of your circumstances or make new ones that work better for you.
Whether it is attending an evening class, going on a weekend seminar, listening to podcasts, learning via the internet or simply browsing in your local library or used book store, you are giving yourself new information and creating new neural pathways in your brain. Once you have exposed yourself to new information your mind cannot go back to how it was before.
My friend Ian once said to me that
"If you read for one hour a day on a topic where you are a novice, within a year you will become incredibly competent in that topic and within two years become an expert."
Imagine what a great place you will be in by doing this!
Pick something you want to know more about:
- Painting with Oils;
- Building your own Home;
- Cooking with Pasta;
- Investing in Property;
- Creating Games for your Kids;
- Home Budgeting;
- Do it Yourself Car Repair;
- Growing Roses.
You choose the topic and do the work, and your mind will take care of absorbing the learning. Place the new information in front of yourself and enjoy what happens.
Join a class, get into a discussion group, contribute your thoughts to a book club, and meet with the people who can teach you new skills and insights. You will be astounded at the power of your mind to expand to new learning.
Start your self-learning with something you are curious to learn more about. Once you have enjoyed the fruits of this learning, pick a topic that might help you in a work related skill, in your home life, or in building your skills with other people and watch your progress.
Get down to the art gallery. Book yourself on a course in archaeology or ancient history. Buy yourself a session in a life drawing class or a series of flying lessons. But do any of these things because you want to follow your curiosity and satisfy an urge to learn more about something.
Remember this piece of information from a wise one:
"A skill once learned can never be taken away, and your mind can never revert to the time before you gained the new knowledge."