4 ways to learn anything

"If only I could have learned a new language last year..."

"If only I had learned to invest when I was still in my twenties..."

If only.

For many of us, there are more things we want to learn than we have time.

Shortening the learning curve has been a topic of study for many years. I've personally applied what I'm about to share now to speaking Spanish, English, and Korean (plus some Portuguese!). You will also be able to apply these principles in any subject, including business, musical instruments, etc.

Deconstruct the skill

The first step is to deconstruct competence into its basic, fundamental components.

This refers to the popularized Pareto principle, where the goal is to generate 80% results by putting 20% ​​of the effort into it.

Our goal then should be to separate the 20% of our learning materials that will give us 80% of the result.

In his Ted Talk, Josh Kaufman thinks you don't have to spend 10,000 hours to master a skill. As Kaufman explains, the key is to embrace the first 20 hours and learn the most important subset skills within that time frame for maximum impact.

For example:

If you're trying to learn a musical instrument, know the most common chords that get you access to 80% of songs. If you're trying to learn a new language, focus on learning the 1500-2000 most common words that will give you 80% text coverage.

Rehearsals, rehearsals, rehearsals

This is the part most of us struggle with, and what many of us don't want to hear.

The key to mastering anything faster takes practice.

It takes frequency and persistence to perform the same skill over and over again, until you can do it unconsciously, without having to think about it.

The world's best artists understand this "secret" to learning faster and becoming the best, but rarely talk about its importance due to its unsexy character.

Expert-level performance is primarily the result of expert-level practice, not innate talent.

Seek immediate feedback

In 1960, while still an unknown rock band in high school, the Beatles traveled to Hamburg, Germany to play local clubs.

The band was underpaid. The acoustics were horrible. The public did not like it. So what did the Beatles take away from the Hamburg experience?

Hours of uninterrupted play, practice and immediate feedback have forced them to improve. This is the main difference that brought the Beatles to the top, according to Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers.

As the Beatles grew in proficiency, audiences demanded more performance -- more playing time. By 1962, they were playing eight hours a night, seven nights a week. By 1964, the year they burst onto the international scene, The Beatles had performed over 1,200 concerts together.

For comparison, most bands today don't play 1,200 times in their entire career.

go long

Unfortunately, many of us give up before or during what Seth Godin calls "The Dip".

Godin describes that while knowing when to quit is important, many potential gainers do not achieve success because they quit before the downside.

According to Godin: