Want To Learn Something Really Well? Teach It To Others

hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
and it’s a rainy night here in Los
Angeles one of those rare things where
you actually do get rain in Southern
California it’s been crazy and as we
leave this weekend and head into the new
week we shall not speak of the Super
Bowl will we I’ll be ok it’ll be fine
anyway got a couple of emails in the
last couple of days that were very
complimentary I very much appreciate
getting emails on these videos and one
of them was like wow it’s like when you
talk about something you really get deep
and understand and and are good at
explaining and so on and I got another
email to kind of tied in with that about
somebody having listened to one of my
audiobooks and I’m not humble bragging
I’m just saying what I got and they
really liked what I did and I think one
of the reasons that I am I’m good at
what I do and one of the reasons I’m
really good at what I do is that I teach
it to others not everybody has this
opportunity but I am going to use this
video to beg you to do something that
will be quietly useful to you as well as
a wonderful thing to do so there was a
famous philosopher Seneca not an
indigenous American but a Roman
philosopher named Seneca who said while
we teach we learn and there’s been a lot
of research that says you know it’s
great to study and read books or take
classes you know watch videos research
things on the internet even have a
mentor who can help you but when you
really want to dive deep into something
when you really want to get into the the
meat of it and understand it deeply and
get even better and better and better at
it the way to do that is really simple
and that is teach it to somebody else
now they have done amazing research on
this there’s a something called the
protege effect I read about this a few
years ago a
protege effect means that students who
have people other students that they’re
mentoring even little kids learn better
and learn deeper when they teach it to
their protégées than they do if they
just simply learn for their own benefit
if they’re just learning it on their own
and they take a test maybe they’ll you
know they’ll get an A on it maybe
they’ll retain it maybe they won’t but
the moment you have to explain it to
somebody else or show them examples of
how something works man things just like
stick and you get this added benefit of
the questions that people ask you
because you start to round out and
deepen and find the edges and find the
shape of what you’re learning and in
turn what you’re teaching because it’s
not just your perspective it’s the
perspective of the person that you’re
dealing with and so here’s my admonition
to you and I’d love for you to tell me
what you think about this in the
comments below if you know something it
doesn’t have to be acting it doesn’t
have to be performing doesn’t have to be
voiceover maybe you know woodworking or
you know how to use Excel or whatever it
is whatever the the specialty is that
you want to just hone in on something
and see if either creating a class for
yourself or creating some instruction
online is worth you doing or even better
how about going to an elementary school
or a middle school or high school and
offering your services as a tutor for
the kids as a professional especially if
it’s one of these things that you do for
a living you know if you know how to do
something in particular for a living
even if it’s a sophisticated thing
because say you’re really good at
business you know you’re good at certain
parts of business Junior Achievement
kids in high school Future Farmers of
America there’s all kinds of civics
oriented and business oriented groups
that would benefit from your skill what
if you decided okay I’m gonna take a
page out of David’s playbook and I’m
gonna go teach this to somebody I’m
gonna volunteer at the school I’m gonna
volunteer at a community center or
volunteer at Boys and Girls Clubs and
teach what you know it’s going to be
amazing what happens to
your experience and connection with that
knowledge now what I’d love for you to
do tell me in the comments below just
say whether this is something that
you’ve found to be true in your life
give me examples of things that you’ve
taught others that you’ve found oh my
gosh yeah I know this so much better
because a lot of these videos people go
you know I’ve been thinking about what
you’ve been saying but I haven’t had the
words for it and you put it into words
thank you so much I appreciate that
so tell me what your plans are make a
commitment look it’s it’s the new year
maybe you want to help out the kids in
your neighborhood or the kids in your
city or the older teens the people that
are at risk you know I’m I’m always so
proud of one of my coaching like my
coaches the team of Max and Victoria
smart because they serve a community in
the Inland Empire where they teach them
what they are constantly learning about
broadcasting both on mic and on camera
and they teach the kids in the Inland
Empire about this stuff so what will you
do what what do you want to do and it’s
okay it’s like I don’t have time I don’t
know you know I just can’t do it right
now that’s that’s fine but when you find
something that you really want to learn
or something that you’ve started to
learn but you want to get better at it
who are you gonna teach who can you take
that to to get even deeper to what
you’re doing let me know in the comments
below if you want to subscribe to my
channel go ahead and click on my head
there if there’s no head there look
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the latest video I’ve done well go ahead
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latest video they’ll play it for you
that’s what they do here I’m David H
Lawrence xvii I so appreciate you
watching and I’ll talk to you tomorrow