Hi everyone,

According to the definition we set last week, learning only occurs when your life changes. If your behaviour is different because of a piece of information, you managed to learn it. If you're still the same - you didn't learn.

There are three key concepts that I'm trying to learn - things that I want to use to change how I act.

Deserve It.

“Tis not in mortals to command success, but we’ll do more, Sempronius, we’ll deserve it.” – Cato: A Tragedy, by Joseph Addison.

“To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want. The world is not yet a crazy enough place to reward a whole bunch of underserving people.” – Charlie Munger.

It’s true that we don’t always get what we’ve worked for. We don’t always reap what we sow. But the inverse is true and much more important: We cannot reap what we do not sow.

Sure. There is a chance an unforeseen event can decrease our rewards... but if we never provide our best efforts, there won't be any rewards to begin with.

The truth is we have two options: 

1) Do all we can to deserve something - and sky-rocket our odds of getting it. 

2) Don't try to deserve something, and watch our odds of getting it plummet.

So, how do we deserve what we want? I have a suggestion... Enter Tony Robbins.

Love him or hate him, Robbins has been a coach to the best in the world for a reason. One key thing you can use from him is the concept of outstanding effort - the best path to deserve something.

Here's a breakdown of his concept of effort:

• Poor Effort = No Results.
• Good Effort = Poor Results.
• Excellent Effort = Good Results.
• Outstanding Effort = Unlimited Results.

Outstanding Effort is the simplest (note: I didn't say easiest) path to Deserving what we want. 

Review your goals and figure out what amount of effort you're putting it.

More information isn't the answer.

"If [more] information was the answer, then we'd all be billionaires with perfect abs." - Derek Sivers.

I am an information addict. I can't help it. I love reading and learning - that's never going to change. But, I'm starting to realise that it isn't enough.

I am prone to intense procrastination through activities that don't move the needle. Reading a dozen books on a skill is inferior to reading one and testing it

To steal a line from Fahrenheit 451, I was "chain-smoking, chapter by chapter". I thought I was growing. I thought I was become a better person, because knowledge is power.

But knowledge is only POTENTIAL power. The man who has a bias for action beats the man with a bias for learning. But the man who does both crushes them completely.

It's not that you should stop learning - that's a massive disaster waiting to happen. All hyper-successful people are life-long learners.

No. The key takeaway is that more information isn't the answer - it's part of the equation. The answer is action.

Inversion... or, don't be stupid.

“It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent." - Charlie Munger.

Charlie Munger (the business parter of Warren Buffett) is fast becoming one of my favourite people. I'm in the middle of his biography (Damn Right by Janet Lowe) and am in awe of his ability to think well.

One of the simplest examples of his unique patterns is how much he loves inversion. Munger and Buffett have amassed a fortune by trying to not be stupid.

Inversion is a powerful mental model. You might struggle to think of your perfect day... so think of your worst, and do the opposite.

When thinking of how to deserve what you want, it may difficult to think of all the steps... but it is easy to think of all the ways you can not deserve it.

One example I have used in my own life was by reading the top 5 regrets of the dying - and trying to figure out how to avoid them.

Next time you're stuck, consider inverting.

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Thank you for reading. These are concepts that I'm trying to learn, so I hope that they help you.

If you could do me a favour and call me out whenever it's clear I'm not learning from this - that would be great.

Until next week,

Zachariah.