This rule is perhaps the one I get the most kickback on. What do you mean I need to put money to learning? Why so much? Isn’t their a less expensive option? Can’t I just do google searches? These are all great questions but there are really two reasons this rule is very important. Other reasons are less important like how this makes others steps work later but I will focus on the main two first.
The first reason is that it makes you invested in learning. By this I don’t just mean that you invested your money in learning, although you did, but that you have an emotional stake in your learning. When you look at your budget and, for the first time, see over $100 put into learning you will feel the weight of that. When you get your first budget with $1,000+ in their you will feel that too.
This also forces you to do something. It forces you to choose learning over something else. Improving yourself over something else. I want to talk quickly about self-improvement because it has a bad rap these days. Self-improvement is anything you do to make you or your life better. Let me repeat that. Self-improvement is anything you do to make you or your life better.
That is a very broad definition so let me give some examples. An athlete who goes to practice is engaging in self-improvement. They are trying to run faster, jump higher, improve their shooting average or whatever they are working on. When someone is engaged in loosing weight to reduce their risk of heart disease that is self-improvement too. You could also be learning how to handle money better or how to get a better job, working on improving your relationship with your husband or wife or… you get the idea.
In other words, self-improvement is not some head in the clouds feel good thing. Self-improvement is a goal you set and then work towards reaching. You can’t just tell yourself your skinny and lose weight. You can use this money to buy a book on dieting or hire a personal trainer to help you lose weight. Think of it as investing in yourself.
But Edwin, I’m not worth it.
Ok. Cool. I probably wasn’t worth it when I started either. You will be when you have been doing it a few years.
The second reason is perhaps more important. No one gives out valuable information for free. I know that sounds weird coming from a blog writer and YouTube creator but it’s true. They might give something that helps you. That happens a lot. But no one gives valuable information for free.
Don’t believe me? how about going to a doctor and asking them to give you medical advice for free. Oh, or going to a lawyer next time you have legal trouble and asking him to give you all the legal advice you will need to win your case for nothing. Try going to college and getting a degree for free. Even if you aren’t paying someone is. No one gives out valuable information for free.
Let me repeat that.
No one gives out valuable information for free!!
And do you know why? Because no one values free information. Don’t believe me? Let me tell you a little story then. I play D&D so I watch and read a lot of D&D content online. Out of all of them, I have followed the advice from those people, who collectively have billions of hours of experience playing and running D&D, exactly 0 times. Why? Honestly, I couldn’t tell you.
I just don’t.
Normally these people are right and I should have followed their advice. The game goes south. Sometimes I have lost friends over it. I almost always discover that I should have taken their advice. Other times I slightly tweak it. I honestly can’t think of a time they have ever steered me wrong. But I never take their advice.
But this one guy, named mike Michael Shea from slyflourish.com, wrote a book. Actually he wrote two books but I only bought 1. I have taken and tried every piece of advice he has put in the book at least once. All of it. Was his advice necessarily better than the other peoples? I don’t really think so. Was his advice more narrowly focused? If anything his advice was hoped incoherently from one subject to the next. So why did I try his advice so religiously but not anyone’s else? It was because I payed for his advice. After I spent my money on it, I wanted to get something out of it. That drove me to at least try it. The same has been true of all other products I have bought online or offline. If I payed money for it I wanted to get something out of it. I started to value the information. By the way I am not sponsored but I highly recommend the Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. It’s a great book.