How to Become Self Educated

 1. Showing Curiosity

1.1  Be curious   A Curious mind seeks to be educated. By asking questions, you can find out a lot of things that many people don't know and won't ever know.

• There is no limit to how many questions you can ask, or should ask.
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  Be aware that some people are annoyed by questions. In fact, the less a person knows, and the less patient a person, the more a question will bug that person. The in  it self tells you a great deal.
  

1.2  Read, watch and see things that you don't know anything about. Try to expand your mind by learning beyond your comfort zone and seeing how other people think, perceive and understand things.

• If you only ever see rom coms, go and see a documentary or an action film instead.
• If you only ever read comics, try a novel instead.
• If you only ever see car rallies, go and see a museum exhibition instead.

1.3  Challenge Yourself. Curiosity is about pushing yourself beyond what you're used to. There will be times when you feel really uncomfortable, out of your depth and perhaps even upset when trying to learn new things. This can happen especially where you feel dumb, unlearned or when your beliefs and values are challenged. These are the very times when you should keep pushing yourself to learn and to become wiser about whatever it is you've been aboiding.

2.  Improving the Basics

2.1   Read English literature and improve your grammar as much as possible. Read English from different parts of the world, don't assume that authors from your own country are the only ones worth reading. By extending your reading to elsewhere in the world, you'll discover that even with one language, the thinking is diverse and the ways of seeing the world are wonderfully varied. 

• When you feel more competent in this area, push into other languages. Realize that learning a language is about immersing yourself in another culture too.
  
  
  

2.2 Extend your learning beyond what school or college teaches you. If you're learning or have learned basics in math, science and other subjects, find out what you've yet to learn and set about teaching yourself. There is much more beyond the basics and most of it will challenge you in much more interesting ways than your initial learning did.

• If you did badly at a subject, do not let this hold you back. Every brain is plastic and capable of being rewired to relearn things and to learn new things. Tell yourself that not being able to do math, chemical equations or spell are just things from the past that you can remedy in the present. Then set about doing so.
• Many textbooks for college and high school are useful starting points when teaching yourself or refreshing on the basics. Use these to get you on the right track, then extend your learning beyond them.

2.3 Read daily. Without fail, always read something, and make it substantial.

• Read world history and learn about different cultures. Understanding history is a key to understanding the present. It is one of the finest ways of self educating.
• Read about others who self educate. You will get a lot of tips and ideas for how to continue you own journey of self improvement.

2.4 Be self disciplined. Self education requires very good self discipline. You won't have people chasing you to meet deadlines, to get the answers right or to do your studying. It's all down to you and you'll need to keep yourself motivated. In itself, developing self discipline is very crucial part of self education.

• The key to self discipline is thinking big and starting small. If you try to do too much at once, you'll have a harder time succeeding. It's important to build healthy habits in small increments!

3  Learn With Others

3.1 Learn in concert with other people. There are many ways to do this, all while continuing to self educate.

• Associate yourself with educated people, groups, discussions.
• Join a course or college to get a degree or few certificates at least.
• Audit college level subjects. That means, no exams, just all pure learning. Soak it up.
• Attend conferences, seminars, talks, etc. Just being among other people can give you a buzz, all while learning.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

3.2 Listen to senior citizens.

They have lived through it all and have amazing memories of the things that were. You can, and will, learn a lot from them if you just take the time to sit with and listen to them.

• Should feel that what they tell you is old hat and odd, put aside your biases and really listen. There are authentic human things to learn from older people, regardless of where modern technology sits at any one time.