The key to mastering anything faster requires practice, and a lot of practice.

It requires frequency and persistence of performing the same skill over and over again, until you can do it subconsciously, without having to think about it.

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

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

The group was underpaid. The acoustics were terrible. The audiences were unappreciative. So what did the Beatles get out of the Hamburg experience?

Non-stop hours of playing time, practice, and immediate feedback forced them to get better. That's the key difference that rose The Beatles to the top, according to Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers .

As the Beatles grew in skill, audiences demanded more performances -- more playing time. By 1962 they were playing eight hours per night, seven nights per week. By 1964, the year they burst on the international scene, the Beatles had played over 1,200 concerts together.

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

According to Godin:

Five Reasons You Might Fail to Become the Best in the World

1. You run out of time (and quit)

2. You run out of money (and quit)

3. You get scared (and quit)

4. You're not serious about it (and quit)

5. You lose interest (and quit)

Psychologists have also studied what's known as the transition cycle. 

The reason why this is important to visualize is, that if you can predict that a dip is coming whenever you're learning anything new, it's easier to fight through it.

More importantly, the dip is there because those persistent enough to stick it through can ride the upward wave that is at the end of the tunnel.