How to master anything fast!
Mastery is not a question of genetics or luck, but of following your natural inclinations
and deep desires that stirs you from within.
Robert Greene famously quoted this line.
Do you want to be successful?
Or do you have a skill that you’ve always been itching to learn but don’t want to
spend hours upon hours of excruciating pain… sweat and blood trying to master that skill.
The 10,000 Hour Rule — by Malcolm Gladwell, states that a person principally needs 10,000
hours of, deliberate practice to become world-class in any field.
I’m not sure about you, but my hours are finite and I cannot spend 10,000!... Excruciating
hours!... leaning a new skill…
I just don’t have that kind of time.
Unless, you do But if you don’t, here are a few hacks,
to help you master anything fast.
Hopefully Tip number 1: learn in flow
The best way to learn something is when we reach a state of flow.
A state of flow in positive psychology, also known as “the zone”, is the mental state
of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling
of energized, focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.
It’s like when you are playing a video game you really like and All your attention and
focus in on the game, nothing else matters to you except what’s happening in the game,
in that moment, Your house could be on fire, or the kitchen flooding, but none of that
matters.
Your sole focus is on the game.
In essence, flow is the complete absorption in what one does.
You can also achieve a state of flow while watching a sports game.
Have you ever found yourself screaming and yelling at the TV while watching a sports
game?
Imagine this, your favorite football team is playing on Sunday against their local rivals,
you guys hate each other to the guts!
Your rivalry goes way back!
Last year they beat you guys, but this year…
haha… this year! you guys vow to get revenge!
You’re not only going to defeat them, but you guys are going to absolutely humiliate
and destroy them.
You’re enemies after all.
So the game comes on, and you’ve been watching it for some time, you’re enjoying the intensity
and action and you’re fully immersed in the game, it’s like you are actually there!
The phone rings, but you don’t notice, someone is at the door, knocking, but you don’t
hear it.
Your kid is trying to have a conversation with you, but you are not listening, you’re
watching the game… “what did you say hunny?”
In such a scenario you would be in a state of flow.
You are completely engaged and absorbed in the game, nothing else matters to you except
the game.
The rest of the world will just have to wait until half time.
Then you are at it, again.
Tip number 2: Just Start Richard Brandson, a personal role model of
mine has this famous quote, screw it lets do it!
Just start for the sake of it!
You never know… you might be successful.
Most of us, when we are learning a new skill, we tend to focus more on learning the theory
and less on applying it.
This is unfortunately a bad habit we picked up from school and because of it, we always
think of ideas and incredible things to do and less on applying them.
We should use the Rule of Two-Thirds.
Which means, spending only one third of your time studying and the other two applying and
practicing.
Let me tell you a short story, so awhile back me and my high school friend Zack decided
to catch up in a local bar.
I hadn’t seen Zack for a few months, you see we both work and live in different cities,
so it’s kind of hard for us to meet, but we make it a priority to see each other a
couple times each year.
So on this particular occasion Zack told me the most interesting story ever.
He said; so, one day on a Friday, as he was heading home after a busy work week, he and
a couple of his male colleagues decided to pass by a bar, to have a couple drinks and
just relax and have a good conversation.
So Zack told me that, as he and his co-workers were talking he noticed this young attractive
young lady hanging out with her girl-friends.
She looked really attractive according to Zack.
He described her as an early mid-twenties brunette, with the most dazzling eyes and
with the most beautiful, gorgeous smile, he’d ever seen on a girl.
He definitely wanted to approach her, but there was just one problem.
Before I continue with the story, I first have to tell you something about Zack.
You see, Zack is not exactly the quintessential “lady’s man”.
He’s not the luckiest or the smoothest person when it comes to approaching women.
He’s often shy and comes off really awkward and unconfident.
Back in high school, I remember he would often find it really difficult to approach girls
he found really attractive.
He would often struggle trying to find the right words to say, and to keep the conversation
going.
Ok, back to the story…
And as he was telling me this story, I couldn’t help but lough the entire time.
So I asked him, where did you get the confidence to approach the girl?
And he responded, “it must have been the alcohol…”
I laughed Haha…
So Zack told me that, he had actually been watching a couple videos online on how to
approach women, and he even went as far as buying a course.
The only problem was that, he had never actually practiced any of the teaching he learned from
the course and videos.
So I guess this was the perfect time to test his new found skills.
As Zack was talking to his friends he noticed the young lady walking towards the bar-counter.
This is the perfect opportunity to approach her he said, so he took a last sip of his
drink, and with the help of some liquid courage, he started making his way towards the bar-counter.
He said hello and talked to her for a little while, he apparently even made her lough.
Finally he wrapped up the conversation and exchanged numbers.
He was over the moon!
And was so excited…
To cut the long story short, Zack and the girl ended up meeting a few more times after
that day, and even started dating for a little while.
Unfortunately the relationship didn’t last long, due to personal issues I guess.
But none the less, Zack had no regrets and he was really glad he took initiative.
I was really happy for my friend Zack, and I can’t wait to hear the next crazy story.
Hopefully next time he won’t need the alcohol.
You need to repeatedly keep testing yourself and abilities.
You see, our brains evolved to learn by doing things, not by hearing about them.
This is one of the reasons that, for a lot of skills, it's much better to spend about
two thirds of your time testing yourself and applying it, rather than absorbing it.
Take for example taekwondo, or any other martial art.
Could you imagine learning how to defend yourself in combat simply by reading a book, or listening
to a lecture and never actually throwing a punch?
This is also true for school if you’re memorizing a passage, it's better to spend 30 percent
of your time reading it, and the other 70 percent of your time, testing yourself on
that knowledge.
And if you do this, you should see a tremendous improvement in your work.
Tip number 4: The sweet spot.
When we are learning, we want to be challenging our selves 60 – 80% of the time… this
is known as the sweet spot.
Anymore and it becomes too difficult and we quit.
Any less and it becomes too easy and we also quit.
So it’s imperative to always be upping the challenge and to avoid anything trivial and
easy that will make us quit!
Let me tell you a quick story.
Back when I was in high school, I got really fascinated with coding and programming.
I wanted so badly to learn how to code and build my own website.
After doing a bit of research I came across this awesome website called the newboston.com,
run by an awesome guy called Bucky Roberts.
Shout-out to Bucky! haha Anyways, I so badly wanted to code, and I
have to admit the initial stages of learning HTML and CSS were tedious, but after every
tutorial I would learn something new and apply it to my simple website.
It was hard, but I really enjoyed the challenge, and watching my website slowly come to life
was definitely worth it!
Eventually after sometime I was able to code decently looking websites.
Which I have to admit, coming from a point of knowing nothing about code to in a few
weeks being able to build a decently looking website, felt really good!
I mean, It got my mother’s approval.
lol The entire time I was leaning how to code
and program I was in the sweet spot without even realizing it.
Tip number 5: commitment Commit to the long haul.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, as the timeless cliché goes, but so will your skill.
You have to commit, and put in the time.
The difference between an average NBA player and a great NBA player is commitment!
You need to continuously sharpen and prune your skill.
The people who combine commitment with practice, will always see their skills go off the charts.
Because they are continuously applying and mastering their skills, and eventually they
would have gotten to a point where they are really good at their skill, to a state of
mastery.
And finally Tip number 6: Find a mentor.
The best way to learn is through mentorship….
We were built for this!
watching someone achieve a certain goal or goals, can be powerfully inspiring and motivating.
That how I started this channel, I saw someone achieve success and I was like why can’t
I?
Of-course, my first few channels didn’t do so well, but eventually I found success
here!
Thank you guys so much for watching.
Let’s chat in the Comment’s below, what other tips do you have, I’d love to hear them
Share this video with a friend or two, it always helps with the views.
But anyways, take care and I will see you all, in the next one.