 We all want a better life, enough money, a healthy and good-looking body, friends and family, a higher social standing in our community and a general insatiable one for more. These can be achieved with the choices we make and the work we put in. These choices may be informed by the realities we've always known or by education. So we live and we learn from our mistakes and we grow to figure things out. Other times we struggle with life's puzzle for so long and we get frustrated so we learn from others who seem to have it all figured out and are generous enough to teach us the ropes directly or indirectly. Follow a format. Do this. Do that. But there's one thing that happens underneath all this when you put all these formats and formulas into action that hasn't been pointed out clearly enough in my opinion and that is unlearning. This is the one way I believe you can make the learning to be a better version of yourself much easier. The upgrade you need comes with changes that aren't so fun. Hi, my name is Kwame and I'm a documentary photographer and filmmaker based in Accra and you're welcome to it's okay. This channel is my attempt to make sense of life and the human experience in general to make it a little better every day and right now I'm just happy that you clicked your way into it. It's it's enough for me and to not waste your time today we're going to be talking about how unlearning will improve the way you learn to become a better version of yourself and first let's establish a few things that we may already know and the first thing is the word learn to gain or acquire knowledge of or skill in something by study experience or being taught in the definition of the word learn it's identified experience as one of the ways that we learn and that for me forms the biggest chunk of our learning it's all an experience whichever method works for you how we absorb both consciously and unconsciously the things that are in our environment and this is huge because over time our personalities are formed based on what we are exposed to and how we deal with it we form habits to deal with the life or cope with the life we have and you thrive or survive depending on where you find yourself you may learn to express yourself and emotions very well and you're well adjusted or be brought up in an environment where communication is being told what to do until you're old enough to do it on your own you're spoken to not spoken with and you find it difficult to speak with other people in general about your emotions and feelings because you don't know how to put them to words and even if you did you don't know how to be vulnerable for example and so you keep things to yourself and get defensive when someone tries to understand you better or poach and you come off as emotionally emotionally detached and you're frustrated because you're not comfortable with this new approach to self-discovery and yes this has been me for as long as I can remember for me to actually acknowledge and speak about it really means a lot not to forget that while all this happens your beliefs about the world is strengthened and you become the person that you've always known and ideally almost everyone would think themselves perfect when they don't have to deal with anyone or uncomfortable circumstances you know yourself well enough to be comfortable in your ways it's dealing with people that complicate everything right well so you realize that it's easy for us to just sail through life without wanting to commit to anything that challenges us beyond what we think we're capable of and the truth is we are so stuck on our current version of ourselves and we're so comfortable that we don't even know what we're capable of as in we don't know ourselves fully and knowledge of self is a lifetime endeavor just remember that you think you know yourself until you don't and that's where unlearning comes in unlearning is recognizing that there's more to what you've always known and that it could be better than your present or you could be better than your present self and in order to evolve into something better than your current state of being you have to let go of what you currently are and it's not losing your true self it's just improving it unlearning is shedding your excess weight in order to have it easier scaling this mountain or dealing with challenges life throws at you and as they say the best things are all outside your comfort zone and unlearning can be the key to learning how to unlock the different version of yourself so how do you do it first be brave now i'm sure you're wondering what bravery has got to do with anything now here's what i mean to be brave is to be vulnerable and most of us have been socialized in a way that makes it difficult for us to accept our faults or even admit that we don't know something because we don't want to come off as dumb or not fit in now this has for the most part made us intolerant of divergent views because we're so stuck on what we know and believe so being brave here means that not being afraid to admit that you don't know it all and it's okay there's absolutely no shame in that so what you've not been to that fancy restaurant before and you have no idea what you're staring at on the menu be brave ask for help before you order something you can't eat or worse trigger an allergy or something that might kill you be enthusiastic now enthusiasm is the fuel that will keep you going as a kid i remember how my eyes would widen when we're introduced to something new and better yet challenging and there was a possibility to learn and get around those challenges and that was what kept us going with this new task it happened mostly with adventure games with the first one being legend of zelda links awakening on nintendo and we will spend hours and hours playing trying to figure it out and maybe it was because of the end goal of finishing this puzzle that kept us going but generally that childlike enthusiasm will diminish as you grow and it's very much the source of fuel that will help you with this new journey of unlearning and learning new things the right way and you have to be patient now this is something i struggle with in general so i know how difficult it may be and i also think that patience will be a good support for your enthusiasm because the chances of successfully unlearning the things that you spent years and years learning both consciously and unconsciously while forming various habits and personality traits will definitely take some months if not years to change that mindset and form new and effective habits and ways of learning ultimately you make this concept of self-improvement a much more attractive venture for yourself when you are more patient so yes you have to stick to it and be more patient than usual be consistent and i see consistency as the bridge coming from patience if you're not consistent you will not see any improvement is the bridge that will show you what you use to be on one side once you've been able to make it across one state of being to another and you will love it even more because you built that bridge you managed to make something happen and i'll always use myself as an example for the things i struggle with but somehow i'm learning to overcome and the thing is i tend to be very impulsive with the beauty of the end result of the things of what's to be for getting the challenges and i immediately start getting ahead of myself i burn out when things don't change as fast and i lose enthusiasm and fall off consistency can be looked at as a marathon not a sprint so keep going keep pushing the endurance will pay off and you will see the changes that you need to see over time and you become even better when you look back and see how far you've come and it hits you and that feeling is good try and be one percent better every day and that will be to your own advantage just one percent better every single day will help you stay more consistent don't overdo anything be comfortable the last thing i want to talk about in the process of learning is being comfortable here i don't mean the comfortability of old habits what i mean is recognizing that this whole thing may be a long-term lifestyle choice and just like starting a new workouts regime the professional trainer whether it's an app or a person will advise that you are comfortable with what you're doing and not strain or injure yourself so find your sweet spot find what makes doing certain activities worth repeating and build your own personal rituals and live them out it's your own journey and you decide the pace and how enjoyable you want to make it that's what i'm trying to say this is in that french class that you dreaded because of that one french teacher and because of that your dreams have been shattered or becoming a translator or working for an international organization or even just being fluent in french for the sake of it so this is trying to form new habits that was there with you from now on and it would take making certain sacrifices and are learning the old ways to get it done so you have to be really comfortable in the process and enjoy the whole thing in the end if someone is able to show me that what i think or do is not right i will happily change for i seek the truth by which no one was ever truly harmed it is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed marcus aurelius from the book meditations your assumptions are your windows on the world scrub them off everyone's in a while or the light won't come in isaac asimov i'll learn the beliefs that you've always held on to that is not serving any progressive purpose in your life i'll learn those stereotypes and prejudices that you've carried with you all as well unlearn the bad habits that seem so comfortable just let it go and guys remember that i'm very much open to more knowledge and comments so if you have any kindly share with me in the comments below and don't forget to like the video if you picked up a nugget or two and you want me to make more videos like this where i share the things i'm learning while experiencing life and the challenges it throws at us so subscribe to my channel if you already haven't and i'll catch you another time cheers