The most important piece of self-awareness you can learn

It’s unfortunate.

But schools everywhere act on the assumption that every child learns the same way.

But here’s the thing: They don’t. Every student learns differently.

And for students to have to be forced to learn a certain way that doesn’t fit how they naturally learn can be difficult to have to deal with.

In the book “Managing Oneself,” the late Harvard business professor Peter Drucker says,

“Many first-class writers — Winston Churchill for example — do poorly in school. They tend to remember their schooling as pure torture. Yet few of their classmates remember it the same way. They may not have enjoyed school very much, but the worst they suffered was boredom. The explanation is that writers do not, as a rule, learn by listening and reading. They learn by writing. Because schools do not allow them to learn this way, they get poor grades.”

But what about you? How do you learn?

Knowing the answer to this question isn’t just important to know in relation to education. It’s also important to know in relation to your personal success as well.

For instance:

Some people like Winston Churchill learn by writing.

Some learn by speaking.

Some learn by listening. In fact, nearly 30% of the population are auditory learners.

Some learn by taking notes.

Some, like myself, learn by reading.

Some learn by doing.

And some learn by hearing themselves talk.

You may not even know which way you learn the best right now.

But when it comes to self-awareness, figuring out how you learn is one of the most important pieces of self-awareness you can learn.

Fortunately, it’s also one of the easiest pieces of self-awareness you can learn.

So figure out how you learn and then act on that knowledge.

Drucker says,

“When I ask people, “How do you learn?” most of them know the answer. But when I ask, “Do you act on this knowledge?” few answers yes. And yet, acting on this knowledge is the key to performance: or rather, not acting on this knowledge condemns one to nonperformance.”

So how do you learn?