We humans are always learning. Ever since our brains develop enough, every single experience teaches us something new. Today, in this complicated world where everything is changing all the time, learning from your own life experiences might become a little redundant.

To become lifelong learners, you don’t have to be a genius. You simply must be open to learn and grow and be willing to be proactive about your growth.

A simple shift in just living your life, to treating it like a business venture whereas you are seeking to extract maximum value from the efforts, will make all the difference in the world.

“Shift from just living your life, to treating it like a venture you expect to extract maximum value from.”

Seek a Return on Your Investment

When most people pay to go to school or attend college or even read a book, they must pay a certain price to attain that information. When they do so, they are not buying information. They are making an investment.

This distinction is very crucial because it determines the mindset which people have towards learning. When you are making an investment by taking information from a source, you must always seek to get a return on that investment.

This can be done by seeking to apply the information that you have gotten in real life situations that arise every single day. If you continue to do that, eventually you will be getting a return on the investment of your life.

Just like Reginald Ryder says in the Rant and Grow podcast: “One of the first things I would say is that you must understand that you’re not a consumer of your education, you’re actually a client of your education”

Turn Information into Long Term Knowledge

When you read something just for the sake of reading it or if you complete your homework just for the sake of completing it, you are missing out on a good opportunity.

When information enters your memory, in the short term the information can be potentially useful to you. If you do not convert the information into knowledge that you can use in the future, it is an opportunity for learning you may have lost for life.

Hence, the goal of knowledge and the goal of becoming a lifelong learner should start with cultivating the habit of converting everything important from short term information to long term knowledge.

“When we take information and commit to converting it into knowledge, we shift it from short term useful data, into long term valuable wisdom.”

Have a Daily Routine

For students who want to become lifelong learners, it is very important to stay in a routine. Putting your body and mind through a certain kind of discipline is important to focus on the truly important things out there.

It is not about making things uncomfortable for yourself. That would be detrimental to progress. Rather, it is about making it a habit to stay in the best form of your life, throughout your life. This can only be done once you make it a habit to stay disciplined and keep yourself in the routine that makes you most efficient and productive.

“Mastering your calendar and time, allows you to develop routines that enable you to retain more knowledge and improve your learning.”

These are some of the things that you can do to become a lifelong learner according to Reginald Ryder who was my guest on the Rant and Grow podcast.

When you can put yourself in a routine that makes you most effective and efficient, you can convert the information you take in the short term and commit it to long term knowledge.

This helps you get a sizable return on the investment that you are making in your ongoing education and puts you on the right track to become a lifelong learner.

Listening to this week’s Rant and Grow podcast with Reginal Ryder, will open your eyes on how to shift from gather information for the moment, to gaining knowledge for life.

Reginald Ryder is a career higher education professional, a college professor, and an author. In June 2020, Ryder wrote the book called Passing the Baton, A Guide and Memoir of College Success. He works with students as they transition from high school to 2-year and 4-year colleges and universities.

In this episode we explore how to become a learner for life and why it’s important to keep growing. Just click on the play button to listen to the podcast right here.