We often hear that young people need to be teachable in order to succeed.

Actually, ALL people need to be teachable in order to succeed.

Successful people never stop learning until they take their last breath.

Learning something new every day is as vital to your health as the air you breathe. And although we can learn something from everyone, those who have certain expertise are those where we should particularly lean in, to glean from.

Today I want to share 3 truths about being teachable that people may be unaware of. Let’s go for the most shocking one first.

Failure to be teachable can kill you

I have had four friends or acquaintances DIE in the past few years because they decided that Google knew more than their doctor. I understand that we should not elevate doctors to the level of God or believe they are always 100% accurate simply because they have a set of letters after their name. But the fact is, those letters do mean something.

I do my own research with most everything important in my life. I believe it’s crucial to be informed, on anything. So, I do research about any medical condition I have, or any medications prescribed. However, I always take that research, and make an appointment with my doctor, to discuss all the issues. Sometimes I set a virtual appointment with her to do nothing but this. It’s worth it.  She often knows additional facts I am unaware of concerning what I’ve researched and sure enough when I look up what she says, it is always the case that she knew more than me.

I continue to stand amazed that so many people will believe the word of a salesperson at a MLM vitamin company or Google rather than their doctor who has studied for ELEVEN YEARS minimum on the subject. (That’s just for a primary care physician, that doesn’t include all the hours involved in being a specialist.)

So, these four friends are dead and in the ground or cremated at this point because they chose to believe Google, Fox News, a MLM salesperson or their own gut feeling instead of a trained, skilled, tested and trusted physician. I strongly believe in all four of the cases I mention, the people would still be alive today or would have lived significantly longer period of time, had they been teachable. But they felt they knew more.

Don’t be that person.

The only people who are doing well when you fail to be teachable concerning your health are the funeral homes.

Failure to be teachable will cause you to miss blessings

In December of 2022, through God’s favor and grace, I got the author agent of my dreams. I believe writing is the primary gifting the Lord has given me. There is nothing I enjoy or thrive on more than this. When I was a little girl I collected words like most kids collect crayons. But I still have so far to go in honing this gift.

Mary DeMuth took a huge chance on me, because these days, there’s a lot more to being a writer than writing. I didn’t have what established authors normally have, the main thing being that my platform was too small. I have learned that publishers are typically looking for people with a minimum of 50,000 followers or so. All of the publishing houses would repeatedly tell Mary that my following was way too small to take a chance on. Nevertheless, she took me in and started working with me. She believed in me despite my shortcomings.

Through Mary’s mentorship I discovered things I needed to be doing online to improve my platform. I had never worried about platform before. I just wrote my heart in whatever social media space I was in, and whoever showed up showed up. Some people view “platform” as ungodly, worldly or evil. But truthfully, it’s like anything else — it depends on your motivation and what you use it for. In the past, I considered myself a “social media minister” (and still do). There was no strategy behind my posts other than trying to help people, and I definitely did not see it as a job. When Mary started mentoring me (as she does all the authors at her agency) I was made aware of things I needed to be doing to grow my platform and move forward with writing on a larger scale. The motivation for this is to reach more people with the message God has given me. I discovered that there is nothing wrong with having a strategy to reach even more people, help them, and to actually have a plan of doing it with excellence — in fact, it is an admirable thing.

One of the things that I was mentored to do was create reels. I did not want to create reels. Videos are NOT my thing! I am self conscious of the way I look on video, and so I have always avoided making videos. Although I dreaded adding this to my social media, I did so because I was committed to the process of mentorship and doing whatever Mary said was best for me to move forward. I believe that having a mentor or a coach is useless unless you are actually going to do what they say.

I learned that working on my writing and platform wasn’t something I could simply fit in with what “spare time” I had, but I had to start carving out time without fail, each day – as a second job. It is not wrong or ungodly to take the mission God has given you this seriously.  As I already have a full time job, working on my social media needed to be added on, after my other work was done. So, I would come home from work everyday (or finish my work on days working from home) and then I would start my second job. Every night and on weekends, I would put significant blocks of time in creating not only reels but all of my other posts.I realized the importance of not just writing them, but packaging them in a certain way that was more receivable. I still have a long ways to go, but I have come far in a short time. I do get tired at times and the last thing I want to do is work more when I end my PF Women workday. But, this is what it takes, and if I had to off-load other things from my life (besides my family, PF Women or writing) in order to accomplish this, I would, and in fact I have done so at times.

Fast forward to 17 months from the time I started working with Mary, and my social media has grown by 40%. Something else happened that was completely unexpected. Ten months from the time I started, my husband said to me, “Ummmm…there is a deposit in our bank account from Facebook. Do you know why it is there?” I did not know right off hand, but upon checking I remembered that a few years ago, I had added my banking information to my account there when they invited me to, just in case anything would ever come of it. I didn’t imagine it would…I knew my following was not that big. When I checked it out I noticed that ten months into taking Mary’s advice, I started making money. Branding my social media, doing even the videos I was uncomfortable with at first, and daily persistence was paying off. Ten months in, my social media started paying one of our monthly bills. Now, it is to the point 17 months later where I’m on track for it to start covering two of our smaller household bills a month if the trend continues. I never imagined or expected this part, but its an added blessing. It goes to show what being teachable can bring about, as well as illustrating what daily habits and follow through can produce.

Had I not been teachable and followed Mary’s advice even when it was uncomfortable for me, I would have missed out on a lot of blessings. Not only are some of my monthly expenses being covered that I didn’t even expect, but as my social media has improved greatly, and I will be in a better position for my book launch which will come in April of 2025.

Failure to be teachable will cost you relationships

Nobody wants to be around a know-it-all.

I can’t think of many worse interpersonal exchanges than having to sit through a meeting, a lunch or much of anything else with somebody who thinks they know it all. I crave being around the learners, the curious people, those who are always asking questions. I believe most people prefer this.

While I’m not going to hate on someone who isn’t teachable, I’m just not going to gravitate toward them or make significant space on my calendar for them. My closest relationships are all with teachable people. I choose people to mentor/coach who are teachable and I choose people as best friends who are teachable.

If you are wondering why some people may move further away from you rather than closer to you, examine how teachable you are. This could be a factor in the number and health of your relationships.

Being teachable opens the way to relationships and opportunities that we would not have otherwise.

Whatever you do, stay curious and never ever stop learning. This will serve you well, for life.