News < Back To NEWS

If You Change Your Outlook, Change Your Mind, Everything Changes.

Not all knowledge is of equal value.

 

In a world of never-ending noise and distraction, knowing what to ignore is the real skill you need.

It’s all about devoting time and attention to the right things.

So, what should you actively seek out and what should you wilfully ignore?

 

I listen to a lot of podcasts; they enrich my day.

Whenever I’m driving, or at the gym, walking the dog, or mowing the lawn, I tend to listen to two types of podcasts.

1 – information rich, educational podcasts centred around self-improvement, or

2 – Interviews with interesting people or experts in their field. (Oh, and the odd podcast about cars, watches, and sport).

For me this is all “bonus knowledge,” I’m not losing time or effort, I’m gaining knowledge whilst doing other stuff. It’s a win-win.

 

“The information you consume each day is the soil from which your future thoughts are grown” James Clear

 

Read that again. What a great quote!

 

If you drill down into the topic of learning, it turns out that there are two types of knowledge, “expiring knowledge” and “permanent knowledge.” One is advantageous and desirable; the other is distracting and addictive. It pays to be well aware of the difference.

 

Expiring knowledge is mostly “newsy content” like news and current affairs, politics, sport etc. It captures your short attention span. It’s prolific and highly distracting, it’s most social media. It has a short shelf life; you forget about it in a day or so.

Permanent knowledge is content that helps you to do stuff. It helps you to make sense of “the news.” It comes from non-fiction books, long-form articles, newsletters, informative podcasts etc. This type of knowledge has a long shelf life because it sticks and compounds overtime.

 

“When things go wrong, it’s almost always because of distraction. Chasing what’s sexy comes at the expense of doing what’s boring. Consistently doing the boring stuff builds success.” Shane Parish

 

If you’re lucky you have one or two passions. The best way to gain knowledge and expertise, is to learn around your passion because it doesn’t feel like work.

This is how I went from being a PE teacher to a residential builder and developer, through self-learning and gaining lots of permanent knowledge.

 

I read and listen to a wide range of topics, but I am quick to abandon whatever isn’t working for me.

If I’m trying to decide what book to read or what podcast to listen to, I use a question from author James Clear, “will I still care about this in a year?” He calls this “using a wide funnel with a tight filter” when you’re choosing what content to consume.

 

“Live to learn and you will really learn to live.” John C. Maxwell

 

Ultimately it all comes down to knowing what you like and working like crazy to make stuff happen.

 

Thanks for reading,

Stay safe and learn, learn, learn.

David