How to Self-Educate

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1:58Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I am your host, Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so you never miss another podcast episode. And if you're out there and you're seriously ready to change your life, if you're ready to get rid of your fears, your limiting beliefs, your identities, and everything that's holding you back so that you can take action to change your life. You need to be at my event later on this year called Freedom Live. You can get more information on it at freedomlive2026.com. Once again, freedomlive2026.com. Today, I'm going to be teaching you how to actually self-educate yourself so that you can really change your life.

2:36Because what if I told you that every single day, somebody else is deciding what you think about, what you believe. They're choosing what you care about and ultimately they are choosing who you become. Do I have your attention? Because most people, they think that they're making their own decisions, but they're actually just being programmed by algorithms and by social media feeds and by news headlines and whatever content happens to show up on their phone that day. And the scary part about all of that is that your brain really doesn't care if that program is intentionally coming from you or if it's accidental from just stuff that you're consuming.

3:18It just wires itself around whatever you repeatedly expose it to, which means that if you don't learn how to consciously educate yourself, someone else is going to be doing it for you. And the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your mind. So learning how to direct your own education might be one of the most important skills that you actually ever develop. And so today, I want to teach you how to educate yourself like someone who's really, really incredibly intelligent. And I'm going to show you exactly how most people mess this up and honestly, how you might have been messing this up your entire life.

3:56And then I'm going to give you a five-step process to use immediately on your own mind. So the first thing we need to cover is this, your brain never stops learning, ever. So it's learning when you're scrolling, It's learning when you're watching people yell at each other on reality TV. It's learning when you're watching strangers argue in the comments of someone's social media feed. It's constantly learning and taking in information, whatever it is that you're consuming. Your brain doesn't care about the intentionality of it. It just cares about what is coming in, whether it's something that you're sitting down like a book.

4:28I'm going to read this thing or you're just scrolling through a political post and seeing people yell at each other. Your brain just notices repetition. And whatever you repeatedly expose yourself to is flagged as important in your brain, which is why you can see somebody who spends three hours every night watching people complain about politics and eventually like they become cynical and fearful and they choose a side and they start to hate the other side. Or you can see someone who constantly watches like luxury lifestyle content or they follow of these people who have these big businesses or these 17 year olds who built a multi-billion dollar business and now have all these Lamborghinis within a year.

5:10And they start to think to themselves, oh, I never have enough. Or somebody can constantly consume relationship drama in reality TV and then accidentally start creating drama inside of their own relationships. Your brain is just downloading information. What is it downloading? Like if you imagine your brain like fresh concrete, right? Every experience, every conversation, every podcast, every book, every social media post, everything that you see and have come into your brain throughout the day, it kind of like leaves footprints, right? And eventually, if it's done long enough over and over and over again, those footprints start to become roads.

5:54And those roads done long enough become highways and you start being able to move down those highways much quicker than you were able to when they were just a road. You have to understand those highways become your default way of thinking. That's what neuroplasticity actually is. It's how your brain changes over time through repetition. And you have to understand information itself or the amount of information is not the problem. Like you don't want to just learn more information, like learn a bunch of random stuff. what you really truly need is clarity around what you need to learn. Like think about it, your phone has access to more information than every library in history combined.

6:35So the problem isn't information, it's deciding which information deserves your focused attention. Because most people know like a little bit about everything, but very few actually master something. And the smartest people in the world figure out what they need to learn to get to the next level of their life. And then they focus all of their attention on downloading that information into their head so that they're so much further ahead than everybody else. And so what you really should ask yourself, instead of like asking yourself, what do I need to learn, which is important before you figure out what you need to learn, what you need to actually ask yourself is who do I want to become.

7:19Because if I look at the life that I want in the future, the natural byproduct of who I am will be that life. And so really what I need to focus on is first, where do I want to be? And then who do I want to become? Because once we decide on who we need to be in order to create the life that we want, then we can create the curriculum to get there. So if you want to be a great father or a great parent, the way I'm looking at it is I'm going, okay, I'm going to study psychology. I'm going to study early childhood development. I'm going to study communication. I'm going to work on my own emotional regulation, not just like I'm going to read a bunch of shit on parenting.

7:55No, I want to like actually get very granular on the things that I want to learn so that I can get better. I'm not just going to scroll parenting information on, you know, Instagram, right? If I'm wanting to become a great entrepreneur, I want to study leadership. I want to study sales. I want to study decision-making. I want to study finance. I want to study how to raise capital, right? If I'm trying to become mentally peaceful, I'm studying meditation. I'm studying stoicism. I'm studying spirituality. I'm going to work on learning, letting go, right? So first, what we need to do is figure out who we need to be first.

8:36Then your identity tells your brain's filter what's important for you and what is not. Your reticular activating system, which is your brain's filter, starts filtering reality through that identity of who you're needing to be. It's like if you go buy a Tesla and then you start seeing Teslas everywhere, they were always there. Your brain simply started paying attention to them now that you own one. And we will be right back. When it comes to running a successful business, building better habits requires discipline and real focus. So anything that removes friction and helps you stay locked in on growth, that matters.

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11:51This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. And now back to the show. And so this exact same thing happens when you're learning. Once you decide like, okay, based off of the life that I want to create, this is who I am becoming. Then your brain starts to find the teachers for you everywhere. That could be a podcast, That could be a book. That could be a friend who's really good at this thing that you want to get better at. So first, what we need to do before we decide what is it we need to learn is we need to decide who we need to be to create the life that we want.

12:28And then from there, we can start to build out the curriculum. That way, we're not just like collecting a bunch of irrelevant information for us. I don't want to just learn more. I want to learn the right things. And this is where most people, and I think self-development go wrong, like people become collectors. They collect podcasts, they collect books, they collect courses and quotes and YouTube videos and all that stuff. And that's fine and all, but they like wear it like a badge. Like some people are like, I've read over 300 books. Cool. Have you changed your life yet? Because a lot of people will just read and act like they're changing their life versus actually putting the action in their life.

13:08Right. Knowledge without action is really just entertainment. Like reading about confidence is not going to give you confidence. Reading about discipline isn't discipline. Reading about boundaries is not going to create those boundaries in your life. Like, don't get me wrong. Books and podcasts and courses, all of those things, they're all great. They all help. But if you're just putting information into your brain and doing nothing with it, it's like mental masturbation is really what it is. Your brain only really truly changes through experience, through the application of your knowledge, not just the information.

13:45You have to understand there's knowledge and then there's skills, right? There's knowledge and there's skills. Knowledge is what lives in the brain after reading a book on business. Skills is what is created when you apply that knowledge to your business and learn from it and get better from it and develop a skillset from that. And so every time you perform an action, your neurons are firing together. And every time you repeat that action, those neurons are wiring together even stronger. And eventually the action becomes automatic. And now you've built a skillset, which is what really truly matters more than anything else.

14:20Your brain becomes more efficient at being whatever you repeatedly practice. And so here's the actual system that I personally use, like the five-step system that you can use in your own life. The first thing is this. Consume intentionally, not randomly. Ask yourself, what skill would change my life the most over the next year? And then become obsessed with that. Become obsessed with figuring out what that skill is. Maybe it's sales, for instance. You're a business owner. Sales is your weakness. You need to learn sales. Okay, then you're going to read some sales books. You're going to get some sales courses.

14:56You might get a sales coach. and you're gonna become obsessed with learning about it and then getting on to sales calls and developing that skillset, right? So the question is, what skill would change my life the most over the next year? Not what five skills, what one skill will? And then you ignore almost everything else and you focus on just that thing. You focus on creating depth around that thing because most people, they don't have really deep knowledge. They just know a little bit about a whole bunch of things. When you really deepen your knowledge and then you deepen your skill set around that, you can then master that thing.

15:35And you're developing skills that are extremely valuable in the marketplace. And that is how you become a high value earner. And you can charge much more for your services when you have higher value. So that's step number one. Step number two is to reflect. Every single time that you finish reading something or you listen to a podcast or you listen to a YouTube video, ask yourself one question. What can I apply right now? And then what you do is you journal through what you can apply right now. And from that, you make a plan. You put it on paper. And the reason why you do this is because reflection forces your brain to take all of the information that you just learned, organize that information instead of just simply storing it away.

16:22And then from there, now that we've got it, we can actually start to use this knowledge that we just learned, which goes to step number three, which is apply it immediately. This is the key step that most people skip. Most people want to read a book and then they read a book and then they don't do shit with it, right? Never finish a podcast or a book without taking some sort of action from the knowledge that you just learned in that podcast or that book. Once again, the point is not to acquire knowledge. It is to use your knowledge in action to develop skills. I know a lot of really highly educated people that cannot get their shit together.

17:05They've got degrees falling off the walls, but their life is still not where they want it to be. And the reason why is because they learned a lot, which is fine, but they're not taking any action with that knowledge and that knowledge is not becoming a skill set. And once again, you want to do this immediately. Not Monday, not next week, today. The faster that you can apply what you just learned, the faster that you start creating new neural pathways, and that's real skills in your life versus just knowledge. That's step number three. Step number four is to repeat. One action changes almost nothing.

17:41Repetition changes everything. Actually develop your brain differently. Like think about like learning to drive, right? Do you remember your first time? I remember my first time driving and I was like actually on the road. Like my brain was overwhelmed. It's like the gas and there's the brakes and there's the steering wheel and there's other cars and there's turn signals. And I remember I was, I was pulling up to a stoplight and I like slammed on the brakes because I didn't know how much pressure to use in my mom's Honda Accord. But then like months later, you know, you're like driving around having a conversation.

18:14You ever ask yourself why that is? It's because repetition of something builds automation. Like have you ever driven home from work and realized that you weren't even paying attention the entire time? And you're like, oh shit, I just got home. You have to realize it's because your brain has turned what was once a foreign skill, like driving a car, into a habit where it now becomes autopilot. Everything that you've mastered happens the exact same way. And then step number five is to teach it. If you really want to own an idea, teach it to somebody, teach it to your spouse, teach it to your child, teach it to your best friend.

18:50If you live alone and you have nobody to teach it to, you can journal through what you just learned and teach it out loud to yourself as if you are teaching somebody else. I've done that many times when I I was younger, way younger, and I lived by myself and I was in my early 20s and I was just downloading all this information. I was like, I don't want to just hold on to this information. I know that one of the best ways to learn is to teach. And so what I want to do is start actually teaching this. And so the best way for you to learn something is to teach it. Teaching basically consolidates all the information and it forces your brain to organize it.

19:25And the other thing that teaching does is it exposes your gaps in your understanding where you're starting to teach something. and then you realize like there's a gap in my understanding, you go, oh, hold on, I actually need to learn this thing better. And then teaching deepens your understanding around as well. And so if we were to take like the step-by-step process, you know, step number one, which is to consume intentionally, if we go back to my first example, which is like, I need to learn sales. Well, then I'm going to consume intentionally. Like when I was first learning sales, when I was 20 years old back in 2006, my coach told me to buy a CD that was called The Psychology of Selling by Brian Tracy.

20:04And so I stopped listening to music and I listened to that thing on repeat anytime I got into the car. Right. So consume intentionally. I would consume just anything that I would on sales. If you're trying to learn sales, you can read Influence by Robert Cialdini. Amazing book. Right. So it's just the podcast on sales. It's just the the the books on sales. It's just the coaches on sales. The next thing that you want to do is reflect on it. And so after you learn, okay, how do I get better at this objection handling? The next question is, how can I apply it right now? Well, then you take that objection that you just learned and you get onto your next sales phone call and you use it, which is step number three, which is to apply it immediately.

20:45And then step number four, you do it over and over and over again. And now objection handling, which used to be really foreign to you and really uncomfortable to you has become much more comfortable because you're doing it over and over and over again. And now what was really uncomfortable for you is now something that you're able to do pretty much on autopilot because you've done it over and over and over again. And the last step of step five is to teach it. Find a friend or find a coworker who is also trying to get better at sales and teach. Like if it's objection handling, teach objection handling to them.

21:16Hey, I just learned something. Let me try to teach it to you. Let's try to discuss it. Let's see if we can use it on our next call. and that's how you actually start to really take knowledge not just download it into your brain but take that knowledge and develop it into a skill set because i'm going to leave you with this thought right imagine somebody gave you a million dollars you'd probably protect that million dollars right like you wouldn't let strangers just take pieces of it every single day throughout the day your attention and what goes into your brain is infinitely more valuable than a million dollars.

21:46And your attention is being stolen all day long because your attention determines what your brain becomes. Your brain determines your habits. Your habits determine your identity. Your identity determines your life. So the question I want you to start asking yourself is this, what kind of brain do I want to build? And you get very clear on the brain that you want to build, the skills that you want to get into your life. And then every single day, educate yourself intentionally. Start doing it on purpose to start taking that information and turning it into a skill set and watch how your life changes over the next couple years.

22:24So that's what I got for you for today's episode. Once again, if you are ready to change your life and get past your fears and limiting beliefs and change your bad habits and start to actually become the person who can create the life that you want, go to freedomlive2026.com. Learn about my event that's coming up December 3rd, 4th, and 5th in Austin, Texas. I would love to spend three days with you unprogramming all of the stuff that's holding you back and starting to reprogram into you the stuff that you need to create the life that you want. So once again, that is freedomlive2026.com. And with that, I'm going to leave you the same way I leave you every single episode.

23:01Make it your mission to make somebody else's day better. I appreciate you, and I hope that you have an amazing day. Hey, Chicagoland. The Wayfair store is in your neighborhood at Edens Plaza and Wilmette. Finally, you can feel the fabric, sit on the sectionals, and even open the refrigerators. Plus, our in-store designers will help you bring it all together with free one-on-one design support for any project on any budget. Yep, we said free. Oh, and did we mention the cafe? So what are you waiting for? Come see all that's in store. Visit the Wayfair store today at Edens Plaza and Wilmette. Wayfair, every style, every home.

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