The Gift You Give Yourself By Teaching Others

“We teach that which we most need to learn.” ~ David Bach

Some version of that quote has been used by leaders for for decades, and for good reason. While it's wonderful when we learn something new, the best way to integrate new knowledge and make it stick in our lives is to teach it.

This is because teaching challenges us to really understand what we're learning.

It challenges us to understand it with such clarity that we can effectively communicate it to others.

Teaching also exposes us to feedback from others, and that feedback is helpful (and sometimes even necessary) for us to understand something deeply enough to integrate it into our lives.

Those are just a few of the benefits you get by teaching something. Studies have shown that when you are first learning something, that if you teach it to somebody shortly thereafter, you'll remember what you learn more effectively and understand it more thoroughly.

In other words, teaching something you're learning makes you more successful.

In fact, some teaching methods ~ ironically ~ require students to immediately turn around and teach others what they learn.

The beauty of this approach is that it doesn't only deepen learning; it also creates more effective leaders in the world.

So next time you want to learn a new skill…

Remember that one of the best things you can do is to do your best teaching it to somebody else.

And even if you don't want to “teach” it, at the very least, discuss it candidly with somebody else to explore your new knowledge more deeply.

That's because any process of sharing what you know with somebody else will help you immensely deepen your understanding.