Better jobs and a wealthier lifestyle awaits the man or woman who is prepared to keep learning well after they’ve secured a diploma. All that’s required is the ability to keep an open mind to absorb new knowledge.

The first step to learning lies in disciplining your mind so you can focus on the subject you want to remember. The minds of many people are composed of a jumble of random thoughts. It’s impossible to learn if your mind is wandering through a list of worries and fears.

Many people stop learning. They feel they know enough and don’t need to learn anything new. But this attitude is sure to turn them into antiques, of little use to employers looking for the employee who keeps abreast of the latest developments that concerns his career. To improve learning skills, you simply must be prepared to keep learning.

Repetition is what burns new knowledge in the mind. Book learning is certainly useful. The mind doesn’t retain information easily. If what is learned isn’t being reinforced through repetition, most of that information is lost. Not only do you need to pay attention, but you need to reinforce what you learn through repetition.

In order to learn better, the act of learning must be made fun. Children learn very quickly as they use their imaginations to compare what is being learned to what they already know. A subject that comes across as dull and boring does little to improve your memory and learning skills. In order to retain any new knowledge, you need to be using your imagination and creativity in interesting ways.

Application is an important key element in the learning process. Much like repetition, it means applying what you learn in real life. If you want to learn any skill, book learning isn’t enough. You need to apply what you learn to real life situations.

Many people have limited learning skills, since they limit what they learn to what they feel is most relevant. This is fine to a point, but life demands that you expand your circle to include other subjects. You should be reading and not just in your field of expertise. Learning means broadening the mind through reading and being curious about subjects that don’t pertain to your field of expertise. In a world where the average citizen is likely to change careers three times during a lifetime, it’s necessary to keep learning to keep ahead of changes.

If your diet consists of high carbohydrate foods laced with sugar, fat and calories, your mind will be sluggish and you won’t be able to learn very effectively. If you hope to advance in your career, the best thing you can do for yourself is to eat a healthy diet to keep your mind sharp and ready to learn. The same goes for exercise. The brain, like your body, can’t function effectively if it doesn’t get the oxygen it needs. Exercise stimulates the circulation and helps to improve memory and concentration.

Improving your learning skill means periodic analysis of your progress. If you don’t learn something new every day, you are stagnating. All successful people are constant learners and that’s one of the major factors that made them wealthy. There’s no reason why you can’t improve your life skills by improving your ability to learn.