Taking Charge Of Your Learning (and how to do it for free)
Taking Charge Of Your Learning (and how to do it for free)
Do you love learning as much as we do? It’s so fun (and so easy!) to learn just about anything these days. But it’s also super easy to consume lots of information and then just move onto the next. That’s why today we want to talk about ACTIVE learning or learning deeply.
Kristin used to think the answers she needed were always in somebody’s $1000 course or a very expensive product. And when she started thinking that was the only way to get what she needed, she stopped taking responsibility for her own learning. She felt held back.
Over time Kristin learned a little trick to help her take charge of her own learning — often for free. It’s a concept called TRANSLATION.
Translation: Adapting someone’s teachings into a “language” that makes sense for you.
We absolutely love the concept of “translation” and you can use it all the time! Whenever you want to adapt what you learn from books, podcasts, videos, or anything else into a language that applies specifically to you, you can use this concept of translation.
Translating the information you are consuming helps you understand it better, apply it and makes you look deeper by asking questions. It’s the idea of spending more time with the information instead of just consuming a podcast or book and moving on.
It’s all about wringing all the goodness you possibly can from someone’s wisdom. Extracting as much value as possible to serve you.
This concept of “translation” has helped us when we were starting our podcast, when we needed to design a website, create an email list, coming up with a new product, learning how to sell better, etc…
Have you been wanting to learn something new? Or do you have a creative project you’re working on?..Great! Translation can help!
Here are 3 ways to use translation to take your learning even deeper…
3 Ways to Use Translation
Immerse yourself in someone’s teachings and work to learn how they think.
Dig into their free content AS IF you paid for it.
Inhabit that person’s mindset.
Let’s go over each one in detail so you can start using translation for yourself.
Immerse yourself in someone’s teachings and work to learn how they think
This is a passive way of learning, but still effective in the long-run. (Like when you binge a podcast that’s got a ton of episodes right up your alley.)
If you have a favorite podcast, author or teacher start to immerse yourself into their world & their teachings. Start to notice what themes they’re always talking about and start pointing them out.
Hearing concepts and ideas repeated over and over again shifts your mindset and how you think. The more you immerse yourself in a specific teacher or program, the more you’ll start to think about a certain topic the way they would.
*This is why it’s also so important to be intentional about who you choose to learn from.
2. Dig into their free content as if you paid for it
This is one of our favorite things to do and again we like it because it’s FREE!
We all know that we usually treat paid content differently. But there are so many podcasters, authors, bloggers etc that have incredible free content that’s sometimes just as valuable as their paid content.
If you take their free content as if you paid for it, you’ll start getting way more out of it!
Examples:
You could print out a podcast transcript and re-read the episode.
Highlight and mark up the book. Take notes. Ask questions.
Listen to a specific episode multiple times.
Pretend like you have to give a lesson on that specific topic and start diving in deep.
Rewrite the information in a way that specifically applies to you and your situation.
Discover for yourself what this information could mean for you. Take time to contemplate it and really let it sink in.
3. Inhabit that person’s mindset
Once you’re familiar with someone’s work (by reading their books, listening to their podcast, subscribing to their emails, watching their videos, whatever), you can begin to think the way they do and step into that way of being.
Here are a few ways to do this:
Use your imagination as a tool and what you’ve learned to picture asking them about your current problems and hearing what they’d say in response.
Ask yourself what they would think about your problem.
How would they advise you to move forward?
What would this person tell you to do?
Once you start putting yourself in their shoes you’ll start solving problems as they would. You’ll start tapping into this different headspace where you just might find the answers you were looking for all along.
How to know when to invest in your learning
When you’ve taken charge of your learning and have taken the free content seriously, it might be time to invest in their paid content as well if you’re feeling like you want or need more.
One great way is to just ask for more free help when you need it or ask what paid content might be the best fit for you.
Feel free to reach out to your favorite creators and engage. (Instagram message, reply to one of their emails, fill out a contact form on their site.)
Some creators have coaching calls or one on one calls you can try out for a month just to get headed in the right direction.
Most creators also have a variety of higher end products and lower end products.
You can always start with trying out one of their lower end products to get an idea of what their paid content is like. That will usually let you know if you want to continue to work with them.
Smaller creators (like us!) are usually more available to engage -- and love hearing from you. If you’d like to chat with us, we’d love to help you out as well. Just contact us here and we’ll get right back to you!
Want to listen in on our conversation?
Click below or on apple podcasts & choose episode 143 to listen to the full podcast episode.
You can also search The Progress Project on any podcast app including Spotify!
Podcast Ep. 143 Taking Charge Of Your Learning (and how to do it for free)
In this episode, we’re sharing a concept we call translation. This is when you adapt what you learn from books, podcasts, videos, or anything else into a language that applies specifically to you.
Listen in to learn more about this topic, plus:
3 ways to use translation to take your learning even deeper
How to learn most of what you want for FREE
How to get the most value possible out of free content
One way you can inhabit the mindset of your favorite teacher
When to invest further in your learning
Links Mentioned
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