How to become a self-learner?

Who is a self-learner? You might have heard that someone is a self-learned ­musician, or a self-learned artist. But what does being a self-learned or self-taught mean?

A self-taught musician is someone who hasn’t relied on any teacher to teach him the musical instrument(s) that he plays. I am also a self-taught keyboardist. I haven’t learnt everything about playing the piano or the keyboard yet, but I can confidently play some songs. Hasit Nanda, a popular pianist and a YouTuber, who composes awesome songs and plays them on the piano, is also a self-taught pianist. Even many of my teachers are self-taught guitarists.

This was in the musical context. In the academic context, if you look at people like our parents, who have studied in government schools, whatever knowledge that they have is based upon their own hard work. In fact they have studied so well all by themselves that they can even teach us now, even after 30-35 years. My father and my mother have both studied in government schools, but they can still teach me whatever I need to learn, even when they studied their class eighth some 25-35 years ago. They are also self-learned, if not completely, then partially.

I hope you are trying to understand that who is a self-learner. Someone like our parents, had to become a self-learner, because their families needed support but couldn’t afford teaching their children in expensive tuitions. So it was the situation that made them a self-learner. But today, we students don’t face much problems like these—even the child of a servant has access to a mobile phone. But the problem is that we don’t have that ability to learn ourselves just like our parents had. It has become very hard for us to do that, and our minds often go in distractions like social media.

But how can we become a self-learner even after so much distraction? We can have that ability to do all within ourselves. If we are determined enough that we can do it, then we will be able to learn no matter how many distractions we face. So if you will to become a self-learner, or a self-taught person, then determination and discipline towards your work is a must that you need to inculcate within yourself.

Another important thing that makes someone a self-learner is the desire to learn. If someone is desired enough to learn something new, then that person will do his best to learn that thing, no matter how much opposition he faces whilst trying. He will find a way to get to the knowledge, if he is desired enough to learn that thing. Our parents, they had the desire to learn something new, and this desire led them to become a good self-learner, who can still retain the knowledge that they learnt over 30 years ago.

The desire to learn comes from something that you like the most. If you like to draw, then if you keep that spirit of desire within yourself to draw, and practice with determination to draw better and better, you will find that your drawings are getting better and better day-by-day. And at one point, you can even become as renowned as Leonardo Da Vinci at some point or can go at an even higher level than him.

There is a big difference when you want to do something and one you need to do something. When you need to do something, then you will have to develop this desire by yourself, and become disciplined enough to do that thing. But when you want to do something, then your brain will automatically fill your actions with the desire to do that thing. And you automatically get disciplined enough to do that thing on your own.

But there are times that we need to learn to do something utilitarian. And most of the times, our brain does not automatically want to do that thing. Just like there are many students who don’t like math. They have to discipline their brain, and then they get the desire to learn math. But they like other things, like playing football at the PT periods. And their brain has thoughts that already makes them desire to play football and as a result, they get the discipline to play football.

Hence if you want to learn something on your own, and become a self-learner, then you just need to develop the two-Ds—Desire and Discipline within yourself to achieve that thing within you. With that said, I end this discussion here. Hope you enjoyed and learned something new!