[Index: INTRO, Step 1, 1b, 2, 3, 3b, 4, 5, 6, 6b, 7, 8, 9, 9b, 10, 10b, 11, 12]

Learn Less. Study More.

As the chief champion of self-education and continual learning, this probably sounds like an odd statement, but here is the conundrum I think we find ourselves in. For any SUCCESS reader, and certainly anyone reading this blog, learning is not what we lack; in fact, it might be what’s bottlenecking us.

Beyond CDs, DVDs and books, we also live in an age of e-zines, blogs, RSS feeds, personalized readers, Digg, Facebook, Twitter, et al. We have a never-ending flow of ideas, tips, quotes, suggestions and advice being constantly pumped at us. Swimming in a sea of infinite information, we paddle like crazy just to keep our nose above water. It can be exhausting, right?

We read an article and then move on to the next. We listen to an audio and then seek the next. We finish a book and then start the next….

Therein lies the problem: We are reading a lot, seemingly learning a lot, but never really stopping long enough to digest, contemplate, act, review and improve on anything we have just learned.

As you know, knowledge is not power; it is the potential of power. What you do with knowledge is where the power lies. Never before have we had a society filled with so many knowledgeable failures.

We do not lack for knowledge; it is everywhere and most of it is entirely free. What we lack is real growth, improvement and development.

Let me clear up any misconceptions: I think it is good to constantly surround yourself with and feed your mind new ideas, inspiration and positive input, but don’t mistake that for growth—there is a difference.
Positive input is good to keep your thoughts, expectations and attitude positively energized. But it can also cause two challenges:

1. You expect to use all the ideas and get overwhelmed, thus becoming mentally paralyzed and unable to act on anything.
2. You mistake reading and keeping up with the action as improvement.

Learning is not the problem; lack of real study and implementation is.

Don’t just read a book and put it down. Read it, summarize the key ideas and then write out how you are going to implement those ideas into your life. Now act, review and improve. Act again, review and improve, etc., until those ideas have affected results in your life.

I suggest a study and growth plan under these time parameters:

21 days—Pick a new discipline, behavior or habit you want to form, and then commit to it for a minimum of 21 days. You might pick many of the tips you have discovered during this 12-step process, such as checking e-mail only twice a day, getting up at 5 a.m., planning your time chunks the night before, having a healthy breakfast or anything else. Twenty-one days is a short enough period of time to give you hope of completion, but long enough to form a new habit.

I also suggest that you only work on one or two new habits or disciplines at a time. That’s a minimum of 17 new disciplines and habits you can form in a year—that would revolutionize your life!

90 days—Pick a theme of growth to work on, and then commit to it for 90 days. In Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, Verne Harnish talks about having a quarterly theme for your business. I think you should do that with your life as well. This could be a “Get Fit” theme (you can still join the FIT for SUCCESS Challenge) or “Magical Marriage” or “Servant Leader” or “Dinnertime Dad”; whatever significant improvement you would like to make in your life, focus on it for a 90-day stretch.

3 years—With focused and concerted study, I have found that it takes about three years to get “good” at anything you set out to improve. Our microwave/instant results expectations falsifies what it really takes for true transformative growth and improvement. One of the most important skills and attitudes you can develop is patience. Give yourself a break. Don’t expect to be an overnight sensation—there is no such thing. Stick with your growth plan; it will pay huge dividends in the end.

5-7 years—This is the time it takes to develop mastery. You can master most any skill, quality or attribute if you study, practice, review and improve over a five- to seven-year period of time. You can become world-class at most anything, but it takes focused study.

Study partner—I highly recommend teaming up with a study partner, someone who is as equally committed to study and personal growth as you. Currently, my study partner or “accountability partner” is my good friend and the CEO of television network NPBN.com, Landon Taylor. Every Friday, we have a 30-minute call to discuss our weekly achievements, failures, fixes, “ah-has” and where we are on our growth plans. We both seem to be extra-committed throughout the week in anticipation of our Friday accountability call.

Congratulations! You have completed reading the 12-step program for personal transformation. Certainly, now the question is: Are you applying it to study? I recommend that you revisit each step (complete archive here), pull out the key ideas you find most important, and make a study, implementation, review and improvement plan for each. One great way is to use the Cheat Sheet on a daily basis to keep yourself on track as you improve your productivity each day.

Hope you enjoyed this series! Lots more ideas, insights and success strategies to be shared on this blog— stay tuned!

-Darren Hardy

Follow Darren behind the scenes of SUCCESS: www.twitter.com/DarrenHardy