Mentality is the foundation for successful learning. If your mentality is negative and disempowering, it'll eventually hamper or destroy all your attempts at mastering your pursuit. If it's positive and empowering, you'll overcome many of the common obstacles on the learning journey and be a lot more likely to succeed.

Here are three great exercises for getting your mentality right. They will serve you throughout the journey, whatever you're attempting to master.

Exercise 1: Emptying The Cup

This little exercise is similar to when we dived back into your high-school days in an earlier article.

Set aside 15 minutes. Ask yourself: “What is learning?”. Write down what comes to mind.

Then ask again and write down whatever comes up. Keep repeating this process until you've dug deep into the subconscious.

Now, read over the notes you've taken. Look for any themes and patterns that have emerged from this work. Identify whether these ideas have been empowering or disempowering for you.

Now, have the bravery to forget everything you’ve written down. Look at each disempowering item and say "I'm letting go of you for now." You can believe it again later, if you wish. But I hope you'll realise these disempowering ideas for what they are and will replace them with more accurate and powerful beliefs.

Exercise 2: Get Inspired

Inspiration is key on the self-taught journey. Reflect on the previous article on The Importance of Learning.

What areas in your life will you apply these learning principles to? Think 5, 10, 15 years down the line. What could you achieve and how could you transform your life by applying these principles consistently to the areas you chose?

Let yourself dream, letting go of the how-to. Don’t limit yourself by your current ability to achieve those things. It's a huge cliché, but it's true: working hard towards a vision over years and decades can take you places you cannot imagine right now.

Exercise 3: Detraumatising

It's time to reflect on your learning experiences as an adult. Think about the classes you've taken, the courses you've done, the teachers, the things you learned (or didn’t!), and so on.

Get in touch with the overall feeling and emotional tone you attach to these experiences. Perhaps you felt dread, or inspiration, or pressure, or motivation, or a complex blend of many emotions. You can also give affirmations and NLP-style work a try.

What relationship do you now have with learning? How is this based on your past experiences? What ideas underlie the experiences you've had?

Be ready for a huge positive shift in your learning experiences if you continue to follow along with us at Seven Learning.