Ideally a new affiliate should start learning SFI BASICS and LAUNCHPAD on his/her very first day. It is very important to first establish on the right foundation before moving on further in journeying with SFI. I always recommend to my new affiliates not to leave these SFI core business principles until they completely understand them. They won’t become successful teachers if they don’t have the right foundation.
To become a successful teacher, you need to learn first how to become a successful student and in the process develop the skills through training successful attitudes and behaviours as well as intellectual capacity in order to teach. You alone can determine how you can become successful student and teacher at the same time. This will also depend how fast you learn and how much time are you willing to invest.
First you need to know what makes a successful student:
- Responsible and active.
Successful students get involved in their quest for information, accept responsibility for their own education, and are active participants in it! Responsibility is the difference between leading and being led. Active SFI Forum participation improves knowledge without increasing study time. You can actively listen, think, question, and take notes like someone in charge of their learning experience.
- Have educational goals.
Successful students are motivated by what their goals represent in terms of their SFI aspirations and life's desires. Ask yourself these questions: What am I doing here with SFI? Is there some better place I could be? What does my presence here mean to me? Answers to these questions represent your "Hot Buttons" and are, without a doubt, the most important factors in your success as an affiliate. If your educational goals are truly yours, not someone else's, they will motivate a vital and positive attitude.
- Successful students are not afraid to ask questions.
Successful students ask questions to provide the quickest route between ignorance and knowledge. In addition to securing knowledge you seek, asking questions has at least two other extremely important benefits. The process helps you pay attention to your teacher (this could be your Team Leader/Sponsor, direct upline or an experienced affiliate in the Forum) and helps your answer/solution provider pay attention to you. Think about it. If you want something, go after it. Get the answer now, or fail a question later. There are no foolish questions, only foolish silence. It's your choice.
- Learn that a student and a teacher make a team.
A good teacher wants exactly what you want: he/she would like for you to learn the SFI material and earn the skill as well as increase your knowledge. Successful students reflect well on the efforts of their teacher; if you have learned your SFI materials; your teacher takes some justifiable pride in teaching. Join forces with your teacher, they are not an enemy, you share the same interests, the same goals - in short, you're teammates. Get to know your teacher (Team Leader/Sponsor, upline). You're the most valuable players on the same team. Your jobs are to work together for mutual success. Neither wishes to chalk up a losing season. Be a team player.
- Take good notes.
If you want to become a successful student make a habit of taking notes that are understandable and organized, and review them often. Why put something into your notes you don't understand? Ask the questions now that are necessary to make your notes meaningful at some later time. A short review of your notes while the material is still fresh on your mind helps your learn more. The more you learn then, the less you'll have to learn later and the less time it will take because you won't have to include some deciphering time, also. The whole purpose of taking notes is to use them, and use them often. The more you use them, the more they improve.
- Talk about what you’re learning.
Successful students get to know something well enough that they can put it into words. Talking about something, with other affiliates in the SFI community, is not only good for checking whether or not you know something, it’s a proven learning tool. Transferring ideas into words provides the most direct path for moving knowledge from short-term to long-term memory. You really don't "know" the SFI material until you can put it into words. So, next time you study, share what you’re learning to your affiliates (if you’re a Team Leader or to other affiliates in the SFI Forum). Talk about problems/ challenges that you’re encountering in your journey with SFI in the Forum or to your Team Leader/Co-sponsor."Talk-learning" produces a whole host of memory traces that result in more learning.
- Manage time efficiently.
Successful students do not procrastinate. They log in daily, performing their To-Do List. They have their timetable filled with list of SFI growth-promoting activities. They have learned that time control is life control and have consciously chosen to be in control of their life. An elemental truth: you will either control time or be controlled by it! It's your choice: you can lead or be led, establish control or relinquish control, steer your own course or follow others. Failure to take control of your own time will take you to nowhere with your SFI business. It ultimately causes many students (affiliates) to become non-students (inactive then quit). Procrastinators are good excuse-makers. Don't make your learning/your journey with SFI harder on yourself than it has to be. Stop procrastinating. Do something everyday with your SFI business.
You can become a successful student and teacher at the same time in SFI by learning and applying the above combination of successful attitudes and behaviours as well as possessing the intellectual capacity founded on SFI BASICS and LAUNCHPAD.
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