Podcast 72: Too Much Learning is Bad for Your Holistic Business

business ethical business mindset podcast productivity Jul 01, 2021

I love learning and can happily spend all day soaking up new information. I read a couple of books a month, listen to podcasts, and I’m a member of online communities with endless courses available. New and exciting information is everywhere and it’s easy to get side-tracked from the tasks I should be doing.

The danger in constantly learning is it won’t find you clients and help your holistic business thrive. You can do the new course, read every book and sign up for the shiny new blueprint but they won't work unless you’re putting what you learn into action.

We’re all guilty of this - I learnt how to do Facebook ads 4-years ago, I did another course on it 2-years ago and have I implemented it – nope! Because it wasn’t the priority in my business and when I do decide to Facebook ads, I know I’m going to have to pretty much start again.

Learning as a way of procrastinating

I often see my clients continuously learning to avoid the important and scary work of building their business. They sign up for yet another course thinking it will be the answer and make them a better practitioner or attract clients to their door.

Learning is comfortable and safe and makes you feel like you are doing something productive. There is always something to learn and more to know and learning has become a badge of honour for many practitioners.

If this is you, STOP! Whilst you need to continuously develop your skills as a practitioner, it shouldn’t be at the cost of building your business. Start where you are now and do the work you can, with the skills you currently have. You can add to them as you go but the key is to get going.

I read a lot of personal development books, and I’m able to weave my new learnings into my work as I go. It hasn’t stopped me from helping my clinical clients over the last decade, I just add new skills to my metaphoric tool kit as I go.

Just in time learning

When it comes to building your business, be selective and learn what you need to take the next step. If you focus on the things that are way too advanced, you will end up taking no action and floundering.

By learning only what you need as you need it, it will be fresh and you will be able to implement it effectively. What you learn is then more likely to be relevant as things change fast, there's no point learning something that'll be out of date in a month or two.

By leaving what you’ve learnt for too long means you’ll have forgotten them and will end up having to re-visit them anyway. Like me and the Facebook ads!

Capturing lessons

One of the best ways I capture ideas is by writing about them in my newsletter and blogs - it helps me to cement the concepts. By referencing the source in the article, I can easily find it later if I want more information.

I also have organised reference files on my computer and one notebook that I keep everything in so I can access them in the future.

Create a system that works for you, and make sure it's one you can access when you need it.

Simple steps

Reflect on your business and think about the next step you want to take in it. What learning do you need to do in order to help you now? This will make your choices relevant and help you to take action quicker.

This is where having a simple plan of action will help you - podcast 71 looks at how to review and refocus your holistic business will help you with this.

Instead of trying to gather all the information from lots of different sources, pick your select few mentors to learn from. Commit to learning about just the next step and you will be moving forwards in no time.

Stop consuming and start implementing

The reason your business isn’t growing isn’t down to lack of knowledge, it’s because you aren’t taking action with the knowledge you have.

Often it takes someone external to help you identify and take the right action. Whether that’s a business buddy, mastermind or coach, they will provide the accountability you need.

If this is something you’re struggling with, book a discovery call and find out how I can help you.