Personal development and life hacking has become a popular topic as of late for bloggers and media outlets. The key to true personal development is self actualization and admitting and identifying the things you do well and things you need to improve. Without performing a personal SWOT analysis, it’s difficult to identify how you can become who you want to be.

The internet is a great opportunity for you to build your skills and talents. There are resources around the web that can help you in everything from learning to negotiate like Ari Gold to building as much confidence as Tony Stark. Furthermore, the internet is giving everyone with high speed an opportunity to be as educated as anyone else. All it takes is dedication, hard work and an open mind. Here are five ways you can learn and become more knowledgeable through resources online:

Quora

Of all the sites on this list, I use Quora more than any other channel for developing myself and acquiring new knowledge. What I love about Quora is that it allows me to identify the topics that interest me and deepen my knowledge in that specific interest. Furthermore, Quora provides users with an opportunity to receive advice and information from some of the worlds most knowledgeable people in their appropriate field.

When you find a great answer on Quora it’s filled with interesting insights regarding topics that aren’t necessarily mainstream. A lot of the advice and information you find on Quora is directly from someone who has real experience and wisdom that goes beyond what you can find in a standard textbook.

Here are just a few of the great pieces of content you can find online:

Khan Academy & Coursera

Khan Academy & Coursera will provide you with a great opportunity to learn things you could once only learn in a classroom. The topics vary but they are without question some of the best education resources you can find online. I’ve taken a few classes in on both Khan Academy and Coursera and can attest first hand that these sites are great for anyone who is naturally curious.

Whether you’re looking to deepend your knowledge in Computer Science or simply get a broader knowledge in Gamification; there’s a course on Khan Academy or Coursera for you.

Development Blogs

There are hundreds of blogs online that can provide you with great insights into how to become a better person. Whether you’re looking to live a life of minimalism or a life that is built around becoming successful, it’s easy to find resources to help your personal development.

The fact that there are hundreds of blogs about personal development makes it easy to fall into the trap of reading content that really won’t help you. It’s also easy to become super obsessed with these kind of blogs and not actually implement the learnings from them. Reading blogs on personal development provide us with an immediate satisfaction and the inspiration that makes us feel proactive. It’s important to use these feelings as momentum and actually implement some of these life hacks and learnings into the real world.

Skillshare

So I’ve been following Skillshare for quite a while from afar and just recently have they shifted to a format that actually allows me to use them. This time last year, Skillshare was solely a marketplace for people looking to learn from one another in person. They hadn’t launched in Halifax so I was stuck looking at all of these awesome courses happening from the distance. Recently however, they announced they were going to be opening a new vertical that allowed for online classes.

Yesterday I took part in my first class called “Build an Audience: A Macklemore Case Study in Music Marketing” from Amber Horsburgh who works in Digital Music Strategy at MTV. Pretty cool right? I thought so. Anyways, this is just another channel that you can use to learn from anyone. It gives you classes that are topical and ones that range from Music to Health. Definitely check it out and keep your eyes peeled for a course from yours truly.

Conclusion

In a post where I reflected about the first 9000 days of my life I talked about the importance of self-education. It’s something that I believe is extremely important to personal growth and development. In fact, I think the fact that so many people stop reading after graduation is the reason so many people are struggling to make ends meet.

Of all the videos I’ve seen on Khan or YouTube, this one hits the nail on the head more than most videos I’ve seen. It essentially shows you exactly what kind of world we live in. What resources are out there and how anyone can learn anything.

Hopefully you embrace self-education and can see the value in using the tools I talked about to further develop yourself. Remember what you want to become and identify how you’re going to get there.

And in that spirit, if you want to hold yourself accountable, drop a comment and tell me what you want to become.