How to Get Better at Anything as Quickly as Possible
A few people are lucky to have a lot of talentfor a specific skill and seem to progress very quickly without a lot of effort.For the rest of us, it’s best to make an intelligent effort to progressquickly.
There’s so much information available todaythat the only real limiting factors are time and motivation. Still, there is asmart way to do anything. With theproper approach, you can develop mastery at the highest possible rate!
Follow this process and be amazedat what you can do:
- Educate yourself. Whether you want to master fundraising for a charity, the piano, cooking, gardening, or learning a language, there are hundreds of books on the topic. There are also podcasts, videos, and courses on your area of interest.
● Read three books on the topic.Avoid just reading the book. Take notes, too. Find three popular books on yourtopic and educate yourself.
● Watch two videos. There are plentyof videos online to choose from. Find an expert and see what they have to say.
● Listen to one podcast. Podcastshave never been more popular. Find an expert in your field of interest andlisten.
● Look for the recurring themes in all the educational sources you use.These are the foundational items that are the most important to master.
● Learning and getting better atanything are active processes. Look for these recurring themes rather thandigesting the information passively.
- Find a mentor. Mentors make everything happen faster. They know what matters and what doesn’t. They know all the obstacles you’re likely to face. They can provide focus, encouragement, and most importantly, feedback.
● Anybody can be a mentor to youfrom your family members, teachers, colleagues, a personaldevelopment coach, or even an expert in the subject matter at hand,what really matters is how well you both resonate with each other.
- Practice. It’s challenging to improve at anything without practice. The more you practice the better you’ll become. The more you practice, the faster you’ll improve.
● Practice with intention. Know what you’retrying to accomplish before you begin practicing. You might be working onlearning all the Russian words associated with ordering in a restaurant. Ormaybe your intention is to learn the A sharp minor scale on the guitar.
● Practice with an effective frequency.Practicing the piano multiple times each day is better than practicing justonce a day. While it would be nice to work on your public speaking skillsmultiple times each day, that might not be practical or even possible.
● Practice with focus. Your practice time ismuch less effective if you’re not paying 100% attention to what you’re doing.
● Remember: Frequent practice is the key to progress.
- Evaluate. Did you slice your drive out of bounds? Why did it happen? How consistent are your quarter notes? How accurate is your French accent? How is your public speaking coming along?
● Some things you can test yourself,like your Spanish vocabulary. Other things will require the evaluation ofsomeone with more expertise than you have. This is why it’s so great to have amentor, teacher, or a personal coach.
If you learn, practice, evaluate, and continueto repeat the process, you’ll improve as fast as humanly possible. The onlylimits are your time, focus, the quality of your mentor, and ultimately, yourtalent.
Don’t make the mistake of underestimating thevalue of how much you practice and how much focus you bring to the task. These are under your control and are thepractical limiting factors the vast majority of the time.
With time, effort, and an intelligentapproach, you can progress at anything at the highest possible rate.
