It's week 5 on Self Growth and today, the topic is on Education. Education can be either your degree or other means of educating yourself (e.g reading books etc) or both. I will start with the degree type.

I've been in a Uni environment for a while now and I've seen people stay redundant in a particular level purely because of their "I don't care" attitude towards school. (I wrote about Attitude last week on Pep Talk, read it and see how your attitude can affect your growth). I'm thinking of the best way to explain this scenario but how will one be able to grow if you are been held back by your continuous failure and bad attitude towards that failure? I doubt if anyone in that situation is actually thinking about Self-growth because if they were, the Education part of it will change for good. Believe it or not, we need our degree to move on with life. Nobody will take you seriously if at a particular age, you don't have any degree at hand. It's just how the world works and it's best we move along with it if truly we want growth.

Also, it is important to note that a degree does not make you a literate. Have you heard of an educated illiterate? Yeah don't let that be you. There's so much your course/degree path can teach you but if you don't educate yourself outside of what your professors are teaching you, you will be tagged an educated illiterate. That is where the second part of the two examples I gave, come in. How can you educate yourself?

• Invest in Books: Personally, I don't have the time and will to read books. I used to do that in secondary school but I grew out of it. I remember last year when I bought two business books, I knew I wouldn't have time to read fully. They stayed in my book shelf for a couple of months until the need for them came. I knew I had no choice at this point but to read them and get the knowledge I paid for. So please, don't give yourself the excuse that you don't like reading. You have to if you want to grow, somehow the drive to read a book will come when you know you have no choice. There are tons of inspirational books out there, look for and buy them. Luckily, technology age lets you have e-books too so you don't have to carry heavy books with you. 

• Listen to inspirational people: There was a time I played most of Myles Munroe teachings. (God rest his soul) I really wasn't listening because he was a pastor but because of the vast wisdom in his teachings. Find an inspirational person you like and stick with that person till you find another or if you don't mind, subscribe to as many as you wish. My current inspirational people are actually a couple, Cornelius and Heather Lindsey. Love them! They also have numerous books out. You can check them out. 

• Attend seminars: Either free or not, you also have to commit to showing up for events that will educate you and help you grow. I wish I lived in an english speaking country, I would have invested a lot into attending seminars. I love seminars that put you on another level mentally. Talking about seminars, I am hosting one on Oct 1st, if you are in Hungary, you can click here for more info. 

• Surround yourself with people that are up there mentally: I didn't know how important this point was until I started practicing it. You think you know it all until you meet people that know better than you do. That is how you educate yourself. You wouldn't even know you are lacking in an area until someone points it out for you. 

• Internet is a wonder place for wisdom: I can't count how many inspirational people I follow on social media neither can I count how many screenshots of wise quotes I have. That's how much I'm using the internet for my good. I follow inspirational blogs, youtube channels and search for ideas/ways one can grow. Try using the internet for something great other than keeping up with friends. 

• Exposure: Some days ago or I think yesterday, it was another-day-another-bant on Twitter and the topic of international exposure was next on Twitter's hot seat. To be honest, I couldn't even look for what started the debate. It was something about international exposure can't make you more learned than those that stayed in their home country. They were right. Staying abroad doesn't make you more exposed than those back home and you know why? Because you can stay abroad and not educate yourself. I know people in America that have no clue whatsoever what is happening with the electoral process, the unjustified killings etc. That kind of person will now claim they are more exposed than their counterpart in their home country simply based on location? LOL Anyway, my point here is that to be exposed, you have to educate yourself. Stay current with everything both socially and personally.