The people that make progress in this world are not only the people that take the time out to learn a new skill but then implement it.
Too many times people get stuck in the continual learning phase and keep soaking up all this information and become the most educated person in a particular niche never to have achieved anything.
What good is all the information you have learned if you aren’t going to implement any of it yourself? The only reason I can think of is if you are going to consult others on how to do it. In saying that if I was going to be consulted by someone I would want proof of their own results before taking any advice from them.
Having experience in implementing what you are learning in my opinion is crucial to be able to progress to anything worthwhile. There has to come a point where you realise that not everything is going to be perfect and it is time to put to practice what you have learned and further your progression by learning from the things that you don’t read about in text books or from online courses.
This is where the real learning starts, it is all well and good to know the best technology, plugins, systems and everything else to use but that knowledge is absolutely useless unless you are going to put it into practice.
Here is an example of being left behind in a fast pace world of technology.
The implementer vs the learner.
The learner will typically spend obscene amounts of time learning material and knowing the ins and outs of every little aspect. The know the answer to every text book question, every marketing questions but have absolutely zero practical experience
The implementer is smart, but in a difference sense, they know there are people that are out there with more information on a particular topic. They find those people because they want to implement something quickly. The find ‘The Learner’ and ask all the right questions to be pointed in the right direction. The implementer takes on the learns advice and implements into their business immediately. They are now on a different plane of learning, the learning by experience.
Before long the implementer will pass the learner in knowledge of the particular area and become more of an authority in that chosen area because they took action and learned the lessons that can only be learned by taking that action.
The learner will continue reading and sharpening their mental tool kit. But there is no point sharpening an axe for extended periods of time if it is never going to cut down a tree. A blunt are could cut down a tree faster than a sharp axe that is never swung.
I don’t come across to many people that are dead set on taking action almost immediately, but when I do it is refreshing. They want to learn but they want to learn quickly and they are willing to make mistakes quickly to speed up that process.
I am guilty myself of getting stuck in that ‘perfectionist’ productivity sink pit and I constantly have to remind myself of these lessons. It is never going to be perfect. Do what you can, and get started and continue the learning process while you are implementing what you are learning.
When you look at the absolutely worst case scenario for the majority of situations the worst outcome is you lost a few hundred dollars and it didn’t work and now you have to start from scratch.
I have been through this many times before. The most costly when I was first starting out was investing $1,500 in a website that I ultimately had no ownership of and I couldn’t move the website away from the designer without losing everything. So I literally lost a lot of money for a kid that had just finished college but the lessons I learned during that time were invaluable.
Make mistakes, make them fast, learn from them, pick yourself up and do better the next time around.
In today’s society we are lead to believe that failing or making mistakes is a bad thing. It isn’t! In fact making mistakes is the fastest way to get you to the point where you want to be. If you are willing to learn from your mistakes quickly and not make the same mistakes again you are already leaps and bounds in front of your competition who are too busy learning and implementing nothing.
If I was waiting for everything to be perfect I still wouldn’t have started this blog. In fact the only reason I did start it was because I finally broke that ‘perfectionist’ mindset and just got something up. The design currently is horrible it is not overly user friendly but when I look back now that doesn’t matter. I have got the important aspect and that is the content. The other things I was worrying about I can change and implement as the blog grows.
I am taking this mindset into my next project, the project that was at the forefront of that failed website that cost me $1,500. I have learned what I needed to learn and it is time to rebuild my initial dream and make it a reality.
Do not let yourself become that person stuck in an endless cycle of learning. Be that person that is implementing what they are learning as quickly as possible.
Have a look at your to-do-list and get to work on those big ticket items!
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