Self-learning: The Secret to building a sustainable and successful career?

Lectures-Question Answers-Exams. The traditional “model” of the Indian Education system. Contrary to the unbelievably rapid growth of industry, our education system is heavily relying on rote learning. This leads to students focusing on the outcome of education and not on the value. 

Author James Clear explains this beautifully in his book “Atomic Habits”. He talks about how everything we do focuses on outcomes and not on change from within. This approach has had a depleting effect on how we rush towards goals and never focus on the value of things. If at all we focus on the value of what we do and not the result, learning and hence understanding would elevate automatically. 

There is an inherent connection between education and a career. Most of us have adopted the mindset that learning is limited to a degree that we can flaunt on our resumes. In reality, this way of thinking defeats the true purpose of learning. Learning was supposed to be understanding and applying but our chase for degrees has turned it into mugging up textbooks.  

The fundamental difference between traditional rote learning and self-learning is that rote learning makes you learn for an exam, but self-learning helps you learn for yourself. Studying for an exam makes you focus on just the exam. This then changes your perception of education from something that has the potential to add value to your life to a painfully boring book that you have to mug up every six months.   

We at Dheya believe that the whole point of education is to add value to the learner. Not just to the resume but to how a person thinks, and how they approach every problem they face in their life. The more we learn, the more we understand, and the more we understand, the more we can explore and adapt.   

All of us know that in the past few decades the biggest problem for professionals has been coping with the unbelievably fast progress of technology, and this is just the start. Technology keeps on progressing faster than ever, and so do the possibilities and challenges in every field of work.   

The question is, how does a person adapt to change and maintain exponential growth both as a person and professional throughout their career?  

By definition, self-learning means “a process by which individuals take the initiative, with or without the assistance of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying human and material resources for learning, and evaluating learning outcomes”.   

While the definition might scare you off, self-learning is extremely easy when you start embracing it as a habit. It gives you a chance to enjoy and understand the topic instead of learning it by heart.   

How do you effectively apply?  

When we talk about building a career, the earlier an individual starts embracing self-learning, the better.  

Remember, You don’t have to start by taking on the whole syllabus and “self-learn” it.   

Start small.  

Imagine you’re in ninth grade and you pick a topic that you think you might like. You can start by studying that topic every day for an hour. You first go through the existing syllabus, and then you watch a video about it. This way you start recollecting better and get into a habit of going beyond the syllabus. 

Adapting to a study pattern like this prepares you for a challenge that you might face in your professional life. It gives you an immediate advantage over your peers because you already know that you need to go that extra mile every time.   

It also affects how you grasp information. In any education system, the classic way of learning is that the teacher introduces you to the topic and takes you through it. Contrarily, self-learning helps you understand how you would approach a new topic.   

The only problem that you might face in your journey of self-learning is thinking that “you can’t do it” We know how you feel and how demotivated you might feel when you try and do something for yourself but end up with unsatisfactory results.  

Why does this happen? Why don’t we push ourselves enough? Why do we assume that we aren’t good enough?   

We think we might have the answers you are looking for. Read our blog “The Battle of the Inner Critic with our Self Esteem” to know more.  

The world of Self-learning can be taxing and lonely, but don’t worry! We’re always here for you. This is why we’re launching “Self-Study Saturdays!” In the next four weeks, we’ll be releasing four blogs that will help you skyrocket your journey as an independent and instant learner.   

Stay tuned! We’ll see you next Saturday! Till then you can equip yourselves with some brand-new study techniques with our blog, “3 Effective Strategies for Studying!’