Something I want my art students to know: What's more important, formal education or self-education?
Firstly, consider that formal education IS self-education... hold it as such and you will get more out of it. Go into it with a good reason... not just to have the formal certification. The paper (or digital) certification is not the only thing that gets you there. Who you become and what results you can bring to the table are super important.
That being said, self-education is essential to success. It's a bit of a misnomer really, because self education is still about learning from other people.
Self-education lacks the built-in accountability that formal education has so if you're struggling to make good progress put things in place that cause you to follow through; an accountability group, a peer group that pushes each other to grow or some sort of mentorship. Take on a leadership position somewhere, volunteer, start a job or venture that will push you to gain the qualities you want to develop in yourself.
Formal education teaches very little about how to succeed with the skills you're learning there. You have to make success important to you and educate yourself relentlessly. When I graduated I thought the universe would just drop success in my lap because I had a degree and was good at my craft. It didn't. Self education is the best way to learn
Get clear on why to do your work, pursuit, education, vocation, or goal. Without a defined "why" it's easy to fall into aimless wandering around through your career or life. If your "why" is to explore and learn a lot of different things then wandering all over the place might be a really good goal. It depends on what is important to you.
Have lots of conversations with skilled and successful people, keep training, keep adapting.
Keep stepping over the edge of your comfort zone. Otherwise your comfort zone starts to shrink rather than expand.
Another thing largely missing from formal education is leadership skills. If you are working in any position on a team or organization your leadership skills or lack thereof have a direct effect on the quality that you and your team and your organization can create. Leadership is not about being the boss. It's about stepping up to make things better for the people you affect. You have an effect on the culture of your team, household, class, or workplace no matter what you do so you may as well be intentional about it and lead the change you want to see. Embody the qualities you want, speak up, step beyond your job description. Give what you want to get.
School doesn't know what you want. It doesn't know what bliss you are following, or who you want to become, or what is important to you. You have to lead your education. You have to develop your own adapting program throughout your ever-changing life and lead it to gain the specific qualities, connections and certifications that make the path to where you want to go.