Becoming a quick learner: One thing at a time

There are two main ways you can do this:

• Get feedback from other people: When it comes to speaking a new language, for example, you can get immediate feedback by learning with a teacher.
• Setup your own feedback systems: If you’re learning to play guitar, you can make recordi...

Once you’ve decided on a skill you want to learn, it’s time to do some preliminary research. You need to know what you’re getting yourself into.

The idea is to quickly familiarize yourself with the skill until you have a mental map that identifies:

• Keys to success

Also called Pareto’s principle, the rule states that 80% of your results come from just 20% of your efforts.

• 80% of a business's profits come from 20% of its customers
• 80% of your time is spent with 20% of the people you know
• 80% of the fun you hav...

The problem with trying to practice perfectly is that you may end up spending way too much time overanalyzing and overthinking about how to get it “right”, rather than just doing it.

A case in point is the language learner who spends countless hours studying grammar because they don’t ...

• People will tell you that you need to find a mentor, but these days you can find dozens of them without even leaving your house.
• In the age of free information, more and more experts are offering their advice online and sharing their successes, failures, and secrets with anyone who w...

• Pre-commit to at least 20 hours of practice. As soon as you start learning a skill, you must finish the 20 hours, without giving up, no matter what.
• After the 20 hours, you’ll have experienced enough of the skill, and be far enough along the learning curve to decide if this is really...