The Key to Learning Fast - The Only Secret You Need to Know

Learning is an important aspect of life. It is a non-negotiable for anyone who wants to stay on top in their personal life and career. We all have the capacity to learn and improve, but many are yet to unlock the potential to learning well, as well as fast. 

My Learning Experience

Just last week, I was asked to prepare an Excel sheet to size some cables for some engineering project. After preparing the Excel sheet, the senior engineers were wowed! This was beyond their expectation! How did I prepare something that excellent, that could automatically calculate the size and give dynamic recommendation for the selection of any cable! 

Was it something amazing to them? Yes. Was it anything special to me? Definitely not. 

Two months prior, I new next to nothing on Excel. I didn't even know how to use the SUM function. During an intensive training programme, an external facilitator had trained us on Basics, Intermediate and Advanced Excel. This training was within a space of one week. It was indeed rigorous, organized, and packed. I applied the lessons I learnt from this training to the project given to me by my supervisor. That is the background of the story. 

But How Did I do it?

Left to me, I would have spent three months learning anything I would need to know about Excel. I would have been distracted by other things that are seemingly important or look more important to me. But I had no choice. In something that was more like a boot camp, I had to learn. I needed to learn, and I had no choice but to learn. 

Comittment, discipline, focus, deliberate practice! Not just motivation, but comittment, focus, discipline and deliberate practice. I will explain. 

We all have our traditional ways of doing things.  We have our default settings whenever we are asked to do a task or anything. First, we want to be motivated enough to carry out the task, next, we don't want to be forced to do what we need to do. Or at least, we want to do the things we want to do at leisure. We don't want to be held accountable for our personal development. We want that liberty of doing what we want to do anyday and anytime. It would surprise you to know that this is the exact barrier to personal development. The first step you need to take is comittment, the second is focus, the third is willingness to fail and try again, and the forth is deliberate practice.

The Key to Learning Fast

Lets take a closer look again at these keys in details and learn how to apply it.

#Key1 - Comittment

When you commit to doing something, you leave yourself no other option but to do it. Simple commitments like brushing your teeth everyday, taking your bath, combing your hair, has tremendous impact on your life simply because you do it eveyday. Whenever you miss doing this simple tasks, gou do not miss the following day. This is simply because you have committed yourself to doing them. Daily, You leave yourself no other option but to do them. You don't even think about whether you should do it or not. You simply have accepted it as your daily lifestyle. You may have other urgent or important tasks you need to do, but this is a non-negotiable for you. You just must do it. You are committed to doing it. In a similar manner, whatever you need to learn, you have to be committed to it. You may have other priorities, but this is a non-negotaible for you. 

This is the key to learning fast. But then, to learn even faster, you need another key. 

#Key2 - Focus

You will never do anything tangible with a divided attention. You can either be 100% focused on a task and be 0% focused on another, or be 100% focused on that other task and be 0% focused on another task. Don't get me wrong, you can do many things at the same time, but you cannot focus on two things at the same time. You can either focus on this article you are reading right now and everything else becomes background noise, or you entirely focus on the music playing from your airpod while simply scanning through this blog article. You cannot efficiently do both. You have to swith attention if you have to do to both. And guess what, each time you switch between tasks, you pay a price. You have to swith attention, and there is a switching cost attached to it. Switching cost is the number of seconds you lose in order to regain your thoughts and attention of a task you were previously attending to. Imagine you switch attention every five, three or two minutes. This will leave you impatient and shorten your attention apan. 

You simply have to decide on what you have to do and be focused. Focus makes you present wherever you are. If you are studying for thirty minutes, you are studying for thirty minutes. If you are reading for an hour, you are reading for one hour. If you are enjoying your favourite music, guess what? You definitely are. And if you are committed to learning a new skill, you are actually committed and present when you sit down to learn. No distractions, you are simply there and present. 

While focus will help you stay on the task now, PASSION will keep you going. 

#Key3 - Passion

Passion is an emotion, it is a fuel. It is not always be there, but whenever you find it, use it. Endurance is the aftermath of passion. When passion is spent, endurance takes over. Anywhere, anytime, passion will always differentiate you from others who are lacklustre in their approach towards life. You may be slow, but passion will keep you going. You may be fast, passion will stop you from slowing down. (That's why the tortoise will always beat the hare in any race. 😄) Endurance and Passion are both fuels you will need in your journey towards personal development. 

But then, you need one more key. Deliberate Practice. 

#Key4 - Deliberate Practice

Deliberate practice beats collaboration. Team collaboration is good, but it is best when both team members have subjected themselves to deliberate practice. Deliberate practice is deliberate living and learning. 

You can beat the best of the best if you subject yourself to few weeks of intensive deliberate practice to learn anything of your choice. 

When you learn to do things the hard way, a time will come when it becomes the easy way to do things for you. Don't always take the easiest route. Always apply yourself in whatever task you are given. Be hard working and exhaust yourself in learning and doing as much as you can each day.

Here is the Truth you Need to Know

You can be a great performer at anything if you set your mind to it. Your goal is not to get the glory but to be a top performer and solve problems. Bury yourself in deliberate practice to master work related skills,  and skills for personal development. Don't settle for average, always give your 100%.

You can be the best at anything you set your mind to do. When you make up your mind that you are going to achieve something, you are definitely going to achieve it.