Do It Yourself (DIY) Education
DIY Education?
Do you think you need to attend school to learn about psychology, understand the Bhadva Gita, train your cat to get a bath, play the oboe, or anything else? With the proper habits, it’s possible to DIY, even when it comes to learning. You can learn just about anything you want to learn independently.
There are so many free and readily available educational materials at our disposal that formal education is unnecessary for many. Indeed, you can’t license yourself as a teacher or physician, but there are many things you can learn on your own. Do It Yourself Education is at your fingertips.
Effective DIY Education Requires a Set of Effective Habits:
Follow what motivates.
It’s much easier to study something that genuinely interests you. If you think about it, there are plenty of things you don’t know that you’d like to learn more about. Make a list of these things. Put the list on a sticky note that you can put where you will see it every day. Life is short. It seems long right up until the moment when it doesn’t, and then you’ll immediately feel you don’t have enough time, and that feeling doesn’t seem to go away, so spend your time wisely.
Whatever your topic of interest, there are probably hundreds of books written on the subject. Make a habit of reading each day, at least a little. Find out the most important books related to your area of study and work your way through them. Surprisingly, not every bit of wisdom has made it to the internet. There are some natural treasures that you can only find in books. Whatever interests you, odds are that someone has written a book about it.
There are different ways you can learn something. Fact-checking is DIY these days, too, so use all of the sources you can find. The greater the variety of sources you use, the greater your mastery level: Use books, mentors, workshops, newspapers, and other materials. Find the best way for you.
Verify.
Check the information for accuracy. Everyone on the internet is an expert, including me! Almost anyone can write a Kindle book and seem like they know what they’re talking about. Avoid assuming that everything you see, hear, and read is accurate. You might learn something.
Reach out to others.
DIY education doesn’t mean you need to go it entirely alone. You can educate yourself in a vacuum, but it’s a lonely way to go. Experts are floating around out there that would love to help you. All you have to do is find them and ask. You can also join groups online with similar interests and learn a lot from others that way. One of the best ways to learn something thoroughly is to teach it.
Have a plan. Set a goal.
DIY education requires that you stay motivated. You won’t be able to stay motivated for long if you aren’t seeing results. Your time will be more productive if you plan versus being disorganized. Make a plan. Work your plan. Have goals to focus your intention on and add a bit of urgency to your study. You might decide to master that guitar riff by the end of the month, master 50 Vietnamese words, or be able to do a cartwheel or backflip. Make the goal specific so you can measure your progress, and give it a deadline.
Take a look at a college syllabus.
If you’re interested in a university-type subject, take a look at the syllabus for a course that interests you. You can see the materials used and get a feel for the pacing. It can be a good general guide for your own do-it-yourself education.
Study daily.
DIY education requires intention. There’s reading, and there’s studying. Reading is a passive activity. Studying takes things to a higher level. When you study, you have the intention of educating yourself. You have the purpose of understanding, not just adding facts to your knowledge base. Reading a history book or any other book isn’t the same as studying for a history test.
Peer-reviewed journal articles can also be an excellent place to learn more about the most recent research into your favorite topics and get ideas for further exploration.
Reference sections of such articles will guide you in the right direction to find books and other related articles and probably of interest to you. If you print out the articles, you can highlight important passages and write notes in the margins. However convenient our phones are, there is something about studying that is better found working with paper and highlighters. I have no proof of this; it’s just true for many other people who have tried it and me.
Practice.
If you’re interested in learning a skill, you’ll have to practice regularly if you want to master it. Break up your routine into several sessions a day if possible. The more frequently you practice, the more skilled you will ultimately become. The thing is, practicing is hard work.
People who say they love learning are overzealous in their claims. Learning is a painful process. First, we recognize that we don’t know something, and very often, we feel like we should already know the thing we don’t know, so right away, we start with a certain level of shame, or at the very least, we are humbled by our ignorance. Then we endeavor to learn the thing, but to practice, we necessarily fail several times before we master even the most basic understanding or ability. It’s trial and error, and errors are frequent.
Set up early (and easy) wins.
If you get an early win, the positive feeling will motivate you to continue, so set yourself up with an early success if at all possible. If not, you must stick with the practice until you get a win…just one…if that win isn’t enough to keep you going, stick with it for as long as it takes to get a second and maybe a third win.
Know when to quit.
If, by the time you’ve had a second or third success during your practice, you are not sufficiently motivated to continue, then perhaps you should end the pursuit of this particular skill and find something more aligned to your needs and desires.
Recognizing that you just are not as into something as you thought you would be is as important a skill to have as any other.