The 4 Ways Your Mind Learns & How To Strengthen Your Focus, Memory & Attention

Are you feeling bored, unsettled, or stuck in a rut? Jay Shetty shares his #1 secret for combating boredom. Learning how to learn is the most effective step towards forward progress & growth. Yet learning is harder than it looks. When people know and feel comfortable about their learning style, they are able to plug into that so they can learn faster and better. Today you'll discover which learning style fits you best & how to retain the knowledge long-term. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jay Shetty?

  This episode is brought to you by AG1. Are you feeling September reset too? Shorter days, longer to-do lists, earlier alarms, all those routines you promised yourself you'd pick back up. It can feel like your whole life is recalibrating. And when everything around you is changing, it helps to have a few things you can rely on. AG1 Next Gen is one of those easy habits to keep. It's the clinically-backed, comprehensive daily health drink that supports your gut health, energy production, and foundational nutrition all in one scoop. AG1's ingredients are sourced from quality partners for absorption, potency, and nutrient density to deliver the foundational nutrition your body needs. And alongside a proper diet,

• 0:44Jay Shetty?

  AG1 Next Gen meets 94% of nutrient requirements and it's clinically shown to enrich the gut microbiome. For a limited time, save 20% on your first subscription order of AG1 Next Gen or AG1 Pro at drinkag1.com/onpurpose. That's drinkag1.com/onpurpose. This episode is brought to you by AG1. Are you feeling September reset too? Shorter days, longer to-do lists, earlier alarms, all those routines you promised yourself you'd pick back up. It can feel like your whole life is recalibrating. And when everything around you is changing, it helps to have a few things you can rely on.

• 1:29Jay Shetty?

  AG1 Next Gen is one of those easy habits to keep. It's the clinically-backed, comprehensive daily health drink that supports your gut health, energy production, and foundational nutrition all in one scoop. AG1's ingredients are sourced from quality partners for absorption, potency, and nutrient density to deliver the foundational nutrition your body needs. And alongside a proper diet, AG1 Next Gen meets 94% of nutrient requirements and it's clinically shown to enrich the gut microbiome. For a limited time, save 20% on your first subscription order of AG1 Next Gen or AG1 Pro at drinkag1.com/onpurpose. That's drinkag1.com/onpurpose.

• 2:16Jay Shetty?

  This episode is brought to you by Vinted. Value can be found anywhere, even in the clothes sitting untouched in our closets. That's where Vinted comes in. Vinted is a secondhand marketplace app where you can sell clothes you no longer want and get more value out of them. Whether you're running out of space, moving, or simply updating your wardrobe. Listing items is a quick and simple process. And once something sells, Vinted creates a prepaid shipping label for you. And the best part, there are no seller fees, so you keep what you earn. It's a simple way to clear out your closet, be less wasteful, and maybe make some extra money along the way. And if you've been thinking about a wardrobe refresh, this can make it feel a little more worthwhile. You're not just letting go of clothes, you're getting more value from what you already have.

• 3:00Jay Shetty?

  Give your clothes a second life with Vinted. Download the Vinted app for free to start selling with no seller fees, so you keep every dollar you earn. How many times do you have to tell your partner to take out the trash every single week? So you're trying to teach them through an auditory memory. You're hoping that they're gonna learn by hearing your voice. But let's say they're a visual learner. So you may think that they don't listen. And the truth is, they are listening, that's just not how they remember, that's just not how they learn. And so you keep reminding them every single week, you feel unheard, you feel like they don't care about you. You have to know they're learning stuff.

• 3:42Jay Shetty?

  Hey, everyone, welcome back to On Purpose, the number one health podcast in the world. Thanks to each and every single one of you. Now, I wanna say a big thank you to everyone who has left a review. We have over 12,000 reviews now, it's incredible. If you have a moment, it would mean so much to me. If you go in and leave a review for us, it makes such a big difference to having new people come and find the podcast and listen to it, and making sure that people know about the incredible conversations we have here every single week. Now, today's podcast, an episode, is all about learning.

• 4:20Jay Shetty?

  Learning, learning, learning. And I really believe that learning is such a huge, huge, huge part of our lives. And there are some incredible thoughts that I want to share with you about learning today. Because it's funny that we try to learn about a lot of things, but we never learn how to learn. We try and learn a lot of things, but we never figure out how to learn better. We've never learned how to learn. And that in and of itself becomes a big, big challenge. Now, one of my favorite statements from Alvin Toffler is this. "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."

• 5:05Jay Shetty?

  There is such an emphasis here on the process of learning, unlearning, and relearning from Alvin Toffler. And I absolutely love that quote, but just think about that for a moment. Throughout our whole lives, we've been expected to learn. We've been expected to learn fast, but we never learn how to learn. Now, why is learning important? Right now, you might be thinking, Jay, why do we have to talk about learning? I'm gonna skip this podcast. I'm about to turn it off. I'm about to switch it off. Well, I will convince you in the next 20 seconds that you need to listen to the whole of this podcast. So, listen to this. I was reading the CCSU Continued Education website. And what I like to do is, if I'm trying to tell you why I think it's important to learn,

• 5:49Jay Shetty?

  rather than tell you the benefits of learning, I want to actually share with you the disadvantages of not learning. Because often, when we learn about what might go wrong, it actually enthuses us and energizes us more than learning about what might go right. It's a weird psychological thing that we have in the mind, right? We're triggered by that response of like, oh, I don't want it to go badly, so I'm gonna do it right. So, listen to this from the CCSU Continued Education. It says, "A British research study showed that being bored, which occurs when you don't learn new things very often," and I'll come back to that, "can be dangerous to your health. People in the study who reported being bored over a long period of time

• 6:33Jay Shetty?

  had heart disease rates more than twice as high as those who did not report boredom." We've already learned something huge. What have we learned? That the opposite of learning is boredom. The opposite of boredom is learning. So if you're like, gee, I've been feeling bored. Maybe you've even heard that song, I'm bored in the house and I'm in the house bored, right? If you've been using TikTok at this time. So many people today are bored or we're procrastinating or we're overthinking. And all of that is because of a lack of learning. See, if you notice something about being bored, it feels like you're stagnant and it feels you like you're stuck. And it feels like you're trapped in the moment. How many of you agree with that?

• 7:18Jay Shetty?

  Right? How many of you agree that when you're bored, it kind of feels like you're stopped, like you're blocked? Right? You feel, you feel stuck. And if you notice procrastination or overthinking as well, it kind of feels like you're just going through a spiral. Learning cuts right through that. Learning is about movement. Learning is about momentum. Learning is about pushing forward. And so boredom, the antidote to boredom is actually learning. And also recognize here, it's dangerous to your health to not learn. It's dangerous to your health and your mind and your brain. And we're talking about heart disease rates more than twice as high as those who do not report boredom.

• 8:02Jay Shetty?

  Now, an Inc. article by Brian Wong and the same, he's, he's also looking at a study in the CCSU Business and Development. Right? And this is what he finds, that practicing a new skill increases the density of your myelin or the white matter in your brain that helps improve performance on a number of tasks. It goes on to say additionally, learning new skills stimulates neurons in the brain, which forms more neural pathways and allows electrical impulses to travel faster across them. The combination of these two things help you learn better. And it can even help you stay away from dementia.

• 8:44Jay Shetty?

  And this is the challenge that we find that especially as we get older, we stop learning. If you think about it, when we were at school, we learned every day. Then if you went to college or you started a new job, you were learning every day. But as we get older and older and older, we actually stop learning. Think about the last time you learned something new. Think about the last time you learned something for the first time. It's rare that we continue to learn and yet there is such a need for us to learn every single day from our careers to our relationships. There is a need to learn more all the time. Technology is advancing so fast. Careers are changing every single day.

• 9:29Jay Shetty?

  There's so many careers that exist today that will disappear in the next 10 years. And it's not just things like farming or agricultural work. It also includes telephone operators, computer processors, typists, people even talking about legal and accounting work. It's incredible to think of how technology will replace so many roles and jobs as well. So there is such a need for us to be continuous learners. It's so important. Now, you may be sitting there just going like, Jay, you know what? I've tried. I've really tried in my time to learn more. I've really tried in my time to understand more and I really struggled, right?

• 10:13Jay Shetty?

  You're like, Jay, I don't like reading. You know, it's really not my thing. Now, I remember when I was at primary school, we were always having to read fiction books. And I remember some of the most popular fiction books when I was young were Goosebumps. And you may remember Goosebumps and the TV show as well. And I enjoyed watching the TV show, it was okay, but I didn't really get into the books. But I remember they had cool covers. And I remember trying to read them, but just never feeling connected. And then I remember also being exposed, of course, when I was young, Harry Potter was was huge. And again, like, I never really got into the books. And I know that's really deep for some of you to accept, but it's true.

• 10:58Jay Shetty?

  And so, so many of us might be thinking right now, like, Jay, I just don't like learning. I don't like reading. And the thing we say is, instead of saying we don't like reading, or we don't like writing, or we don't like a specific type, we just say, "I don't like learning," or "I don't enjoy learning." And a lot of this comes because we associate the word "learning" with "school" or "college." Now, think about this really, really honestly, and reflect really openly on this. How many of you struggled at school or college? Like, how many of you genuinely did not like going to class? Right? You hated going to the classroom. You probably never got along with your teachers, or maybe even if you got along with them, you never learned anything.

• 11:43Jay Shetty?

  And maybe some of you are like, "Wow, I studied three languages, and now I don't remember even how to say hello in that language," right? Or, "I studied so much about this subject, and it wasn't even useful." And that's usually how a lot of us feel about education, that even those of us who went to college or went to school, we look back and we just think, "Well, what do I use from that?" And how many of you feel like you don't even remember it, or you don't even apply it today? Why this is a challenge is because, of course, our relationship with learning was built with our relationship with school, because school was the place we learned. But you'll find that people who had parents who traveled with them, or parents who taught them about general knowledge,

• 12:28Jay Shetty?

  or parents who listened to music and spoke about artists at home, you'll find that because their learning was also linked to a parent, they actually are inspired by learning. They're engaged in the learning process. But for a lot of us who connected learning just to school, it's actually quite limiting. Now, one of the biggest reasons for this, and when I understood this myself, I just realized how many limiting beliefs I had because I didn't have an awareness of what learning truly was. And what I realized is that school was not built for different learning styles. In the same way that people write differently, just in the same way as people speak differently,

• 13:11Jay Shetty?

  just in the same way as people think differently, guess what? People learn differently. You learn differently. And I don't even know if you've ever stopped to think about what your learning style is. I don't know if you've ever even stopped to recognize how you learn better so that you can learn more, remember more, apply more, make a difference more. Or whether you just try and follow along, right? Now, chances are that if you listen to the podcast regularly, which I'm really grateful that you do, there's a specific style of learning that you really thrive off, and that's really, really powerful. And that's why we also see the rise in audiobooks now. So there are a lot of people who don't read books, but they'll listen to books.

• 13:55Jay Shetty?

  So some people like reading a book while they listen to a book. I personally like doing that. It's a fun process. But it's incredible that we think we're not smart because we don't do something with the right awareness. We think we don't like something because we haven't really, truly explored it. So psychology shows that there are four types of learning styles, four different types. And when I was looking into this, some of you may already know this, some of you may have heard this before. But the question I would ask you is not whether you know this, it's whether you know your learning style deeply, and I'm gonna go deeper today, and whether you understand, if you're a teacher, if you know the learning styles of your students, if you're a coach, or you're a guide,

• 14:39Jay Shetty?

  or you're a fitness trainer, or you're a speaker. And if you're an entrepreneur, do you know the learning style of your client, right? If you're working in an office, do you know the learning style of your colleagues? Do you know the learning style of your boss? Notice how knowing someone's learning style, yours and someone else's, is not just about whether you can learn more or not, it's whether you can be a better communicator at work. It's whether you're going to make things easier for your boss or your manager, and for the people that work with you. There is so much more to it than just knowing the learning styles. So even if you've heard this before, open up your mind. Realize that unless you know how to apply this in multiple areas of your life,

• 15:23Jay Shetty?

  you are limiting yourself consistently. So here are the four learning styles. The first learning styles, and this comes in the form of the acronym V A R K, as it's known. I didn't come up with this. It's a psychological breakdown of different learning styles. It's V A R K. The V stands for visual learners. Learners who like to look at charts, and graphs, and doodles, and drawings, and images, right? People who need to see something to learn and remember it. Often, we talk about something like a photographic memory, where if you see a page, you can remember that page, and you learn better through seeing things visually. Right? And you think about in school, a lot of us didn't really

• 16:08Jay Shetty?

  get much visual learning. And if you remember what you do remember from class, it might have been visual. Right? There might have been visuals in what you remember things. And notice why when you try and remember something visually that you saw, you close your eyes. You're like, oh, what did it look like? Notice it's like, what are you just close your eyes? What did it look like? Oh yeah, that's what it looked like. You can see it when you close your eyes because you almost have to stop triggering that sense to be able to visualize something from the past. But a lot of us are visual learners. And the thing about learning styles is not that we just have one and we don't use others. The point is we can strengthen what we learn. So some of you may write down

• 16:50Jay Shetty?

  and make notes while you do it. So you can look at something after the podcast is over. Some of you may get a screenshot and write a quote on top of it. Right? Some of you may stick it on your walls to make it visual. I know that at one point in time, and I'm definitely visual is a big part of mine, I used to put like things stuck on my wall, things that inspired me, paragraphs, inspirational quotes, chapters of a book, whatever it was, I'd photocopy the pages and stick them on my wall when I was younger so that they would be front of mind for me. So that's visual learners. To ask yourself on a scale of one to 10, how much do you think you're a visual learner? On a scale of one to 10, where would you put yourself? Okay. And I want you to do this practically. Get a pen out right now, write it down.

• 17:35Jay Shetty?

  If you don't write it down, this is not going to stick with you, right? Write it down, visual.

• 17:44Jay Shetty?

  This episode is brought to you by Whole Foods Market. If you're talking about quality food, you can't forget Whole Foods Market, who've been holding themselves to the highest standards since they opened in 1980.

• 17:57Jay Shetty?

  That means you'll see thousands of organic products across their stores, from the produce department to the aisles. It also means you'll never see certain ingredients. They've banned artificial sweeteners and colours, high fructose corn syrup and more, so you can shop with peace of mind. Shop Whole Foods, Market, in-store or online. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. We talk a lot about intentional decision-making, and that extends to the practical stuff too, like making sure your coverage actually works for your life. State Farm is there to meet you where you are, and they know how sweet it is to feel good about your decisions. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with a personal price plan. Like a good neighbour, State Farm is there.

• 18:42Jay Shetty?

  Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state, coverage options are selected by the customer, availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state. This episode is brought to you by Wayfair. Home should be a place that feels like a sanctuary, a space that truly reflects who you are. But it can be challenging to balance style, budget and endless options. I was looking to create a dedicated, calm space for my morning meditation and reading, but I was struggling to find pieces that felt grounding but could also stand up to daily use. I went on Wayfair and found a beautiful, solid wood accent chair and a bookshelf. Now that corner is my favourite place to anchor my day. The quality is incredible, it's built to last, and it completely shifted the energy of the room.

• 19:25Jay Shetty?

  Plus, you can shop with Wayfair Verified, where product specialists carefully vet items for quality and functionality, so you can shop with more confidence. And if putting it all together sounds like a headache, Wayfair can handle delivery, installation and assembly. Join Wayfair Rewards today to get 5% back on every purchase and start saving on your next home upgrade. Head to wayfair.com to shop all things home. That's W A Y F A I R dot com. Wayfair. Every style, every home. Okay, the second is auditory. So this is what I meant. If you listen to podcasts regularly, if you like Audible regularly, you probably like learning through listening. And I think learning through listening is an incredible technique because listening is something

• 20:09Jay Shetty?

  you can do while running, you can do it while cooking, you can do it while driving. It's a really, really powerful way to learn and grow. And it's also powerful because it's kind of happening and you can kind of latch on to a point that really has an impact on you or that really connects with you, especially if the person sharing the message is really enthusiastic about what they're sharing. But auditory makes sense. It's basically like you learn from listening. And that's why audiobooks, podcasts are becoming so popular today because people realize that they actually like doing something with their hands, like whether they're driving or they're working out or whether they're cooking, but then they can still learn. So you probably have a high auditory. Again, on a scale of one to 10,

• 20:52Jay Shetty?

  which level are you at? And some of you may even say, Jay, you know, sometimes I listen to your podcast twice. Like I listened to the video that you made or the podcast that you made twice or three times. That shows that you're a keen auditory listener and learner. It's really powerful to remember that. And also, it's really important to remember when you're the best auditory. Like I see myself as quite an auditory person, but if I've got my phone in my hat and my auditory sense is really inactive, so then if my wife or my team is trying to say something to me, it may not register as much because I'm so engaged. So it's really important to recognize if you're an auditory learner and what level are you on a scale of one to 10?

• 21:32Jay Shetty?

  Now, the third one is reading and writing. How many of you need to make notes when you're listening right now? Notice how you can still learn by listening, but you like to read and write. You have to put something down, pen and paper, when you're listening and that strengthens your ability. So you may be an auditory learner, but you're also a reading and writing learner. How many of you need to scribble stuff down? How many of you need to write it? I know for a fact that when I write something down, it stays with me longer. So even speaking, and that's auditory too, auditory is listening and speaking. When you speak something, that also means you hold on to it. And obviously, you're going to be all of these, but I want you to rank again, reading and writing on a scale of one to 10.

• 22:18Jay Shetty?

  And where are you on that? So when you're reading a book, you may highlight, you may underline, you may copy something out of that book. That puts you in the reading, writing category. And right now, you may be listening to this and going, Jay, I don't do any of these. Like, I just, I literally just watch stuff. Or I just listen, but I don't go further. And that's the parts that will improve your learning. And finally, you have kinesthetic, like interactive learners, people who have to mess around with something, play something. It's like a Rubik's Cube, it's like pottery, it's like problem solving, like crystal maze. Like, you actually have to do something with your hands and your feet and your mind and interactively be involved to see it make a difference. And a lot of these things obviously include things like learning instruments or learning how to dance,

• 23:03Jay Shetty?

  but also even problem solving skills or math. Like, I don't know if you've seen those viral videos of the teachers who teach the degrees and angles based on where the door is when you're walking in to a classroom, like things like that, where it's so interactive. Right? It kind of brings it all together, so kinesthetic learners. And you may be thinking, wow, I'm really lacking that kinesthetic learning in my life. And that's what I'm hoping that when you're listening to this, you're like, oh, no wonder I thought I didn't like learning because I just keep like reading and I really struggle with it, it doesn't do it for me. Or, you know, all I do is listen, but then I don't write it down or I don't make it visual. So those are the four types, visual, auditory, reading, kinesthetic, it's known as the VAC model.

• 23:48Jay Shetty?

  And I would really make sure that you know yours and you know the people around you. How many times do you have to tell your partner to take out the trash every single week? And you have to tell them, guess what? So you're trying to teach them through an auditory memory. You're hoping that they're going to learn by hearing your voice. But let's say they're a visual learner, they need a visual cue above the trash. They need a visual cue next to the dining table or the kitchen, wherever it is. They need a visual reminder. So you may think that they don't listen, and the truth is, they are listening, that's just not how they remember, that's just not how they learn.

• 24:29Jay Shetty?

  And so you keep reminding them every single week, you feel unheard, you feel like they don't care about you. You have to know their learning style, right? You have to know their learning style. Or, for example...

• 24:43Jay Shetty?

  You may find that you keep visual cues from your partner around the house. Like you may give them a calendar invite or a diary, which is kind of like them being reading or writing. But actually, they need a kinesthetic reminder, which means that they may need a reminder where they have to actively read and write it down. Right? They may need to actually do the writing. You're trying to do it for them, but they actually need to be physically involved. So actually, they remember when they read and write, not when you put it in their calendar for them, but when they put it in their calendar themselves. Notice how learning styles is beyond just having good memory. This is far more than just I read a book and I remember what's inside it.

• 25:24Jay Shetty?

  This is practical life skills as to why we make mistakes every single day that don't change, right? You may be wondering like why your partner just doesn't change? Why your colleague just doesn't change? It's because you don't know their learning style. And I really want you to help them explore it and explore it yourself as well. Now, there are two additional types of learning style that I think apply across the board. So they almost are ways of dividing it. So you are either V A R K in a specific order and you gave yourself a rank. So your rank is the order that you are. So I want you to write it down. So V, what were you want out of 10? If you were really a visual thinker, then you're 10. If you're not, then you're one. Same with auditory, same with reading, same with kinesthetic.

• 26:08Jay Shetty?

  What is your order of learning? So remember, you learn in all styles, but what's your order? Are you K R A V? Are you V A R K? You know, which, which order are you in? It's really important to know that.

• 26:54Jay Shetty?

  Now, the last question you have to ask yourself is, are you a solitary learner or are you a social learner? Remember, this is not about being an introvert or an extrovert. It's about where you learn better. Do you learn in groups or do you learn one to one or in silence? So I know that I will learn really, really well. With private tuition, like one-on-one, personal trainer, fitness trainer, coaches. I really appreciate that one-to-one training, but a lot of people, and this is important because it's an order again, need community, need to be around other people to learn, right? They need that connection. I also learn a lot when I'm sitting on my own and learning. So it's really important. Are you a solitary learner alone? Or are you a social learner? Do you learn better with people?

• 27:37Jay Shetty?

  Again, this is just high self-awareness and really important awareness for your team as well. Because you might find that they're not learning, right? Because you're always asking them to learn things on their own. It's like, go ahead, go learn on your own. As opposed to learning in a group with a brainstorm. I really wanted you to understand that, like I said, so you're either a solitary learner or a social learner. Now, how do you know? Ask yourself when you felt like you really understood something. Were you learning it when you were just reading on your own? You were reflecting, you were maybe in nature? Or did you hold on to it better because you were discussing it? You remember that last conversation you had over dinner or on a Zoom call? Or, you know, when you were speaking with a bunch of people about an issue and it really left an impression on your mind?

• 28:22Jay Shetty?

  Again, really powerful to reflect on when you learn more. See, what this does is it builds your confidence. It makes you realize that you are a learner. You just learn differently to other people. Although we all grew up believing, oh, I'm academic or I'm not academic. And it's like, academic is the wrong word because we all need to learn. There's no one in the world who doesn't need to learn. But knowing how you learn makes it really easy for you. Now, I've been reading a book called A Psychology Book. It's great. I really enjoy it. And there's a psychologist named Herman Ebbinghaus, who said that 24 hours after learning something, we forget two-thirds of it. And you may be thinking, well, why would I ever choose to learn then? Right, why would I ever choose to learn?

• 29:07Jay Shetty?

  But listen to this carefully. Items forgotten, this is what his research suggested from the psychology book. Items forgotten can be re-learned faster than new ones. Which means that if you read something and forgot it, but read it again, you're more likely to remember it. So the process is repetition. This is why repetition and practice are so important. It's said that we need to read something seven times before we remember it. It's why often the number seven is used in advertising, where you'll find that it is in seven different places. It will be on a billboard, a TV ad, a mobile ad, a social media ad. It will be announced by your favorite celebrity and it will be on the sidewalk, right?

• 29:52Jay Shetty?

  You'll see it in seven places, which will confirm that you want to make that purchase. So that's why the repetition of something is so powerful for you. So you don't need to think, oh, well, I didn't remember it last time. So there's no point in me looking at it again. Actually, your repeat attendance is what makes you remember it. So don't think of repetition as a failure. Think of repetition as strengthening. We think of repetition as like, oh, I failed last time. That's why I'm having to do it again. Actually, if you really want to remember it, then keep doing it again makes it powerful. He also found that mastering, like over-learning, means you remembered longer. So it's not that, it's not that your memory is weak if you don't learn the first time.

• 30:35Jay Shetty?

  For most of us, to really remember something, we have to do it multiple times. So we have the wrong perception around learning. We think if we don't learn something the first time after we hear it, then that means our memory is weak. It means that we're not smart. It means that it's not meant for us. It means that we're not passionate about it. That's not true. The truth is repetition is what creates long-term memory. So don't think of that. And that's mind-blowing for me right now as I'm sharing that with you. Like, do not think that because you didn't get something straight away, that it's not for you. Right? So items forgotten can be re-learned faster than new ones. Overlearning makes you remember it longer. And here's something really fascinating that he found. This is Herman Ebbinghaus in the psychology book.

• 31:19Jay Shetty?

  Meaningful things are remembered 10 times longer. If someone has the same name as your niece, or your daughter, or your son. If someone has the same birthday as yours. If someone is the same star sign as you. If someone worked at the same company as you. All of those things, because they're meaningful, you remember them more. So my task for you, next time you wanna remember something is, how can you make it meaningful? How can you make it meaningful? What adds meaning to that? How does it become personally connected to you? How does it become personally intertwined with you?

• 32:03Jay Shetty?

  So when I'm reading a book, or I'm reading about a particular event, or a particular theme, I'm trying to apply that to something in my life. For example, I read about this concept called satisficing, which is where you simplify your life in a way so that you can do an activity with more focus. Right? So the example that's given in that book, The Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin, is of Warren Buffett and how when he's investing in stocks, he'll simplify his life, where he'll live in an apartment in New York. He'll only drink milk and cookies, and he'll be learning about stocks all week, or researching that all week. So he simplifies his life so he can focus. So that story I remember, then I ask myself, well, when have I done that?

• 32:48Jay Shetty?

  So I think about writing my book last year. I think about sometimes researching for my podcasts, like all that time. And then you can remember that theme because it's connected to something meaningful to you. Right? So ask yourself, how can I make this meaningful? How can I connect it to my mom, my dad, my brother, my sister? How can I connect it to my best friend? How can I connect it to a name or a number? All of those things are gonna make it easier to remember something. And finally, applied learning is the best learning. When you share something that you've learned, when you teach it, when you live it and apply it, you remember it much, much, much more.

• 33:34Jay Shetty?

  And that's what I'm always asking myself. When I learn something new, I'm like, how can I test this for the next week so that I learn it even more and learn it even deeper and learn it even better? So that's how I want you to approach the learning process. I know that a lot of people are feeling bored right now. I know a lot of people are not feeling inspired, are not feeling passionate, and it all comes back down to learning. That's the womb, that's the beginning point of all of it, is learning and curiosity. So if you're like, Jay, I don't know what my passion is. Jay, I don't know what my purpose is. Those are far off,

• 34:15Jay Shetty?

  but learning and curiosity is where it starts, right? Learning and curiosity is where it starts. And Leonardo da Vinci said, "Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets." Right? And Albert Einstein said, "Once you stop learning, you start dying." Such powerful statements from some of the most powerful minds in the world about learning. Not about learning something specific, but about learning in general. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of On Purpose. I want you to share your biggest takeaway on

• 34:59Jay Shetty?

  Instagram. Tag me at Jay Shetty. I can't wait to see what you've learned from this podcast, all about learning. Thank you so much for listening. Please leave a review. It makes a huge difference to the podcast. I hope you've subscribed as well and share this with a friend so that you two can learn together. Thanks so much for listening, everyone. Take care and I'll see you again next week for an incredibly exciting guest.