You may be working hard day after day, but not getting any long term success. Stuck in a fixed career position. After all the tiring work of the day, he returns home and spends hours on the phone to relieve stress. It's okay to do it occasionally, but it's not a healthy habit at all if it's a daily occurrence.
This is why the world's most successful people spend their free time learning new things.
One hour per day can be the key to your success. However, the main weapon of many famous people in the world who are on the cusp of success is the '5-hour rule' or 'Five-hours rule'.
Many people including Bill Gates, Jack Ma, Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Zuckerberg followed the '5 hour rule' for their success.
This principle was first used by Benjamin Franklin in the 18th century. The idea was to increase knowledge by studying for an hour a day. Inspired by Franklin, Michael Simmons, founder of Impact, introduced the '5 Hour Principle'.
In his book, 'Rich Havitts: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals', Thomas Corley outlines some common habits of rich and successful people. He researched over 200 self-made millionaires for 5 years and found they didn't watch TV. Instead, 86 percent claimed they read books. 63 percent said they listen to audiobooks during their morning commute.
Productivity expert Chauncey Maddox says, 'It's no secret that successful people read. Usually a millionaire reads 2 or more books per month.' He advises everyone to 'read blogs, news sites, fiction and non-fiction during leisure time. In order to gain more knowledge.' And if you're often on the go, listen to audiobooks or podcasts.
Bill Gates told The New York Times, 'From a young age, one of the main ways I learned was reading.' Bill Gates reads about 50 books a year, and he's not alone. Hailed as one of the greatest investors of all time, Warren Buffett spends about 6 hours a day reading books. Whereas, adults in the US spend only 20 minutes a day reading.
Buffett said, 'Knowledge works like this. It grows like compound interest. You all can do it, but I guarantee, most of you won't.'
President Obama is not the only leader who has credited reading for his success.
You might be thinking, who has time to read books? It is almost impossible to find time between the various tasks of the day. In that case, if Barack Obama can find time to read while in the White House, what excuse do you have?
How to use the '5 hour rule'
Invest an hour a day or 5 hours a week in learning and practicing. This means setting aside time to give your full attention to learning and improvement, without being distracted by other tasks. It's that simple.
While various tasks take up most of your day, Franklin would set aside an hour in the morning before the day begins. Commuters can listen to audio books and podcasts or read between commutes. Or, set aside an hour, 30 minutes at the beginning and end of your day, for dedicated study.
3 parts of the '5 hour principle'
To make the strategy effective it is divided into 3 parts.
reading books
Spend time reading. A habit of many successful people is to read books and an easy and convenient way to learn something is to read books. Most successful people read less fiction, spending more time flipping through non-fiction, biographies and news reports. Nowadays, with the easy availability of e-books, you can read about anything, wherever you are.
Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma said, 'Reading a lot of books can give you a good start on a subject; Which often your colleagues can't. People who read a lot of books are more likely to know about different subjects.'
If you can't at first, commit to reading an hour or more per day. So, you can start with 20 to 30 minutes earlier.
think
Spend time thinking about your work. Thinking or learning to reflect on what you have learned, your thoughts and mistakes is an important task. This could be just staring at the wall and thinking or writing your thoughts down somewhere.
In 2014, a study from the University of Texas found that mental relaxation and meditation are helpful in learning.
Trying to learn too much without thinking about something can confuse you and prevent you from mastering new things. It is important that your thinking time is structured, otherwise you can get confused.
Always try to keep a journal, it will give you food for thought about what you are learning. Reflection provides an opportunity to learn from past mistakes as well as evaluate what you did right.
Research
When you begin to gain knowledge and acquire a thought process through making mistakes or taking on challenges, the next logical step is research or experimentation. This way you can see what's working and what's not; Which is a fundamental part of the '5 Hour Principle'. The reason experiments are so useful is that you then have data, not guesses. Trying new solutions in different areas will take you further.
Set aside some time each week to test your new ideas, no matter how outlandish they may be. Some of the world's most successful products are the result of experimentation.
Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison became leading inventors and thinkers because of their experiments.
Jack Ma's advice in this case is to apply the knowledge you have acquired in real life. For example: After reading a book about cooperation and teamwork you can join a volunteer group to apply or test that knowledge.
A few things to note
When you develop learning habits, you will likely be more successful in many areas of your life. Investing in a reading habit will pay off. However, in this case we need to keep in mind several things.
Don't confuse work with learning
It's easy to confuse work with learning and that's how you can get stuck. You might think that working 40 hours a week is enough to get you ahead, but that's rarely the case. When you're focused on day-to-day problems, you're not giving yourself time to develop and grow. Contrary to the expectation that you can learn something while working every day, the 5-Hour Principle emphasizes intentional learning.
Focus on improvement, not just productivity
You might think, the more productive you are, the more successful you will be. Productivity plays a role in success, but without education it is ineffective. If you're constantly focused on your current job, rather than long-term self-improvement, you won't make much progress in life.
Adhering to the '5 hour a week rule' can be quite difficult, as it will not bring you immediate results. But you will definitely thank it in the long run.
Sources: The CEO Magazine, Entrepreneur.com, Life Hack
Author: Ahmed Bin Quader Ani
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