درسنامه اصلی

College Life – Coaching Lesson

Hi, this is AJ. Welcome to this month’s lesson, College Life. Y’know, I have a lot of great memories of college. You may have noticed in the conversation.

While I’m not particularly fond of the education system, I did love the college experience. Not so much the classes but the whole experience of, y’know, being around all these other students, of having a life for several years focused completely on learning but with a great deal more freedom than I had when I was younger in school.

So I loved all of that. And, quite honestly, it was difficult for me to leave that and go out into the working world.

And the reason it was difficult is that after school, in the working world and the world of, y’know, business and organizations, I found that there was no longer such an interest among most people in learning. Most people and most organizations were not focused on continuous learning.

So I found these places to be quite dull. I found the working life to be quite boring compared to college life. And I think a lot of people have the experience that after school, when they have finished school… if they finish, whether that’s high school or college, it doesn’t matter.

But when they finish school that suddenly a lot of adults experience a situation where now they’re less focused on learning, where learning seems to be less important and that life seems less fun and there’s less exploration.

Y’know, typically around that age of high school or college age, people explore a lot of new ideas, new ways of living even. But then afterwards most settle into a kind of steady life doing the same thing.

And this was the same for me and I found it kind of depressing. So after I launched Effortless English, my first business, and Learn Real English, I quit my job. I had a lot of time. And I had a choice ahead of me.

And I thought about “What kind of life do I want to have?” And I thought back to all the positive experiences I had in college and the things I loved about that time in my life.

And then I thought about my other options, which was, y’know, I was suddenly getting a lot more money, and I thought well I could buy a big house. I could buy some expensive cars and I could live like this kind of rich businessman.

The more I thought about it, the less appealing that was. And what was more appealing to me was the idea of being a perpetual student. Perpetual means endless.

And I thought I could enjoy many of the same benefits of college life now as an adult. I could create my own kind of endless college life in a way.

In other words, a life focused on learning and exploration instead of focused on getting lots of expensive things. In other words, I could use my money for learning instead of things.

And that’s what I decided to do. I decided to try it for a year first. For one year instead of taking all this new money I was making and buying a bunch of stuff, I decided no I’m not going to do that. Instead, I’m going to focus on learning again.

So I started going to seminars, lots and lots and lots of seminars. And I got onto Amazon and I bought tons of books. Mostly I focused on learning about business and about psychology.

I kind of thought of it as my own private MBA program, Masters in Business Administration. Not really, I wasn’t getting a business degree, but I was teaching myself business by going to seminars and reading lots of books.

And also teaching myself more about psychology. So in a way I was acting like a student again but instead of going to college I was doing this all independently on my own.

So I did that. Now, while doing that I continued to live simply. This was the other part of being a perpetual student because most college students, for example, live a quite simple life.

They don’t have lots of money. Their money is going towards school and so they tend to live quite simply in other areas of their life.

And my wife and I both agreed we would do the same. So we continued to live in a very small, cheap, simple apartment.

We did not buy a car. We didn’t have a car, in fact, even today I still don’t have a car. I don’t own a car. And we still live in a very cheap, simple apartment.

And I learned so much. It was a great experience. I felt like in a way I was going back to school but without the bad parts of school.

I didn’t have to take tests or exams, there was no stress. It was just the joy of learning and I could choose to learn exactly what I wanted and I could choose to learn from people I wanted to learn from, successful businesspeople, successful psychologists, successful coaches and leaders.

It was fun and it was all the good parts about college without any of the negative parts or stressful parts.

It was a time of great discovery. I felt like my mind woke up again because I was constantly reading and learning every day and that was the major focus of my life.

Also, because I simplified my life, because again I was living like a student. I kept my life simple financially. I had less stress, right? I got rid of my debts and I didn’t get any new debts.

I didn’t go buy some expensive big house. I kept a small apartment. So I had no financial stresses because my life was so simple. We lived very simply.

And that gave us a sense of freedom and a focus on learning rather than acquiring and buying and consuming. And those things can be, it turns out, quite stressful.

And I had maximum flexibility. I had a lot of choices in my life, right? Because I was focused on learning and classes and books. I could do what I wanted, y’know?

We had very few expenses because we kept our life so simple. So we had extra money and I could travel and do whatever I wanted. I had a very free and open schedule as well. It was fantastic.

Now you’re asking, probably, how does this apply to me because, AJ, I don’t have a business like this and I can’t necessarily do that. But you can take some of these ideas, some of the ideas that benefited me and that have made my life so enjoyable and fun and flexible.

You can take some of these ideas and apply them to yourself, even if you’re working in a full-time job or even if you have kids and you’re staying at home with your kids. You can still apply some of these ideas.

I mean the facts are, first of all, that the global economy is changing faster and faster and faster. We can all see this. Because of technology, because of global economic changes, jobs and careers are changing very quickly.

And so, even just to be practical, forget the fun part, just to be practical, just to stay successful, you must be a perpetual student nowadays.

Y’know, maybe several decades ago you could just get trained at a technical school or a university and then get a job in a certain career, a certain field, and then you could work in that career for most of your life and you never really had to continue going back to school.

You might learn a few new things but things didn’t change quite as fast. But now, with the technology changing so quickly, with the global economy changing so quickly, in just a few years, just 3, 4, 5 years, your career, your job can change dramatically.

Your company, if you’re working for someone else, can change very, very quickly. There’s constantly new things to learn, new software, new technology, new hardware, new ways of doing business, new markets. All of these things, changing, changing, changing quickly.

Just to keep up, just to stay successful, if you’re successful now, you must continually be learning. You must constantly be studying. You must be a perpetual student just to survive, just to stay on top.

Another way to think about this, and this is how I think about it, I think of learning and skills and money and finances, I think of them in terms of depreciation and appreciation.

These words have a few different meanings and uses. For example, in business and in accounting. But what it basically is depreciation means that the value of something goes down over time.

For example, if you buy a computer today, let’s say for 3,000 dollars. You have a 3,000 dollars computer. Today it’s worth 3,000 dollars. What happens next year? Is it worth more or less? Less, right?

Because, because technology’s constantly getting better, people don’t want to buy an old computer. So maybe after a year your computer’s only worth 2,000 dollars.

And let’s say after 5 years, is it worth more or less? Less again, right? It goes down even more. Maybe it’s only worth 1,000 dollars.

And after 10 years your computer is almost worthless, right? So it depreciates. The value goes down over time.

This also happens with what… cars. Cars depreciate. You buy a car at 20,000 dollars and then after 10 years it doesn’t go up in value, it goes down. Most cars depreciate in value.

And the truth is, most things depreciate. There are some exceptions. If you’re good at buying real estate and you know what you’re doing, then you can buy real estate and it can appreciate, the opposite.

Appreciate is something that becomes more valuable over time. So maybe you buy at 1,000 dollars and then 5 years later it’s worth $2,000. And then 10 years later it’s worth 10,000, whatever. The value increases over time.

This can be quite complex if we’re looking at business, but let’s just look at two basic categories, two ways you can spend your money, and see which is a better investment.

And the way I think about is this: in general, things, physical things, usually depreciate. They usually lose their value over time. Clothes, even very, very expensive clothes, they usually lose their value.

So if you are making money and you’re buying really nice clothes, 10 years from now those clothes are worth less money, usually much less, perhaps worthless. Cars, as I mentioned, they lose value over time.

Houses, it depends, y’know. It depends on the market. You have to know what you’re doing with real estate. But with most things, computers, phones, televisions, most things lose their value over time.

On the other hand, knowledge and skills tend to appreciate. They tend to become more and more valuable. They can help you, in other words, make more money over time.

So let’s say right now you have zero computer ability. If you go and you spend money to take some computer classes or to train yourself and you learn how to program, to do some basic computer programming.

That skill will allow you to make money. So you might spend 5,000 dollars on training, but then that would allow you to get a job that maybe pays you 30,000 dollars every year. It would appreciate.

Every year you’d make more money, so the value of that class, of that learning, of that knowledge, gets bigger and bigger and bigger. It goes up, up, up, up, up.

Knowledge and skills usually appreciate. Yes, there are exceptions, of course, but generally knowledge and skills are a better investment for the long term.

The more you learn, the more you can do, the more skilled you are in different areas, the more potential you have to make money, to help other people, to have more choices in life. It’s not just about money, it’s also about having more choices in life to do what you want.

This is why I think that being a perpetual student is an intelligent way to invest much of your time and money. Rather than buying things, buy knowledge, buy training, buy new skills.

It’s the same with time, if we look at time instead of money. Instead of spending your time, y’know, getting things, spend more of your time learning things, learning skills, learning knowledge because the knowledge and the skills will appreciate over time. You’ll get more and more and more value from them as time goes on.

That is one of the great advantages of being a perpetual student.

So what can you do this month? Here’s your assignment. Number one, go back to school. It’s time to go back to school.

Now I don’t mean actually go back to a college. You don’t have to do that. If you want to, sure, go take a class, that’s fine. But I mean just go back and focus on an intensive period of learning.

Learn something. Dedicate some of your time and some of your knowledge to being a perpetual student.

Decide what you want to learn, some knowledge or some skill, or both. And then be a perpetual student for a while.

That requires two things. Number one, of course, is focus on having an intensive learning period. That could be one month, three months, it could be a whole year or more.

But intensive meaning you’re going to spend several hours every day focused on learning. This might be learning English or it could be learning English and other things, it’s up to you.

The second part of this, the second part of being a perpetual student, is you’re going to cut some of your burdens. You’re going to cut some of your liabilities.

In other words, you’re going to simplify your life a little bit. Cut some expenses if you can. Look at your budget, how do you spend your money. Try to cut back some of them.

See if you can get rid of some of your debt. See if you can get rid of some of your expenses. See if you can spend less money on some things. Simplify your life, right?

Students usually live a simpler life. So during your period as a perpetual student, make your life a bit simpler. So simpler life and an intensive focus on learning. That’s what you’re going to do.

The advantage of this, number one, knowledge and skills, they can’t be taken away from you. If you buy a car, the car can be destroyed in a crash. The car can and the car will usually depreciate. It’ll lose value over time.

But your knowledge and skills, no one can take it away. Once you have that skill and knowledge, it’s yours for life.

Another advantage is that the knowledge and skills you learn during this time as a student can bring you greater successes. Some successes you might not even imagine right now in the future.

Six months from now, a year from now, three years from now. That knowledge, that skill will bring you great rewards.

So choose what you’re going to learn and choose your time period for intensive learning and simplify your life a bit. Be a perpetual student.

I’ll see you next time. Have a great day. Bye for now.