Do you know what happens if you don’t use what you learn?

You lose it.

It’s gone, forgotten!

And all it takes is 21 days.

I heard this long ago.

Since then, I have proven it to myself through personal experience.

It’s easy to for­get what you have just read, listened to, or watched on a DVD or the Internet. There are many distractions in life, and it’s very easy to put things aside.

Last week, I received a quote in an e-mail that said,

“Knowledge that’s not being used is like having no knowledge at all.”

If this is true, then it is important to start using what you are learning from these and other blog posts right away.

Try one idea, and then another.

Take notes as a reminder of the ideas and concepts.

Reread these blog posts and the notes that you’ve taken while reading them until the ideas are fixed permanently in your mem­ory.

Jay Abraham, the author of Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got (Truman-Tally, 2000), says that he has read Scientific Advertising—a self-published book by Claude Hopkins first issued more than 50 years ago— at least 30-40 times. According to Jay, he pulls out a new nugget or different spin on an idea each time that he reads Hopkins’ book.

How much of what you told yourself you should be trying have you forgotten this week?

Sandy publishes a wide variety of tidbits about marketing and marketing plans on a frequent basis here and at: http://www.FastMarketingPlan.com

Do you know what happens if you don’t use what you learn?

You lose it. It’s gone, forgotten!
And all it takes is 21 days.

I heard this long ago.

Since then, I have proven it to myself through personal experience.

It’s easy to forget what you have just read, listened to, or watched on a DVD or video.

There are many distractions in life, and it’s very easy to put things aside.

Last week, I received a quote in an e-mail that said, “Knowledge that’s not being used is like having no knowledge at all.”  If this is true, and IMHO it is, then it is important to start, immediately,  using what you are learning from whatever source you learn from, right away.

Try one idea, and then another.

Take notes as a reminder of the ideas and concepts.

Reread these secrets and the notes that you’ve taken while reading them until the ideas are fixed permanently in your memory.

“To make sure this goal was achieved, I created eight laws of learning; namely explanation, demonstration, imitation, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, and repetition.”
- John Wooden

One famous marketing Gooroo (I refuse use his name because he doesn’t practice what he preaches) once said that he has read Scientific Advertising—a self-published book by Claude Hopkins first issued more than 50 years ago— at least 30-40 times.

According to this Gooroo, he pulls out a new nugget or different spin on an idea each time that he reads Hopkins’ book.

How much of what you told yourself you should be trying have you forgotten this week?

Did you learn something today that you can use in your business or in your life?

Wherever you go and whatever you do, try to focus on learning something.

Useful information is everywhere—for example, you can find it in meetings with prospects; in attending seminars; and in reading books, magazines, and newspapers.

The information you learn can be applied in many ways.

There is something useful to be learned in every situation, even when you see or hear something with which you don’t agree.

It does you no good to be critical or angry.

These attitudes usually prevent you from learning something.

For example: A former business partner of mine complained a lot. He would go to various seminars and would get upset if the speaker didn’t cover every single item on the syllabus or covered them in a different order. I would tell him, “So what?”

“When you’re through learning, you’re through.”
- Vernon Law

To me, it was far more important to take away something useful from these seminars.

In every situation into which you are thrown, it’s important to learn all of the useful information possible.

Ask yourself constantly, “How can I use this idea or that concept to help to my clients or myself grow our businesses bigger and stronger?”

Every piece of information has the ability to lead you closer to your goal, but you have to recognize the opportunity.

Remember to write down everything that you can while you are learning. If you don’t, you risk losing the idea, and it may be gone forever.

What useful information did you learn today?

Do you have ideas for growing your business that don’t seem “perfect” enough to try?

Are you are waiting for everything to be absolutely perfect? The perfect product to sell, the perfect marketing effort to start, the perfect sales staff, or the perfect distribution network—you will wait forever.

Perfection equals paralysis.

You need to be willing to act.

Just realize that you are going to make mistakes: Everyone does.

“Have no fear of perfection — you’ll never reach it .”
- Salvador Dali

You may market to the wrong target or pick the wrong mailing list.
You may make the wrong offer or use the wrong media.
Sometimes, even when you think that you’ve done everything right, things don’t work out the way that you hoped they would.

Mistakes happen.

The key is what you let yourself learn from them.

I once sent out a broadcast fax to 5,000 businesses for a local co-op, business-to-business mailing. The only responses that I received were 83 requests that said “Take me off of your fax list.” I did not get one positive response: nada, zip, and zilch. It happens. Luckily, it was a small test. At least I didn’t fax 50,000 businesses and get the same results. Now, I can change my message, or try a different marketing approach.

The important thing is that I tried something and learned from the experience.

If I had decided to wait until I had perfected everything, I’d still be waiting.
I wouldn’t have learned anything.

Remember: you can’t learn if you don’t act.

If you keep on trying and keep on testing, your efforts will succeed.

What you decide to do doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to be done.

Action is the key. Decide to act!

Are you allowing perfection to paralyze your marketing efforts?

The following questions should help you to learn, to adjust, and to strive for even better results on your next effort. These questions will heighten your sense of curiosity and help you to move forward, even after a temporary setback.

1. What can I learn from the results of this marketing effort?
2. How could I have improved the response and profits from this effort?
3. If I use this marketing effort again, what should I do the same and what should I change?
4. How can I use the results of this marketing effort to further my marketing plans and to improve my profits?

The most important question that you can ask yourself after every marketing program sums up all of these things: “What have I learned in this effort that I can use more effectively and successfully next time?

Everyone experiences temporary setbacks.

Every setback should teach you some type of valuable lesson.

You’ve probably heard this before, but it is worth repeating: Most baseball players who reach greatness do it by failing 60% of the time. Of course, they are batting an average of .400!

What are you doing to learn from your previous marketing efforts?