If you've been following me for more than a minute, you know that I talk about learning – a lot.

And if you've ever heard me speak, or seen me on a podcast interview, you've heard me say that learning is “the only skill that matters.” I believe this with all of my heart – in fact, I believe it so much, I titled my latest book accordingly.

The logic behind this is simple:

In life, there are a lot of skills that you need to thrive. Some of them are social. Some academic. Some economic. And some physical. The list is endless – and it's only growing. Modern humans need even more skills than any generation before them. Skills that were once reserved for a select few – such as being involved in your own healthcare or having basic technological literacy – are now all but required. And then, there's the skills we wish we didn't need, but do. Skills like how to determine if the information we're presented with is fact or fiction, if the products we're purchasing are detrimental to our wellbeing, and many, many more.

But the one thing you need in order to acquire all of these skills? You need to be able to learn. And it's not enough to just learn. No, as Alvin Toffler famously said, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

In my efforts to proselytize this message, however, I realize I'm often guilty of generalizing. While I extoll the virtues of learning how to learn at every chance I get, I rarely stop to give examples. What exactly can you learn with the skills I teach in my SuperLearner courses? What should you learn?

Perhaps, on some level, I believe that it's up to my students to decide. After all, if you teach a man to fish…

And yet, I know just as well as anyone that we often need examples to inspire, excite, and impact us. While it's nice to think about all the possibilities that meta learning could open up for someone, it's much more salient to hear about the ways it already has.

For this reason, I thought it might be fun to share some of the ways that I, personally, have benefitted from the very skills I teach to others. While this is in no way a comprehensive list, I hope that it will impress upon you what is possible when you invest in your ability to learn.

Charisma, Confidence, and People Skills

When I first discovered (and achieved) the skill of SuperLearning, I was like a starving prisoner who had just been set free. On my computer, I made a list of some of the most frustrating and persistent challenges in my life, and decided to attack them one by one. (What I didn't realize then was just how far I could take this. As it turned out, things that I believed had nothing at all do with learning challenges ended up being easily solved when treated as such. More on that later).

Now, those of you who are familiar with my story know that I was never the most popular kid in class. In fact, quite the contrary. For the better part of my young life, I was the subject of ridicule, bullying, and humiliation after humiliation. In fact, even as a young adult, I struggled in both University and graduate school to make strong and lasting friendships. At the root of this problem, I now believe, was my behavior. I just didn't know how to interact with others, or how to represent myself in the best light possible – resulting in deep self-hatred for many, many years.

Fortunately for me, I had already been exposed to the idea that I could learn to be different. Early on in my life, my Uncle Ernie – a grandfather figure to me – gifted me a copy of Dale Carnegie's How To Win Friends and Influence People. “This is the only book need if you want to get along with people in life,” he told me. I didn't realize it at the time, but this was a critical turning point in my development as a human being. For the first time, I realized that books had more to offer me than the boring and useless information in textbooks or the fanciful entertainment of my favorite fiction books. For the first time in my life, I realized that books could make me a better person.

It's no surprise, then, that the first thing I applied my new learning skills to was improving my interactions with others. I read comprehensive books on body language, took courses in public speaking, attended lectures, re-read the classics, and more. I event went deep down the rabbit hole of pickup artistry and social dynamics, in an effort to better understand what made for successful social interactions.

For the first time in my life, I realized that books could make me a better person.

The results, I believe, speak for themselves. Today, I consider myself blessed with plenty of friends who love and understand me. I no longer suffer from low self esteem – as demonstrated by my regular appearances on camera, my talks given to audiences of 2,500 people, or the sheer comfort I feel in rooms of some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs.

Certainly, some of this is a result of my accomplishments. I don't deny the fact that what first brought me out of depression and self hatred was to achieve what I believed to be “success.” In time, however, I eventually learned that self esteem derived from achievements, success, or money is both shallow and fragile. It leads to false confidence – even arrogance – and falls apart the minute you hit a bump. The confidence and comfort I have since acquired, then, is based on learning. It's based on learning to think about myself (and others) in different ways. On acquiring knowledge and skills that make me genuinely proud of who I am and how I show up in the world. At every step, this has (and continues to be) an ongoing and creative process.

As a wise man once said, “Tony Robbins didn't exist. I created this mother****er.”

Training and Maintaining Your Body And Mind

As I began seeing results with my forays into improved social skills, I started to wonder: could this skill set help me with things that, at least on the surface, don't appear to involve learning? For as long as I could remember, I had suffered from chronic pain in my knees, instability in my shoulders, and aches and pains in my spine. These physical maladies made it difficult, if not impossible, for me to walk or hike for extended periods of time, and made standing up on hard surfaces absolutely excruciating.

Many years prior, I had pretty much given up on fixing any of this. I'd gone to a few physical therapists, here and there, but when I didn't see immediate results, I instead convinced myself that this was just the way my body was built. My knees were crooked. My shoulder was wobbly. My back was arched. Better just accept it, right?

With my new SuperLearner skill set, I decided to challenge that assumption. I was exposed to Kelly Starrett on an early episode of The Tim Ferriss Show, and decided to dive deeper. I read Starrett's bookshelf-breaking Becoming a Supple Leopard, and began implementing what I was learning. I learned about things like fascia, fibrosis, joint traction, compression, and voodoo banding. I researched kinesiology and functional movement, and realized that my old workouts were doing more harm then help.

Along about the same time, I discovered CrossFit, and went about learning all new techniques, patterns, and habits. Leg extensions and leg curls made way for squats and deadlifts. Bicep curls and tricep extensions made way for pull-ups and push-presses. I became my own physical therapist, and learned how to listen to take care of my own body. And, in time, and in combination with mobility work, something miraculous happened: my pain went away.

After years of kvetching about my “bad knees,” I could now squat a cool two-hundred pounds without so much as a quiver.

But that's not all. Throughout this process, I learned that I'd been using my body wrong in all sorts of ways. But with my newfound knowledge, my posture improved. I looked and felt better. Finally, I was free of something I'd planned to live with forever. Because of learning, I was now able to do things I could've only dreamed of before. In fact, just last month, in hour 3 of a particularly intense hike, a thought crossed my mind: I'd never hiked so long in my life. I'd never been able to.

In addition to all of the physical improvements I made during this time period, I also made a number of mental and spiritual ones as well. I read books on mindfulness and meditation, mindset and resilience. Suddenly, I was happier. Like, a lot happier. I realized that I could live without sorrow or frustration. That I could transcend my thoughts and fears. This, like so many other things, is a learning journey that never ends – but one that pays dividends at every step of the way.

Using learning to improve physical and mental health is a use-case that has proven to be particularly powerful for SuperLearner students and friends alike. One student, Parvinder, used his SuperLearning skills to do all the research and reading his mother's oncologist didn't have the time to do. Because he was so well read and informed, he was able to get her into a clinical trial that the doctor himself had no clue about – which enabled him to dramatically improve the last year of his mother's life. Likewise, my friend and mentor Dr. Anthony Metivier applied his learning skills not only to losing weight and gaining strength, but also towards ridding himself of the psoriasis he had previously accepted as his fate. Time and time again, my students have proven: if you want to achieve peak health, you can't rely on someone else to tell you what to do. You need to learn the ins and outs yourself, and become an active participant in your healthcare regimen.

Entering New Industries

With my confidence at an all-time high and my health at it's peak, I set out to solve the next challenge in my life: What was I going to do next? In the early 2000-tens, I'd sold my previous business, and gone off to business school to try and figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up. I then spent 6 months working on a startup idea that didn't pan out, and was left frustrated and exhausted. Unlike in my previous business, I wanted to do something that actually helped people. Something that would make the world better in some way. But I didn't know how – or what.

I decided that in order to find that next thing, I was going to need time to explore, without pressure. Fortunately for me, I was not starving. Though I'd spent or invested most of the money from my exit on education or angel investments, I still had a few income sources coming in every month. I decided that if I could just earn an extra $1,000 or so in “passive income,” that would be enough to buy me what I called “infinite runway.” In other words, whether it took me a month, a year, or a decade, I didn't have to rush into a business opportunity I wasn't excited about just to pay the rent.

I tried a bunch of different things, including crowdsourcing a book, growing my software side business, and more – but none of it really stuck.

Along about that time (September 2013), I became intrigued with the idea of creating online courses. I'd only ever taken one fully online course before – a Ruby on Rails course by One Month. In that course, two things stood out at me. First, I saw thousands of people commenting and asking questions, each of whom had paid $50-200 to be there. “Intriguing…” I thought to myself. Second, the instructors mentioned that they'd also had a successful course on a website called Udemy.

To say that I knew nothing about creating online courses would be an understatement. I'd barely even taken any of them! What's more, I knew nothing about curriculum design, videography, editing, sound, lighting, or marketing information products. What I did know was how to learn. I casually began investigating what it took to teach. I attended a General Assembly seminar on teaching in San Francisco, and it all seemed easily learnable. And so, shortly after deciding to pack up my life and move to Israel (late October 2013), I decided that I would do it. I would create an online course.

I can still remember sitting down on the coach and Googling “how to build online courses.” There were a lot of results. I frantically went about opening up new tabs. I read some blog posts. Watched some YouTube videos. Checked out a bunch of research papers. Referenced my notes from General Assembly. I even took a course or two on how to create and design courses.

A week or so went by, and I felt adequately prepared to take a stab at this online course thing. Diligently applying everything I had learned, I began writing and producing the course in November of 2013. By the first weeks of December, armed with no more than a blanket taped on the wall and a desk lamp with a plastic bag over it, I began recording. By December 26th, about three months after my initial intrigue, I published the first version of Become a SuperLearner on Udemy. I had no list, no audience, no experience- and no clue how that one event would change my life forever.

Six years later, I've produced and developed over a dozen bestselling courses for myself and numerous other big-name thought leaders, published 3 books (and one bestseller), hosted 260+ episodes of an award-winning podcast, and served roughly 300,000 people in all 205 countries and territories. I've created million-dollar webinars, spoken on stage to thousands of people, and worked with companies like Shell.

Just a few short years ago, I didn't know how to do any of this.

Like, literally. I had no freaking clue.

At every step of the way, however, I've asked myself the same question:

“What do I need to learn in order to achieve my next goal?”

And then- I go out and do it.

I'm not the only one. Our SuperLearner Success Stories page is littered with examples of people like Gonzalo and Juli, who've started their own business using the SuperLearner skill set, and gone on to make an incredible living doing what they love.

More recently, I decided that I wanted to get involve in the “clean meat” industry – i.e. cellular agriculture or “lab-grown” meat. Needless to say, I am not a biologist, and barely made it through most of my science classes in high school. However, armed with the SuperLearner skill set, I dove deep into learning everything I could about this fascinating industry and where it stands today. (For those who are interested, I highly recommend Clean Meat by Paul Shapiro). One month later, I found myself in a meeting with the two founders of one of the leading companies in the industry.

“Wow, you know a lot about all this. How long have you been investing in this space,” asked one of them.

“Oh, I haven't made any investments yet. I just started learning about it last month.”

“Seriously? But- surely you've been a vegan for a while, and you know a lot of the challenges from there.”

“Nope. I just read a few books before our meeting-”

Since then, I've made my first investment into the space, and plan to use that as a springboard for even more learning – and hopefully some doing, too.

Business Management & Entrepreneurial Skills

Of course, my path from “published my first course” to “internet millionaire, investor, & bestselling author” was all but smooth – and I couldn't have done it alone. I needed help – and the skills to recruit that help.

In my previous business, a luxury car parts web store, I was repeatedly held back by my own shortcomings as a leader and as an entrepreneur. Though we could have easily built an 8-figure business, we capped out at around $2.5M (a number that is widely considered to be a major milestone for most small businesses). Ultimately, my management team and I sold the business for a fraction of what we could have for two reasons. First, we didn't know how to grow it any further, and were starting to lose market share to our competitors. Second, we were absolutely miserable. Due in large part to my inability to manage, lead, or create a healthy culture, our office was a hostile and draining work environment that we were all eager to leave behind.

This, in large part, is why I went to INSEAD and got my MBA. I wanted to learn how to really lead and manage businesses so that they grew. When that turned out to be a bust (I learned very little about either), I resolved that I just would avoid the problem. In fact, a large part of why I got into the online course business was because I didn't want to have to hire, train, or manage people ever again. I figured that using technology, I could get by on my own.

I was, of course, wrong. I'll never forget hiring my first employee for SuperHuman Enterprises, in January of 2016. After years of keeping my business intentionally small, working on other projects, and avoiding the writing on the wall, I'd realized that this work was bigger than me – and that I needed help if I wanted to maintain a decent quality of life. Hell-bent on taking a month off and going to South America, I hired Romina, and once again, I was in charge of managing someone.

This time, however, I was armed with the SuperLearner skill set. Even before hiring Mina, I took this as a serious learning challenge. I read books like Virtual Freedom, The New One Minute Manager, The Checklist Manifesto, and The E-Myth Revisited. I consulted with other entrepreneurs and mentors. And slowly but surely, I got better. My company grew – dramatically. But I didn't stop there. I invested in learning from people smarter than me – attending private mastermind groups, high-end coaching training with some of the world's best executives, Genius Network®, and Strategic Coach – all in my quest to become a better entrepreneur.

I was born to create and to lead –

not to manage.

In time, I learned what I hadn't known all along:  my limitations. It took me years of being stubborn, but finally, in 2019, I learned that I was born to create and to lead – not to manage. Through diligent study of the works of people like Gino Wickman, Annie Hyman-Pratt, and Dan Sullivan, I learned communication tools and leadership models that would set me free – and allow me to be who I'm meant to be.

Since that breakthrough, I've learned one of the most important (and difficult) skills an entrepreneur can learn: how to let go, ask for help, and trust others to get results. Of course, I've still got a long way to go. But if you talk to any member of my team, I think they will agree: I've come a long way – and I continue to learn and improve every day.

Marketing & Copywriting

Some time after departing from the “passive income side project” phase of my business, a mentor of mine encouraged me to set out on my own, and to build my own website for marketing premium-level courses. Up until that point, I'd done little to no marketing of my products whatsoever. I generally just wrote what I thought was a decent description of the products, sent out a hastily-crafted announcement, and watched the checks roll in.

To sell products worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars, however, would require much more thought. In a flash, I was exposed to the terrifying new world of “internet marketing.” Marketing funnels, lead captures, webinars, long form sales letters, CPMs, retargeting campaigns, email automations- it was a lot to take in. With one decision, my completely passive “side business” had become a major learning challenge. I can't lie: at first, I felt like crawling under the covers and hiding. I tried to hire and delegate out as much as I could, but, inevitably, I realized that even if I had help, I'd still need to know my way around this part of the business. And so, I rolled up my sleeves, and got to work.

Here, once again, I applied brute force learning – a concept we teach in my SuperLearner® courses. I listened to podcasts, watched YouTube videos, recruited mentors and consultants, and read a lot of books. I read books on copywriting, advertising, marketing, and more. I joined MasterMind groups strictly focused on learning about marketing. I went through other people's funnels and marketing, and learned everything I could. And by 2017, after some initial trial and error, my team and I built our very first 7-figure funnel.

Boy, what a glorious day that was. The moment that you realize that because of some learning, you now have the ability to turn $1 into $2 or even $3- that's a pretty sweet day, indeed. As Joe Polish – a marketing legend who became a close friend and mentor throughout this journey – likes to remind people, marketing is just about the best insurance you can buy against going hungry. Industries come and go, the economy rises and falls- but people will always need to make decisions. And as long as there's a need for humans to make decisions, there will be a demand for savvy marketers.

It wasn't (and still isn't) easy at times, but lord am I glad I learned how to market.

Technological Wizardry

You might think that growing this business into a 7-figure mini-empire would be all-consuming, but truthfully, I've never been fully monogamous for long in my business life. For years, I've made a habit of running multiple business enterprises at once, alongside a vibrant social life and more hobbies than you can shake a stick at. The secret to my success? I've become really good at using technology to automate things for me.

Today, I teach about this type of stuff in both my Speed Demon courses and my Digital Zen joint venture. But back in 2013, I was far from the model of productivity and automation you see today. Over the years, however, I've made diligent efforts to stay on top of all the latest tech. If there's an Apple Keynote talking about new features on iOS, you better believe I've watched it. If you're hoping to blow my mind with a new productivity or automation app sweeping the valley- chances are, I've already tried it out. I do this not only because I love it, but because I know that this type of learning pays dividends in the most valuable currency of all: my time and attention.

To whit: every day, the technological systems I've set up in my business process hundreds of emails that I don't need to see. Tasks get automagically moved around our project management software, notifications show up in our communications suite, and customers get tens of thousands of emails – all without a human having to do anything. The files on my computer – from clutter and old screenshots to important invoices – are always put exactly where they should be- without me even knowing it's happening. If I had to guess, I'd say that I alone save about 2 hours per day because of automation – and the same is likely true for each member of my staff.

Yes, getting here took a lot of time. Learning about all of the possibilities out there, from Zapier, IFTTT, Hazel, and WorkFlows, to ActiveCampaign, Alexa, and TexAu, takes time. Setting up these systems takes more time still. And yet, if I had to guess, I would say that I'm batting a 3 or 4 to 1 average on time saved. Granted, a lot of that time is in increments of 1-5 seconds here or there. But as my friend and fellow productivity wunderkind Nick Sonnenberg teaches, seconds add up to hours – even days – when you're talking about tasks you do repeatedly. More important than the time I save, though, is the attention. My attention is directed only at high-value activities like writing, creating, or thinking- not dragging files and emails into the right folders.

This skill set has an economic incentive, as well. My company – a seven-figure media empire in its own right – is able to thrive with significantly less labor costs than it would if human beings had to do all the things that get done on a daily basis. Don't you love it when you can translate learning to earning?

Expanding Your Knowledge Of The World

Of course, it's not all about dollars and cents or minutes saved, and as you would expect, a lot of the benefits of learning are intangible. They are things like the joy of understanding the history of a country before you visit it, the confidence to converse with an expert on a topic you're interested in, and the ability to do your own thinking based on your own conclusions.

Since acquiring the SuperLearner® skill set, I've gone down a lot of learning rabbit holes – often for no reason besides the sheer enjoyment of learning. I've learned about everything from quantum mechanics, cryptocurrency, and astrophysics to pre-history, human evolution, and sexuality. I've read dozens of biographies of some of history's most interesting individuals, and soaked up classic fiction and literature. In many of these cases, I'll never know if any of this learning has enriched my bank account. But I can say with absolute certainty that it's enriched my life.

Profiting From Your Knowledge & Helping Others

In some cases, however, my knowledge has significantly benefitted me financially. Take, for example, my years and years of studying productivity strategies and methodologies – which I turned into a bestselling course on productivity. Or my years of researching endocrine health, which became this course on testosterone. Even more esoteric, I once spent 6 months obsessively learning everything I could about cryptocurrency, which I turned into an entire side business.

One of the best parts of my job (and the job of any online content creator) is that we effectively get paid to learn. I go out there into the world, learn things that inspire, fascinate, and motivate me, and then, I teach them to others. Pretty cool, right? Of course, none of this would be possible if I couldn't first soak up the information like a sponge.

Learning Languages

Another “just because” learning project I've taken on is learning languages. Sure, I have no practical use for learning Russian as a fourth language, but that hasn't stopped me! Though I made many crucial mistakes along the way, these mistakes taught me even more about learning. I even chronicled these failures – and how to avoid them – in my latest book, The Only Skill That Matters.

All learning has value – in the same way that all exercise has value.

This, in fact, proves a point that I've been saying for years. All learning has value – in the same way that all exercise has value. It's impossible to know how learning something will benefit you in the future. Perhaps, one day, I'll need to learn German, and will lean heavily on my understanding of the Russian grammatical case system. Perhaps I'll decide to learn French, and will leverage the lessons I made through trial-and-error with Russian. My point is this: whatever you are interested in learning, it's always valuable – even if it's just as practice.

Musical Instruments

By far, one of the most challenging, yet enriching, challenges I've faced was learning music. In my never-ending quest to learn more and apply my skills to more and more esoteric things, I took up piano in 2017. Though I'd dabbled a bit with guitar in the past, I found piano to be a completely foreign beast – and I loved it. Soon, I began learning to read music, memorizing things like the circle of fifths, and buying stacks of books of sheet music.

Make no mistake about it: I'm no virtuoso. But after just a couple of months of practice, I can now confidently figure out just about anything I want to on the piano or guitar – and that's a whole lot of fun.

Fun & Exciting Ways To Use Your Body

Earlier on, I mentioned how I used learning to solve all sorts of aches and pains. Well, with all of that out of the way, I was free to try out all sorts of things that were previously unthinkable. Most notably, I've gone deep on olympic weightlifting, acro yoga, and indoor skydiving. While these might seem tremendously different, it's actually striking how similar they are, from a learning perspective. In each of these endeavors, I was able to leverage my previous knowledge of kinesiology and functional movement to climb their respective learning curves – fast. In the case of acro yoga, in fact, I was faced with another challenge altogether: after about 7 months of intensive practice and learning, I found myself completely bored and lacking new challenges. Fortunately, there's always something new to learn…

Finding, Creating, and Nurturing a Healthy Relationship

By far the most important “learning challenge” I've ever faced was finding a healthy and loving relationship. As I chronicled in this popular blog post, I was single for no less than 9 years before deciding to “learn” my way into a relationship. After years of frustration, I changed my mindset from “I just haven't met the right person” to “I just haven't become the right person.” Shortly thereafter, I met Limmor – my now wife.

But the learning didn't stop there. As our relationship progressed, I had to unlearn quite a few habits, behaviors, and beliefs. It seems obvious to me now, but 5 years ago, I had absolutely no idea how much learning was involved in a healthy relationship. And this isn't just learning new habits, thought patterns, or communication skills: it's also learning more and more about your partner. To my great fortune, Limmor was and is a patient and compassionate teacher – though I still have much to learn!

Investing

For many, many years, I accepted the fact that I was much better at making money than investing it. By this logic, I took the earnings from my businesses and put them into a bunch of decidedly awful investments (I once kept six figures in a CD account paying less than 1%… for years). For about a decade, my investment strategy was “ignore, neglect, focus on making money, and try not to think about it.”

Then, in the 2000-teens, something changed. At the very shrewd advice of my parents, I made a very smart first home purchase in 2009. Despite what you might think from the timing, I didn't intend for this house to be an investment: I planned to (and did) live in it – for a while. However, when I was accepted to INSEAD but not Stanford for business school, I was faced with no alternative but to turn the property into a rental.

Over the course of the next decade, that house – purchased with just $150,000 of my own money down – made me a millionaire- on accident.

It's pretty hard to ignore something like that.

Not only did the house double in value, but every month, without fail, it was putting thousands of dollars into my pocket.

At one point, before my current business grew, I did the math and came to a shocking realization: I had made more money by accident through investing than I had ever made through working or building my businesses.

If I could make this much money by accident, I reasoned- imagine how much I could make if I actually tried?

I'll spare you all of the gory (and personal) details of what I read, whom I learned from, and the mistakes I made, and instead, tell you a recent story.

At the end of 2019, I made the decision to sell that first home in California, and to do something smart with the money – even if it took more effort. Keep in mind, I knew very little about real estate investment as a whole, and absolutely zero about commercial real estate investment. Understandably, I was a bit overwhelmed. I would have to sell the old house, identify a new investment within 45 days, and close on that property within 180 days – or pay a massive tax bill.

Immediately, I set about learning everything I could about real estate investment. What's the lingo? How do you assess deals? What markets are attractive? Who do you need on your team? How do you negotiate? What do you need to watch out for? How does financing work? How about property management? There were so many questions.

Fast forward two months later, and I found myself on a call with Greg, a key member of my investment team who's been in the game for decades. “I know the NOI looks good, but when you crunch the numbers, factor in the double-net lease terms, and the fact that it's not even a credit tenant, the cap rate isn't all that attractive anymore,” I stated confidently.

“I was thinking the same thing! We'll keep looking,” replied Greg.

As I hung up the phone, I had to stop and reflect. Who the heck was that just now, talking to Greg as if he'd been in the industry for decades? Where did all of this knowledge come from? And why was I suddenly not anxious about this investment, but actually excited?

Reflecting upon this transformation with my wife, the answer came to me in the form of a wonderful quote: “The difference between anxiety and excitement is knowledge.”

And, in case you're wondering whether or not it's paid off? Unfortunately, the deal I was working on fell through – but it seems like I dodged a bullet. Fortunately, I had a backup plan in place based on my diligent study of a new type of investment vehicle. I closed on that deal – and because I had gotten in at the perfect time, I made about 25% back on my investment at signing. Oh – and I'll be looking forward to a check in the mail every month, too.

Remember what I said about learning and earning?

Bizarre and Unusual Hobbies

No blog on all the things you can learn would be complete with some fanciful and fun examples of hobbies. After all, as I mentioned before, so much of the joy of learning is- well- joy. And hey – what better way to show you that you really can learn anything with these skills.

In recent years, I've learned (to various extents and levels of expertise):

• Crochet
• Knitting
• Billiards
• Travel / Mileage Hacking
• Rock Climbing
• Hand balancing
• Carpentry
• Cricut design
• Indoor skydiving
• Harmonica
• Urban Gardening & Planting
• Smart Home Automation
• Animal Rescue Volunteering
• Surfing
• Golf
• …and more

What Will You Learn?

So there you have it. Most (but definitely not all) of the wild and crazy ways I've decided to use this gift I've been given. I don't know what challenges life will throw my way next (read: parenting), but I know exactly how I plan to face them.

Assess. Learn. Repeat.

For those of you in the audience who are SuperLearners (or who fancy yourself proficient learners), I'd love to know: what are you learning? What types of things have really “moved the needle” in your life, and become inflection points in your development?

If you've taken anything away from reading this article, I hope it's not “wow, that's cool, good for him.” I hope that it's instead “wow, that's cool, and just imagine: I can do the same or better.”

Whatever it is you want to achieve, have, be, or do, there is only one thing between there and where you are now: learning.

If you can learn anything, you can become anything. If you can become anything, you can do anything. It's just a matter of acquiring the knowledge.

So- what will you do with that knowledge?