Become Someone Who Craves Knowledge

Fake it ‘til you make it is a popular phrase. It means that you pretend to have the confidence you need until you develop that mindset for real. But more often than not, a lack of confidence stems from not having the knowledge that you need in a particular area.

By craving and then absorbing valuable, relevant knowledge, you can become confident and strong in whatever you want to pursue. You’ll grow your belief in yourself as well as your abilities.

Why Learning Matters

You might be like a lot of other people and think of knowledge and associate that with your traditional classroom or college experience. But that’s formal education. While you might learn, learning while you’re hands on is different and better.

Obtaining knowledge gives you several benefits in whatever area of your life it is that you’re wanting to change or expand. When you learn, your brain undergoes changes. It opens up new neural pathways.

So that means it starts to make connections that you wouldn’t have made otherwise. For example, learning to eat healthy because you want to lose weight teaches you to balance your calories.

It teaches you about nutrition, portion control, and nutrients. Things you may not have understood or known before. Once you open up your neural pathway in one area, your brain begins to apply that to other areas.

For example, then your brain starts picking up other skills like understanding the budgeting skills necessary to make a difference in your finances. And before you know it, you’re out of debt and have a savings account.

You’re no longer living paycheck to paycheck or having to worry about your financial future. That’s because learning in any area causes you to look at the world around you and ask questions.

It can change the way you view things. Let you see solutions to problems. Learning brings you fresh ideas and this can help you make the changes you need. Think of it like having a savings account.

The more learning you put into the account, the more knowledge that you have to withdraw from when you come up against an obstacle. You create what you crave. If you crave a salty snack every night and give in to that craving, then you’ll expect that salty snack.

But what if you stop eating it? Then you’ll crave it for a few days or weeks, and then the craving stops. It’s the same way with learning. If you’re consistently learning, you create a craving for knowledge.

If you do it every day, then your mind begins to crave more and more. What happens when you don’t learn is that you can stay stuck in the same old ideas, trying to use the same paths to success that have consistently failed you in the past.

It’s like the person who wants a better career but never does anything to learn new skills. Action steps create your future. But so does inaction. You either want to change your life or you don’t and what you do or don’t do proves that.

7 Reasons Why You Should Gain Knowledge

There are many reasons why knowledge should be a pursuit. First, it’s because when you gain knowledge, you advance in whatever area you get informed about. That especially applies to the area of your career.

You must stay in the know when it comes to what’s evolving in your niche or field of work because knowledge is power. It’s also your leverage to better pay and promotions. There’s nothing worse than the guy who’s five years behind the latest data or technology.

Don’t treat your capacity and need for knowledge like those clinging to outdated technology. You know those people. They’re the ones who have a huge outcry whenever new tech is released.

Like when DVDs came on the scene and they held tight to their VHS tapes. They didn’t want to let go and learn about this new way of entertainment options. Why? Because people are afraid of what they don’t know.

They want to stick with that they believe works even if there’s something that can make their life or their job a lot easier. So don’t hold onto a VHS mentality. It doesn’t matter what field you’re in.

If you’re not the one craving knowledge and learning, you won’t advance. You’ll be the guy stuck in the same position until you retire. That is, if the company keeps you that long.

Second, when you’re someone who’s willing to go after knowledge, it shows that you’re open to new ways of doing thing, to learning new things - and this is viewed as a huge plus in any career.

Companies are looking for people who can adapt because that proves that their employees are open to challenges as well as have the potential for growth. What that means for you is opportunities to climb the ladder of success.

Third, being someone who craves knowledge and gets it can take you further in any career - even if you have no experience doing the job. This often pertains to people who are working a job, but who long to switch to something different.

They don’t - because they’re afraid that their lack of experience will hold them back. If that’s you, here’s something that you need to know: if you know how to do the job, you can still convince those who do the hiring that you’re capable even if you don’t have the experience.

If you go into business for yourself, you can still prosper as long as you have the knowledge. Experience is what comes after you gain the knowledge, but too many people get that backward.

Don’t be one of those individuals. Not if you truly want success. All experience means is that you learned something that you could then put into action. Start with the information and go from there.

Fourth, knowledge can affect every area of your life because it can be used to improve. Look at your relationships, for example. Say you want to improve your relationship with your partner.

If so, strive together to learn something new. It creates a closeness as well as a common interest. It also gives opportunity for communication. Many studies have shown that couples who learn new things together have fewer disagreements, are happier and their relationship is strengthened.

Fifth is that when you crave knowledge, you become happier. There’s a scientific reason behind this even if gaining the knowledge is difficult. When you achieve what it is you set out to learn, it creates a feeling of accomplishment and you develop a sense of deep satisfaction. It also helps make you realize that you can do whatever you set out to learn about.

Sixth is that craving knowledge can lead to a raise in your worth. Companies wants the knowledge of the people like yourself who know how to rise to challenges, can handle tasks and are prepared to adjust to whatever they face.

You are the value that the company seeks. When you know what you’re capable of and can perform whatever needs to be done, you become the employee that the company absolutely can’t manage without.

Seventh is how you transfer the knowledge that you gain. Knowledge is never static. It’s always evolving. You gain it, then you apply it and someone benefits from it. Sometimes that someone is you or a spouse or a friend or your family.

It can be the company you work for or it can be your own business and its customers. When you apply what you learn, success will occur. That’s because knowledge is power.

It always increases the potential of whoever has it. When you obtain knowledge, you can teach others. You can lead a team of people in your career. You can inspire them to become great leaders.

You can boost the profits where you work, find solutions to problems through a collective mind because your knowledge empowered others. You can also put that knowledge to use in your own business.

You can teach clients and show your audience how to do something. By passing your knowledge on to someone else in the company’s team, in your family, to your friends, or your romantic relationships, you help to grow that person.

Then in turn, they will use that knowledge to help improve someone else’s life. You want to crave knowledge and you want to make gaining it a part of your life on a daily basis.

Sometimes people say they don’t have time to add knowledge because they’re too busy. But that’s just an excuse and if that described you, then look at your schedule - you can find ten minutes somewhere.

Because all it takes is ten minutes at a time to learn a new subject, a new skill, or a new way of looking at a problem or situation. So, invest in knowledge because what you’re really investing in is yourself.

Resources and Learning Opportunities for You

The number one thing that a lot of people say about learning is that they don’t know where to go. They don’t have any idea where to turn to grow their knowledge. But they say they crave information and genuinely want to improve or change their lives.

This might be harsh, but if you wanted that, you’d find a way. An excuse comes too easily for those who deep down think about changing their life, but in the end don’t really want it because they’re plugging along where they are.

But if you really do want it, then you can find ways to add to your knowledge. It’s not like back where the world was a hundred years ago where educational choices were limited as to where you could go.

Plus, even just getting there could be impossible if you lived too far from a town or city and it was winter. Now, you have options to find knowledge at state colleges, at private colleges or at technical schools.

You can go there and study in a classroom. But you can also stay in the comfort of your own home and still gain the knowledge that you seek by taking classes online. And the great thing about being at college in person or online is that you don’t even have to take years to get a degree.

You don’t even have to get a degree. Many of those places offer continuing education. You can just take a class in a particular subject that you want to know more about. The good thing is that if you choose to gain your knowledge through online learning, you have multiple choices right at your fingertips.

Everything is located in one central place because sometimes you can find sites that offer many different subjects for you to learn under one umbrella. Some of the sites that you’ll find that will offer courses or classes are going to be paid ones.

You’ll find that the price is going to vary from affordable to sticker shock. You have to determine if the price is worth what you’re going to gain from the material. Keep in mind that some of the courses that are expensive are priced that way because they’re connected to colleges.

But that also means that you may be able to receive financial aid if you need it. When determining which course to take, you want to make sure that your instructor or the lessons are ones that are taught or given by someone who’s walked the walk.

It’s one thing to talk about starting a business, but it’s quite another to have done that and then taught it. So make sure the material isn’t something that’s given based on theory but by someone who’s “been there, done that” because they’ve walked the path you want to take.

The thing about courses is that you can also find some free resources that can be just as good at the paid ones. What it all comes down to is the instructor’s skill and expertise.

There are some knowledge sites that offer a certification option. If you plan to use your knowledge professionally, this can be helpful. For example, if you want to become a freelance graphic designer, then getting the certificate can benefit you when you advertise for clients.

But if you’re just looking to develop the skills so you can make graphics for your website, then the certification won’t be as a big of a deal. Your portfolio and ratings will matter more.

The places that you can go online to gain knowledge are pretty varied. You would first look up the knowledge you want to gain such as photography, copywriting, gardening, nutrition, etc.

Then you would match that to a site that teaches courses on the topic. You can find these sites at places like Udemy.com. This one can teach you about web development, landing pages, adobe photoshop, financial analyzing, IT skills, management skills, copywriting and more.

You can also find things to learn on Skill Share. Some of the classes you can take include graphic illustration, creating logos and book cover design. But you can also learn about personal branding, social media development, advertising, HTML, SEO and CSS.

You can learn app design, bookkeeping, entrepreneurship, writing nonfiction, fiction or freelance writing. Coursera is a site that teaches courses taught by experts in the field of business, information, computers, personal development and more.

These classes may be taught by someone in the business or by a college. They do offer links for online degrees. You can learn things like leadership, marketing, data engineering, languages, English, business growth, psychology and a lot more.

But you can also gain knowledge directly through a mentor site. This would be something like taking a business mastermind course from someone who’s in the field that you’re in or want to be in.

Many entrepreneurs offer books, courses or one-on-one lessons to show others how to do what they did. You can learn anything that you want to know and then put that knowledge to work for you.