Has the traditional model of education left you bored, unmotivated, or made you view learning as a chore? If so, perhaps this perception has continued into adulthood and is now holding you back from being the person you feel you were meant to be. If so, you are looking at learning the wrong way.

Successful people know that personal growth will increase their impact and income. However, many people still hold on to the negative association with learning from their school days and don’t strive to grow.

Here are 4 ways to invest in your own personal growth strategy to help you earn more this year:

1. Are You “Making” Money or “Earning” Money?

First, we have to focus on your mindset. This will help you maximize your growth strategy. Are you looking to “make” more money or “earn” more money? It’s a subtle difference but one that will help you tremendously.

People who want to make more money might think of ways of getting money from other people and forget about helping others succeed first. This is a “me first” mentality which customers and clients can see right through. This thought process usually doesn’t build trust and seems to stunt success in the long term.

However, people who want to earn more money think of ways to add value to others first. By adding value to other people you will become more valuable and then you will see your income grow.

2. View Learning as an Investment

Successful people are ones who are continually improving all areas of their lives. Just like a healthy plant innately knows it has to grow or else get choked out by other weeds and plants, entrepreneurs know that to become better and earn more money, they have to grow or else the competition will surpass them. Growth is vital in all areas of life including health, family, relationships, spirituality and wealth.

In order to earn more money, you must first change your mindset to that of a lifelong learner.  Start by learning something small each day. These little changes add up to big results and become a snowball effect. You won’t know the future impact it will have until you get started. Plant the seed now and watch it grow.

“Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.” – Anthony J. D’Angelo

Here are a few of my favorite ways to learn are:

1. Read a book for 30 minutes a day – Find an expert who has written a book on the topic you want to master. By investing in reading for 30 minutes a day, you will find you can read a book faster than you thought possible.
2. Listen to podcasts and audiobooks – Want to learn in the car, while exercising or cleaning the house? Podcasts and audiobooks are great ways to take success principles and apply them to your life while on the go.
3. Take an online course – eLearning courses are some of the most effective ways to learn. You can learn what works and what doesn’t work from an expert and shortcut your success all from the comfort of your computer, tablet or smartphone. Take advantage of mobile learning, time-shifted learning, video-based training and “gamification”.
4. Attend conferences and seminars – Not only will you learn strategies and tactics from the speakers, but you’ll also network with like-minded people in your industry.
5. Watch tutorial videos – You can learn any skill by searching YouTube and Google. Simply type in what you want to learn or a question about your topic and you will be able to learn from other people who have found success.

3. Get Paid for Learning More

Now that you view your learning as an investment strategy and have recommendations on how to learn, it’s time to know the two best ways that your learning will impact your income. By doing one or both of these strategies you will increase the value you provide to your customers or clients and earn more money. 

The first strategy is to improve your existing skill set. This will make you more knowledgeable, more efficient and know what mistakes to avoid. These are highly valuable in the workforce which enables you to charge more for services you are already providing.

The second strategy is to learn new skills so you add more services to your arsenal. This will help you create additional sources of revenue. With either of these two strategies, you can promote your increased knowledge by getting new certifications, achieving a high score on an assessment or completing an online course.

That way your customers or clients see that you are smarter, more efficient and can serve them better. Imagine how much more you can earn if you improve your existing skills and add new ones?

4. Leverage Learning for Maximum Earning

When building your personal growth strategy, it is very important to determine what to learn in order to be most effective. Do not settle for learning something that will bring a small amount of financial success.

Find things that your customers and clients will pay the most for and either learn how to do it yourself or bring someone on your team that can do it faster and cheaper. In the book, The 12 Week Year, the authors Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington share how to break your year into 12 week sprints. This helps you create focus and clarity on what matters most. It will give you a plan to move forward.

Do you want to be a technician or would creating a system and managing the process bring in more revenue? While you may think you need to improve upon tactics, perhaps you really need to improve your strategic thinking or management skills. In Michael Gerber’s book, The E-myth Revisited, he breaks down how to create an effective company by getting out of the technical work. Usually, technicians do not get paid very well and are easily replaced.

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi

What is the maximum potential for your personal growth? Most people do not know because they do not take the time to invest in their own personal growth strategy.  Imagine yourself walking on a lifelong journey. You will drastically change the direction you go with a simple change each day in the direction you want to go rather than wandering aimlessly.

You can make small changes by improving your existing skills and learning new ones since you have the power to control your own path. As a case in point, make learning a lifelong process and see how your income dramatically grows because of it.

Which one of these 4 will help you learn more and earn more this year? Let us know below!