Audible Subscription Plans & Prices: Which One Is Right For You?

Audible Subscription Plans & Prices: Which One Is Right For You?

This article is a comprehensive review of all Audible subscription plans and their prices. Learn all the different membership levels and their cost comparison on a per-year, per-month, and price-per-audiobook-credit basis. [Last updated on Jan 3, 2021]

 

Audible Free Trial

 

As of Jan 2021, Audible has renamed their membership levels to Audible Plus and Audible Premium Plus. See below for the comparison, as well as what the previous names of these membership levels were.

 

What you will learn in this article:

1. Benefits of an Audible Membership

2. How to Get 3 Free Audiobooks 

3. All Audible Membership Plans & Audible Pricing

4. How to Switch Your Membership Plan

5. How to Determine Which Option is Right for You?

 

What you get from an Amazon Audible membership

 

When you get an Audible Premium Plus membership, you get the following benefits:

 

1. Audible credits

 

Audible credits can be used to purchase audiobooks, no matter how long or short, expensive or cheap the original prices are. One credit equals one audiobook. How often you get Audible credits depend on the membership plan that you subscribe to. More on this below.

 

You can also rollover the credits, i.e., you don’t have to use it right away. But there are limits to how many credits you can pile up in your account, and these also differ depending on your membership level.

 

2. Audiobook Discounts

 

As a member, if you purchase audiobooks by credit card, you will get discounts on all titles 30%.

 

3. Member-only Sales

 

Audible holds quite a number of sales that are accessible only to members. They send emails with daily deals, many for less than $5. They also do special events like get 2 books for 1 credit, 3 books for 2 credits, etc., which I’ve taken advantage of many times. It’s a great opportunity to stock up your library.

 

4. Whispersync for Voice

 

This is one of the neatest features of Audible, in my opinion. Many books offered by Amazon are Whispersync for Voice-ready enabled, meaning that when you have both the audiobook and Kindle ebook versions of the same title, they will be synced with each other, allowing you to pick up where you left off from the audio or ebook version.

 

Now, why would you want to buy both versions? When you buy either an audiobook or a Kindle ebook that is Whispersync for Voice-ready, Amazon will give you an offer to buy the other version at a heavily discounted price. Sometimes, the total price for this combination, by taking advantage of the special sales or daily deals, will be lower than the original price of either the audio or ebook version.

 

For more on this and tips on how to get audiobook discounts via Whispersync, check out this article:

 

How to Take Advantage of Whispersync and Get Audiobook Discounts

 

5. Easy Return or Exchange Audiobooks

 

If you don’t like any audiobook that you’ve purchased, you can simply return for credit and exchange the credit with another book, no questions asked. (If you bought it with a credit card, then they will refund you the money). You can do this up to 365 days after your purchase the audiobook. If your book says “Not eligible for return” even though you bought it less than 365 days ago, contact Customer Service. Some titles cannot be returned using the online tool.

 

6. Free Audible Stories for Kids and Adults – No Membership Needed

 

There’s a wealth of free audiobook listens that you can find in the Audible Stories library here. Your kids of all ages will love the selections there. There are tons of classics too. And what’s even more amazing is that there are selections in other languages, such as Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese, etc. The best thing about this is that you don’t have to be an Audible member to stream these audiobooks. Read more about it here. Here’s a snapshot of the selections:

Audible Stories

 

7. Free Audible Originals each month, no credits needed 

 

With your membership, you get a fresh selection of free Audible Originals each month. These are stories that are especially produced for Audible, so you won’t get them anywhere else. They’re typically shorter, up to about 4 or 5 hours lengthwise and they are more than just books. For example, once I picked Girls & Boys, which is a play that was on off-Broadway in 2018 by Carey Mulligan. The Audible Original is also narrated by Mulligan, whom I love. There are typically selections for theater lovers, music lovers, comedy lovers, etc. For a theater enthusiast who lives so far away from New York City, I especially love the play productions! If you’re a member already, don’t forget to grab these Audible Originals each month!

 

8. Audible Plus Catalog

 

Thousands of titles in the catalog, which is also accessible if you subscribe to the lower level membership, Audible Plus. If you have the Audible Premium Plus membership, you get access to this Plus Catalog plus the entire selection of audiobooks that you can get with the credit.

 

9. Podcasts

 

Audible is getting into the podcast space, where you can listen to various podcasts, both by Audible and other third-party podcast companies, in the Audible app.

 

How to Get 3 Free Audiobooks Right Off the Bat

 

Before we go into the details of every Audible membership option, I want to first and foremost remind you that no matter which membership level you want to subscribe to, do the 30-day Free Trial first! Use the link below to get 2 free audiobooks with your free trial, and keep them forever, even though you cancel the membership after the free trial period ends. Just keep the Audible app and you can listen to the audiobooks in your library forever. Note that some free trial links only offer 1 free audiobook, so make sure you check the details first.
Audible Free Trial

Try Audible Premium Plus for Free (30 days) and Get Up to Two Free Audiobooks

Now that you’ve done the free trial and downloaded the app, how do you get this 3rd free audiobook? By getting someone else to gift one to you. The first audiobook that you receive as a gift is free. So if you like a book, get a friend who already has it to forward the link from the Audible app. (Yes, you need a friend for this). Or just ask them to send you something that they know you will enjoy.

 

Now, be nice and return the favor. Send somebody a link of an audiobook you like from your library. There’s no limit to how many you can send. If all of your friends have never used Audible before, then they all will receive a free audiobook from the goodness of your heart.

 

So, 2 audiobooks from the free trial + 1 audiobook gifted to you = 3 free audiobooks. Get long audiobooks to stretch these perks even more.

 

Now on to the various Audible membership levels and their prices.

 

All Audible Subscription Plans & Prices

 

How much does an Audible subscription cost? Well, that depends on the type of subscription you choose.

 

The table below lists all of the membership options, as well as the comparison of the Audible subscription price.

UPDATE: In 2020, Audible replaced the membership levels to Audible Plus and Audible Premium Plus. What were previously Gold and Platinum membership levels are now called Audible Premium Plus (1 credit/mo – Gold equivalent, 2 credits/mo – Platinum equivalent). The table below is updated with the old and new membership names. For the rest of the article, though, I’ll still use the old names since they are more succinct.

The first 4 levels, Audible Premium Plus (previously Gold monthly and annual, Platinum monthly and annual) are full memberships, meaning that subscribing to these plans give you the full benefits of being an Audible customer (i.e., everything listed above). The Silver monthly membership is a special one that’s unadvertised. It gives you 1 audiobook credit every other month, with no access to Audible Originals.

Audible Plus is the more “lightweight” memberships, where you don’t get any audiobook credits, but you get the access to all the titles in the Plus Catalog, podcasts, and Audible Originals. Note that you also don’t get the 30% discount of audiobooks when you purchase them without credits with this membership level.

In the table, I’ve listed the price tags of each Audible membership level and the 3 metrics–Annual total cost, Monthly cost, and Cost per audiobook credit–so you can compare them apples to apples.

 

Plan Level Membership Cost # of Credits Annual Total Cost ($/year) Monthly Cost ($/month) Cost/audiobook credit
Audible Premium Plus (previously Gold Monthly) $14.95/month 1 per month $179.40 $14.95 $14.95
Audible Premium Plus 2-credits (previously Platinum Monthly) $22.95/month 2 per month $275.40 $22.95 $11.48
Audible Premium Plus Annual 12 credits (previously Gold Annual) $149.50/year 12 per year $149.50 $12.46 $12.46
Audible Premium Plus Annual 24 credits (previously Platinum Annual) $229.50/year 24 per year $229.50 $19.13 $9.56
Silver Monthly $14.95/2 months 1 per 2 months $89.70 $7.48 $14.95
Audible Plus $7.95/month No credits $95.40 $7.95 No credits
[DEFUNCT] Listener Light Annual $9.95/year 0 $9.95 $0.83
[DEFUNCT] Audible Channel Plan $4.95/month 0 $59.40 $4.95

 

 

The most common option is the Audible Premium Plus (previously Audible Gold Monthly) membership at $14.95 and 1 credit each month. Typically, your account will default to this option, which means that if you want to change your Audible membership plan, you’ll have to upgrade through your account setting or contact Customer Service.

 

For audiobook super-listeners, the Audible Premium Plus 2-credits (previously Platinum) level is the way to go at 2 audiobooks per month.

 

Silver Monthly really should be called Silver Bimonthly. This option is not advertised and will not appear when you try to switch membership levels through your account. You’ll have to contact Customer Service to switch to Silver. They are typically very accommodating (i.e., they won’t try to up-sell you) and the set up will only take a few minutes.

 

Silver is nice if you, like me, like to take your time listening to audiobooks. One audiobook every 2 months is a nice pace for me and most of the benefits are still included (discounts, deals, free giveaways, etc.).

 

Audible Monthly vs. Yearly Membership

 

Audiobooks are cheaper by the dozen. If you subscribe to a monthly plan, then you pay and get the audiobook credit(s) monthly (with the exception of Silver Monthly, which is bimonthly). If you subscribe to an annual plan, then you pay and get all of the credits at once–12 credits or 24 credits.

 

As you can see from the table above, buying in bulk saves you money. The yearly plan is equivalent to getting 2 months free on the monthly plan. For Gold, $149.50 = 10 months x $14.95/month. Same thing for Platinum (I’m using the old names just to be succinct).

 

So, if you’re someone who can shell out the cash upfront, the Gold Annual or Platinum Annual are worth getting to save you some dollars.

 

Comparing Audible Prices

 

Here’s my take on what is the best Audible membership cost to pay.

 

 

If you’re trying to just minimize your annual or monthly costs while still enjoying the benefits of being an Audible member, the Silver membership is a great option. At $89.70 per year or $7.48 per month, it’s very affordable. But what if you want to get more credits without paying the original prices of the audiobooks? Not to worry. Even though your credit only comes once every 2 months, you still have the option to buy more credits at any given time.

 

At the top of my account, Audible always has this offer to Buy 3 Extra Credits at $35.88 ($11.96/credit). Yes, you have to buy 3 at a time, but the price per credit is actually comparable to the Platinum Monthly ($11.48/credit), which is a good deal. This option is available to all members, so if you’re feeling low on credits but don’t want to commit to an upgraded membership level, this is the way to go.

 

On a total cost basis, the Platinum Monthly, followed by Platinum Annual, are the most expensive membership levels. However, on a per credit basis, they are in fact the cheapest. Platinum Annual gives you $9.56/credit, which is equal to $9.56/audiobook, which is a steal. Platinum Monthly gives you $11.48/credit. The Silver Monthly and Gold Monthly are the most expensive at $14.95/credit, but this price is still a good deal for audiobooks, which are above $20 a lot of the times.

 

Rollover Credits

 

If you haven’t decided which audiobooks to get for your credits, Audible allows 1-year for you to use the credit. Previously they allowed rollover, e.g. for Gold Monthly, you’re allowed to rollover up to 5 credits per month; Gold Annual, 6 credits; Platinum Monthly, 10 credits; Platinum Annual, 12 credits. I don’t think this is true anymore; the 1-year limit applies to all.

 

This is something to watch out for. Don’t let your Audible credits pile up to avoid losing credits.

 

Audible Plus (Similar to Listener Light and Channel Plan in the Past)

 

This membership levels is a new offering by Audible. It doesn’t come with audiobook credits, but you get access to the Plus Catalog–basically free audiobooks that you can listen to without using any credit. You don’t get the 30% discounts that members get, if you want to purchase audiobooks. You do, however, get to listen in to the various programs produced by Audible, namely the Audible Originals and podcasts. Also, they still will send you emails with deals and sales that members receive.

 

Audible Free Trial

How to Switch Your Membership Level

 

To change your membership level, go to Audible.com, sign in, and go to the top of your page. From the drop-down menu next to your name, click Account Details. It will display your current membership level and your benefits. Underneath, there’s a button that says “Switch Membership”. Click the button and Audible will display several options for you.

 

Here are the screenshots from my account. I have Silver Monthly and Audible provides the next 4 levels for my upgrade, Audible Plus, Audible Premium Plus, Audible Premium Plus – 2 credits, Audible Premium Plus Annual – 12 credits. Based on this, I’m assuming that to get the Audible Premium Plus Annual – 24 credits, you’ll have to contact Customer Service. These may look different for you depending on your current membership level.

 

 

 

 

Choose the one you want by clicking “Get this plan” in the appropriate box.

 

Remember that the Silver membership is not advertised, so I don’t think it will appear in the upgrade/downgrade options. Contact Customer Service if you want this plan.

 

How to Determine Which Audible Membership Level is Right for You?

 

With all these options, how do you start choosing the right membership level? Here are the questions you should ask yourself.

 

1. What’s the average pace of your audiobook consumption?

If you’re going for 1/month, go with Audible Premium Plus; 2/month, Audible Premium Plus – 2 credits; 1 every 2 months, Silver. You can always buy extra credits, 3 at a time.

 

2. How much money do you want to spend upfront?

If you can cover the costs upfront, consider getting the annual plans since they lower the cost per audiobook by a lot.

 

3. How much money do you want to spend in general?

If you’re going for the lowest total cost, go with Silver Monthly. Check out the Cost/year and Cost/month columns in the table for your budgeting purposes.

 

Don’t Forget the 30-day Free Trial

 

Again, as a reminder, use the 30-day free trial first, no matter which membership level you decide on. After the 30 days, it will likely default to Gold Monthly. If you want to change it to something else, go through the steps outlined in the How to Switch Your Membership section.

Try Audible for Free and Get Two Audiobooks

For tips on how to save once you’ve signed up for a membership, go to this article.

Try Audible Plus

Audible Gift Memberships

Try Audible Premium Plus and Get Up to Two Free Audiobooks

More tips on audiobooks and Audible:

How to Save Money on Audible Membership

How to Take Advantage of Whispersync and Get Audiobook Discounts

 

Product links on this post are affiliate links, which means I get a small compensation if you sign up through them. Would appreciate it if you do!

How to Get Audiobook Discounts Using Whispersync

How to Get Audiobook Discounts Using Whispersync

This article contains tips on how to take advantage of the Whispersync for Voice feature by Amazon and get audiobook discounts. I’ll also show you how to add Whispersync to your Kindle books. If you’re an Amazon consumer, particularly Kindle ebooks and audiobooks consumer (i.e., Audible members), you’re probably familiar with or at least have heard about Whispersync.

 

The Amazon audiobook service is called Audible, and to read more about Audible membership and how to save money during sign up or after you’ve subscribed to Audible, read this article: How to Save Money on Audible Membership. You can try the membership service for free for 30 days and get 2 free audiobooks (you can keep them no matter what).

 

Try Audible for 30 Days and Get Two Free Audiobooks

 

Whispersync is a neat feature that lets you synchronize the location of your latest read in the Kindle ebook and audiobook when you have both versions of the same title in your library. Many ebooks, though not all, offered by Amazon are Whispersync for Voice-ready enabled, allowing you to pick up where you left off from the audio or ebook version. It’s great because it combines the flexibility of the audiobook, like being able to multitask while listening to a book, and the handiness of highlights and writing notes on the Kindle ebooks.

 

Now, why would you want to buy both the ebook and audiobook versions of the same title? One reason is for the discounts!

 

When you buy either an audiobook or a Kindle ebook that is Whispersync for Voice-ready, Amazon will likely give you an offer to buy the other version at a heavily discounted price. Sometimes, the total price for this combination will be lower than the original price of either the audio or ebook version.

 

I usually prefer ebooks, since I like to go back to certain sections of the book, get quotes, etc., which would be difficult with the audio version. A few times, I’ve found out that buying the audiobook first, then taking advantage of the Whispersync offer, I get a lower total amount spent and I have both the ebook and audiobook versions in my library.

 

Here’s an example on how to do it, screenshots included.

 

How to Add Whispersync to Your Kindle Books and Get Audiobook Discounts

 

Example: I did this recently with Trevor Noah’s book, Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. With raving reviews, this book turns out to be a perfect example on why it’s great to have the ebook and audiobook versions. Trevor is both hilarious and insightful. He’s a comedian from South Africa and a brilliant storyteller. He’s currently heading the satirical news show The Daily Show, which he inherited from the legendary Jon Stewart.

 

Trevor was born during apartheid and grew up in the complex post-apartheid South Africa. His life stories are out of this world. Noah narrates the audiobook version, which is awesome, since he fully characterizes the people he mentions in the book. So, not only you get to listen to the words as he intended them to sound, you’ll also get the full affectation and the true pronunciations of the numerous languages that he masters. He even says “Volkswagen” the proper way.

 

This is the Amazon page for the Kindle book. It’s priced at $14.99.

Trevor Noah: Born A Crime

 

 

 

 

 

If you see on the right of the image, beneath the 1-Click purchase button, there is a box that you can check that says “Add Audible narration to your purchase.” In this case, the additional cost of the Audible narration is $4.99. To get both the ebook and audiobook, check this box.

Add Audible Narration

 

If you see the original price of the audiobook alone, it’s listed at $21.95. So if you actually go the ebook + audiobook route, your total is $14.99 + $4.99 = $19.98, which is less than the audiobook alone. Of course, there will be taxes applied to your purchase, but the taxes will exist in both cases. Note that if you have an Audible membership, you may get the 30% discount on any purchased audiobook, so this comparison wouldn’t apply. In any case, the additional cost of having both versions in your library is marginal.

Trevor Noah: Born A Crime Audiobook

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Additional Notes

One thing that happened to me when I purchased this book was the notification that the credit card on record in my Amazon account and Audible account has to be the same. I think if they were the same, the purchase of both versions could be done simultaneously.

 

I actually had some Amazon credit that I could use to buy the Kindle ebook, so I went through the steps to purchase the ebook first, using my credit. Then I went to my Audible account, and it knew that I had purchased the ebook, so the audiobook was priced at $4.99. I then purchased the audiobook version using the credit card I had on the Audible account.

 

Kindle book purchase:

 

 

 

 

 

Audiobook purchase:

 

This means that if you have some Amazon credit (e.g., from gift cards, etc.), you cannot use this to purchase audiobooks, since the audiobooks are sold on the Audible website, with separate accounts. Just a heads up.

You can explore more titles and use this trick to see if you can get good deals on audiobooks. Many ebook titles, especially the classics, are free on Amazon. Once you’ve “bought” them and have the ebooks in your account, the audiobook offer becomes very cheap. To find Whispersync deals, or to scan through your ebook library to see the Whispersync discount offer, go to this page.

 

 

 

 

You can see the links there for deals or “Add Audible Narration to Books You Own”. The last link there will scan all of the ebooks you’ve owned and list the prices to add Audible narration.

 

Hope this is useful for you, and enjoy reading and listening!

 

Want ideas on which audiobooks to start listening to? Check out my favorite books from 2015, 2016, and 2017.

 

Other how-to articles on Audible Membership

How to Save Money on Audible Membership

 

Why Self-Learners Rule The 21st Century

Why Self-Learners Rule The 21st Century

This is the fifth post of a series on Individuality. Check out the firstsecondthird, and fourth article.

 

Self-learners rule the 21st century. Never before has it been so important and so easy to be an autodidact. Why? Because information is abundant and free.

 

If in times past self-learning was optional, today, not so much. Being able to educate ourselves is an essential skill to get ahead in this century.

 

It goes without saying that the Internet has completely transformed the way we learn and interact with information. Knowledge is no longer a privilege owned by a select few, locked up in institutions of higher learning or university libraries; it belongs to the mass. Anyone can access and generate new knowledge, repackage it and spread it back to the public. The cost of transmitting knowledge is close to zero.

 

Yet there is still a cost to be self-educated in the 21st century. It may not be money, but it still requires time and effort on our part. The good news is that it only depends on us. The bad news is that it only depends on us.

 

I’d say take it as good news, because if you embrace self-learning, opportunities await.

 

Because of information abundance, new phenomena emerge in society. New opportunities surface that previously were not prominent. What kinds of leadership are up for grabs in the Internet age? How do you distinguish yourself amidst the chatter, tweets, snaps, and selfies?

 

Here are 4 core ways you can create opportunities for yourself in the 21st century. Hint: all of them require self-learning.

 

Stories, Not Facts

 

With facts only a few keystrokes away, it is no longer crucial to be the person with an encyclopedic brain. Any ol’ John Doe can fact-check. Plus, no matter how much trivia a person knows, he can’t beat the collective knowledge of thousands of people. Wherein then lies the expertise?

 

The pivotal skill is in what one does with his knowledge. It’s not enough to know; you need to process that knowledge and produce something else. Memorization for the sake of memorization is becoming obsolete, unless your work needs to be done without the Internet.

 

Because information is ubiquitous, people naturally get overwhelmed. Out of this information-fatigue, a need emerges for leaders who can make some sense out of the facts. These are the people who can weave information together into stories, see nuances, assess and analyze. They are the ones who can synthesize across different subjects and disciplines, contextualize information, see connections and errors, and discern the signal from the noise.

 

There’s a new breed of leaders and influencers who curates and guides people to go where they need or want to go. Coaches, mentors, and thought leaders who can say, “Pay attention to this. Ignore that,” are born, because people don’t want to know everything; they just want to know the important things.

 

This guiding skill is a subjective one—no two people can do it exactly the same way. There’s no formula that you can plug in for every circumstance. The ones who can seize these leadership opportunities are the self-learners, those who can tap into their individualities to learn and create. They are the ones who can discover and tell their own stories.

 

Intrinsic Motivation, Not Carrots and Sticks

 

Udemy, Coursera, Khan Academy, MIT OpenCourseWare. The world of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) is here, and it’s here to stay. Traditional universities are adapting to this development. Courses and great teachers, previously enclosed within university walls, are now accessible to the world much at a low cost or for free. Does that mean, though, that everyone now is as educated as a top university graduate?

 

Not really, because most people don’t take advantage of them. So for them, it doesn’t make any difference whether there’s one free course or a 4-year’s worth of college degree out there.

 

Who benefits the most from these online courses? Who would sign-up and follow the curriculum? Who will actually stick to the program and finish the whole way through? Only a very small fraction of the population: the highly motivated self-learners.

 

Have you ever tried taking a free online course? It’s quite challenging, because self-education requires greater discipline than imposed learning. When other things compete for your time, especially when you pay nothing for the course, most people would choose to abandon it. Maybe “choose” is not the right word here; most people will let the course be abandoned.

 

There’s a good explanation for this. When it comes to learning, we are trained most of our lives to respond to carrots and sticks—rewards and punishments. When these things are taken away, the external incentives disappear. There’s no major incentive for the learning itself and no punishment when an assignment is skipped. What remains is the intrinsic motivation, which, if absent, then all the MOOC in the world would not make any difference.

 

To take advantage of the world of MOOC, we’d have to re-program ourselves to commit harder and persevere. We ought to cultivate the love of learning and know how to maintain our own curiosity. Further, we should also know what courses to take that will best serve our time. Is committing tens of hours for a course worthwhile to do in the context of our life goals?

 

Of course as humans we still respond to incentives and losses, but the difference now is that we have to know how to set these up ourselves, not relying on someone else’s watch. Know what motivates yourself and propels you to move. Put money into it if necessary; have some skin in the game.

 

The world of MOOC is not education by checklist: fulfilling requirements to get a degree. Rather, it’s a purpose-driven one. You’ve got to make the courses work for you, not you for them. They need to serve your purpose, your goals.

 

Ch-ch-ch-changes

 

With the democratization of information, the dynamic of knowledge also changes. Knowledge morphs in a much more rapid pace than ever before, so it’s easy to be overwhelmed, feeling like you’re always behind, and always playing catch-up. In many fields, it is no longer sufficient to rely on classroom instructions. That degree you aspire to for 2 or 4 years may be obsolete by the time you graduate. The textbooks you study are already outdated by the time they get printed, because much more new knowledge has been generated during the time the book gets edited, compiled, proofread, and printed.

 

It is no longer enough to know a set of knowledge. One has to also know how to manage the changing world; how to always learn and keep up with new developments; how to contextualize knowledge; how to understand the arc in the history of a field. Skills are needed to keep a pulse on new developments without becoming a wired-rat that chases every new and shiny thing. While keeping one eye on new developments, the other eye needs to discern timeless principles through reflection.

 

These skills, which are lifelong assets, are not normally taught in schools. So what you need to do is to complement school with your own learning, because these skills have become essential to succeed. There’s never a time when you can relinquish the responsibility of educating yourself completely to other people. You need to seek them out yourself, develop your own method, find others who have figured it out, and seek pointers.

 

Gone are the days when you can get degrees and sit comfortably on them for the rest of your life. The types of work that does the same thing every single day is fading fast from our society. Those industrial days are gone and they’re not coming back. Today, life is about re-investing in and re-inventing ourselves.

 

Actions, Not Theories

 

Because new knowledge is unpredictable, it’s futile to sit and wait until you know everything to start doing anything. Action is more important than theories. Move and discover, and the learning will happen along the way. Those lessons learned may change too, though, so don’t hold on to pet theories too tightly. Experiment and see what holds true.

 

Practitioners and empiricists are becoming leaders these days. I should mention that the experiments they do are not the ones outlined explicitly step-by-step with expected results, like in school. These are the experiments that true innovators do, discovery by trial and error. Based on the results, they tweak, iterate, and refine.

 

The skill to experiment, to ask questions and develop methods to answer them ourselves, to think, to do, and to evaluate, is much in need today. It requires initiatives and it engages a person’s mind, body, and soul. It’s not easy, but those that develop it are going to be the leaders in this century.

 

 

I hope I’ve convinced you that it is imperative for all of us to develop and refine our self-learning skill. There simply is too much to lose otherwise. The great news is that this skill is not a magical superpower. Rather, it is more like a muscle that exists in every single person. It can be developed. Its growth depends on its usage and continuous practice.

 

Everyone can be a self-learner. I believe everyone has the stuff needed to be a leader in the 21st century and make an impact in other people’s lives. Use them, start taking actions; don’t wait until someone else tells you to.

 

Want more? Check out the others posts in the Individuality series:

Individuality: What Makes You, You

Individuality and Creativity: A Christian Perspective

Hamilton: How Genius Work Happens

Curiosity: The Key to Maximal Learning