Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Barack Obama, Oprah, and many more <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/317602">top performers dedicate a lot of their time to learning a variety of skills </a>that allowed them to be where they are today. All of them have achieved much because of what they've learned and what they know. They are not more intelligent, they just dedicate more of their time on learning most valuable skills.

Each of these skills can be learned to a level in which you can be good enough in it in under 8 hours of practice - one full work day! But be careful, practicing any skill for long hours will not yield the results you expect. Your brain doesn't assimilate new knowledge that way. The first skill in the list is the basis of every other skill you're going to learn for the rest of your life. It's no surprise then that <a href="https://medium.com/swlh/the-3-most-important-skills-to-learn-now-to-thrive-in-2019-be7a29bb16bf">I listed it as the #1 skill to learn to thrive in 2019 in my highest performing article yet. </a> Do you want to change your life forever?

Start with the following skills, in no particular order, with the exception of the first one: <ul><li>Learning to learn </li><li>Writing </li><li>Public speaking </li><li>Meditation </li><li>Forming good habits </li><li>Negotiation </li><li>Mathematical thinking </li><li>Coordination and flexibility </li> </ul>When I started my journey to learning, I was slightly disorganized and didn't fully understand what I was getting into. With practice, I understood the importance of knowing how our brain truly works. Today, learning anything new isn't as hard as it used to be. Just this month, I'm learning how to write a book in Spanish, composing epic music (starting from zero knowledge in music), developing backends in the Go language, and salsa dancing (again, starting from zero knowledge of dancing).

If that sounds overwhelming to you, it should, at least for now. And it may seem to you that I'm spending 100% of my time learning these skills, but the truth is that I'm only just practicing 30 minutes each every day. In 15 hours of deliberate practice, I'll be able to do each of these where I'll be confident enough to say I've acquired a skill.

The reason I'm able to do that is that I've learned to learn. While that obviously comes with practice, here's how you can do this too: It would take a whole book to teach you how to learn to learn. To keep this article at a respectable length, I'll refer you to this other story I wrote which details the keys aspects of learning to learn: Watch 30 minutes of the <a href="https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn">Learning to Learn class </a>on 2x speed for 16 days.

Learning new skills increases your motivation, makes you more adaptable, relatable, interesting and helps you get better jobs and earn more money . Just yesterday, I led a workshop where every member learned to create their own online store and made money on that very same day! Who would have thought that it's something I would have taught someday in my life! But it's not just me. One of the most inspiring members of my SkillUp your Life program, Prithviraj, learned to swim and that led to him getting a new awesome job, greatly increasing his salary and improving the lives of his parents and other people surrounding him.

I never aimed to write. If you asked me just a year ago what I thought about writing, I'd tell you it's not for me. I'm a programmer. I code and I love it. But then in January of 2018, I decided that I should improve my writing skills, simply because it's one of our most powerful method of communication and it's valuable both in life and in business. After 5 days of writing, I got published by <a href="https://medium.com/swlh">The Startup </a>. 23 days later, I became a top writer in 7 categories. I received incredible comments from my reader and really started to enjoy it.

I always meant to stop after 30 days of practice but with all the momentum I had going, I had to keep going. So here I am writing this piece 10 months after I wrote <a href="https://medium.com/@danny_forest/i-learn-3-new-skills-a-month-and-so-can-you-61b328a8ba5">my first piece on Medium.com </a>. Like any skill, you learn by doing. But here's a trick most people don't do: write publicly. You learn better when people can actually see your work. It forces you to dig deeper and do your very best. It gives you accountability. You get feedback from others and improved based on it.

Create a blog and publish regularly and consistently. Try publishing once a day on Medium, even when you're not satisfied with your results. People don't have to read it. No need to write a crazy amount every day. Start small. <a href="https://medium.com/u/a6a3060b07f1?source=post_page-----75e7b339373a----------------------">MR. Molly Maguire </a>started with one sentence a day and now writes complete blog posts. Write 300 words a day in 30-45 minutes in 12-16 days and publish on Medium.com or your own blog.

Writing helps you define your voice . It helps you get clarity on who you are and who you want to become . Little did I know that my stories could inspire other people , yet for the past 10 months, I've been a top writer in inspiration, <a href="https://medium.com/tag/inspiration/top-writers">currently ranking #5 </a>. Your story is your story alone. It has the power to change both your life and that of others . You learn to become a better storyteller , which is a crucial skill both life and business.

As a shy introvert, I've never really wanted to do any public speaking. In school, to get me out of the shyness, I'd act out some confidence in front of the class. It worked pretty well. It's actually a technique I still use. Whenever I do a presentation in front of an audience, I picture myself in the shoes of Tony Robbins. Isn't there anyone more comfortable in front of a large audience than Tony Robbins?

Before writing in January, I picked up Storytelling and Public Speaking as two of the skills I would practice for the month. Little did I know that both these skills would become valuable in my writing after. Seek opportunities to speak in front of groups. Start with people you're comfortable with, like your friends and family. Talk about subjects you're really passionate about. When you talk about things you love, around people you love, the nervousness doesn't kick in. Recognize that the first time you tell a story, it won't be perfect. Take notes of people's non-verbal reactions. Notice people's interest level with each sentence you say.

Public speaking is all about refining your stories. When ready, attend Toastmasters events. Do talks at your workplace. Do a TEDx talk. Sky's the limit! Attend and participate in one 1-2 Toastmasters event (or similar) every week for 4-8 weeks. In <a href="https://amzn.to/2Ojyx9L">High Performance Habits </a>, <a href="https://medium.com/u/d6996436a569?source=post_page-----75e7b339373a----------------------">Brendon Burchard </a>claims that confidence is a key ingredient in raising your clarity, necessity, energy, productivity, influence, and courage . Nothing builds confidence more than doing a successful public speech.

Back in September, I tried meditation with a friend in Cambodia and failed miserably. It took me 4 months after that attempt to finally give it a go again. Once I had the right mindset and I consistently practiced, I actually became good at it. As a beginner, I strongly suggest guided meditation. I'll list what has been most helpful for me in the resources section below. What's good about guided meditation is that it teaches you that it's okay to have thoughts and guides you through a greater clarity of mind, which is what meditation really is about.

You learn to be aware of how your body and mind feel. You learn to relax, even when you feel like you're too nervous to relax. What's important that a lot of people don't realize is that it takes time to learn it. Don't try once and leave. Meditate at least once a day for at least 10 minutes. You'll feel all types of emotions. In the beginning, I was bursting in laughter when instructed to count my breaths. Sometimes you'll be frustrated. No matter the emotion, don't let it go to your head. You have control over it. The more hours of practice you put it, the easier it gets.

It's also important that you practice where you won't be disturbed. And as a beginner, try where there isn't too much ambient noise. Some people will tell you to sit to meditate but I started by laying in my bed, otherwise, I didn't feel comfortable enough and concentrated on that.

So whichever pose they tell you to take, try it, but comfort is more important in my opinion, especially when learning. Do 20 minutes of Headspace a day for 24 days. Here are some of the long-term benefits I got from learning to meditate: I reduced the time it took me to fall asleep from 1-2 hours to 10-15 minutes. The quality of my sleep also tends to be better . I'm not a stressful person, but I've seen a reduction of stress nonetheless. A lot of people report being much less stressed from doing meditation.

I have more clarity on my emotions, body, and mind , leading me to make better decisions . And one I find really important but is often overlooked: I'm much faster at context switching . Most of us work on different projects at the same time, and switching from one context to another takes time. I reduce that time by doing a quick 5-minute meditation session. Of course, you can expect similar results in your life when you stick to it.

Forming good habits is a powerful tool to increase your motivation for doing anything. Forming bad habits, on the flip-side, can be extremely dangerous for your life. By knowing how habits take form and how they work, you can better control what habits you form and get rid of habits that are detrimental to you. The best way I've found to learn to keep your habits in check is to be accountable for your good or bad habits. Find one or multiple people that you report to on a regular basis. The more frequent the better.

Find someone you don't know that much, or at all. They're less likely to sugarcoat it for you and will be less lenient. Ideally, that someone would be working on the same habits. Noticed how people tend to stick to the gym more when they go with someone else or take classes? That's accountability at work. Habits, contrary to beliefs, are not located in the same area of your brain as your memories. Astonishingly, and consequently, people with learning disabilities can still form habits. That's also how you can never truly unlearn to ride a bicycle.

Find and report to an accountability partner every day. Spend 10 minutes exchanging and encouraging each other. Do that for at about 48 days. I used to go straight to my video games after work, playing all evening and going to bed late. When I was only 15 years old, my older brother told me the following, after always seeing me play my Gameboy Advance on the couch every day: "You'll never do anything in life."

Find and report to an accountability partner every day. Spend 10 minutes exchanging and encouraging each other. Do that for at about 48 days. I used to go straight to my video games after work, playing all evening and going to bed late. When I was only 15 years old, my older brother told me the following, after always seeing me play my Gameboy Advance on the couch every day: I'm happy to prove him wrong now. Most of it started when I formed the good habit of practicing 3 skills every morning before starting work.

I'm now in the best physical shape I've ever been in my life, I eat healthier , workout almost every day , I learn something new on a daily basis , and I sleep much better . As a result, I live a happier and more fulfilled life . When your habits work in favour of taking care of your health, you start to see positive change in your life. You're more motivated to get rid of the bad habits and become more driven . Book: <a href="https://amzn.to/2Qkmbjw">The Power of Habits </a>

Now, this is a skill I personally need to spend more time on. I count Selling, Saying "yes" and Saying "no" as part of negotiating. How often can you create win-win situations? That's what true negotiation is about. A negotiation where only one of two parties gets to win is not a negotiation, it's a loss. For centuries, people and organizations alike have thrived by mastering the art of negotiation. Without good negotiation skills, businesses stand no chance. It was true hundreds of years ago, and it's even truer today and beyond.

8 hours? Are you kidding me? It takes 10,000 hours to learn a new skill! Wrong! 10,000 hours of deliberate practice is the amount of time it takes to be a top performer in a highly competitive field, according to Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Outliers.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

mindfulness

Mindfulness

education

Learning & Education

problemsolving

Problem Solving

meditation

Meditation

8 Timeless Skills to Learn Now in Under 8 Hours to Change your Life Forever

Let's say it was one sentence. There, you avoided a Zero Day. It's that fucking simple. Seriously. Two very distinct things happen when you pull this off: <ol><li>You feel pretty damn good about yourself, because no matter how small, you stayed on track. </li><li>You're that much closer to your goal. </li> </ol>Voila, done. Yes, that easy. Not a trick.

You do something from your list which aligns with your goals. I don't care what it is, but you do something. I also don't care how small that something is. Remember the example above? A written novel was one of those goals. Let's say 10 PM hits, you're about to jump in bed, and you haven't done anything. What do you do? You write one sentence, at the least. Maybe you can eke out a paragraph, or even a page.

You fail to decide what you want out of life, and in turn you fail to define your goals. If you don't know what you want, how can you do something every day which propels you in the right direction? That's not a trick question - the answer is you can't. You'll float around, hoping for a miracle. So far that miracle hasn't come, huh? Shocker. If you can define what it is you're looking for, and you feel you're getting dangerously close to a Zero Day, the solution is as follows:

What changed here? Nothing. There goes a Zero Day. As I promised earlier, it's really not hard to avoid them. You have one simple goal to achieve. It's as follows: Your only goal, on a daily basis, is simple - you do something, no matter how small, which has you walking toward your vision of life. In other words, your goals. Your dreams. There's only one small step which trips up a lot of people, and is the reason most of you consistently have Zero Days time and time again:

It's as if you purposely wanted to do everything but your task list. Wait though; that's not far from the truth. You actively avoided your to-dos. And there, ladies and gentlemen, is your Zero Day . You may have filled your time doing things, and things which aren't inherently bad (such as cleaning your place), but those crucial couple to-do's you had, like writing your novel and researching the investment opportunity, fell flat. Now let me drop this bit on you - you want to become a full-time writer because you hate your current career, and you're hoping to fund it through some of your investments, including the one you failed to research.

Now let's move onto the less bullshitty activities: <ol><li>You didn't write anything towards your novel. You really wanted to, but you didn't. </li><li>You didn't research the investment opportunity. You told yourself no big deal, you have time and you didn't feel like it today. Always tomorrow. </li> </ol>You had four things you wanted to tackle, and you have four things left at the end of the day. What did you fill your time with? The usual suspects come up: social media, TV, some online browsing and/or shopping, cleaning your place, literally just sitting there, and more.

Let's start with the "useless" activities: <ol><li>You didn't call your insurance company. Ok, that's excusable - after all, it's Saturday. They're obviously closed. Something about business hours, yada yada yada. </li><li>You didn't run the errand. Ok, somewhat excusable - it's nothing really important, you just needed to run to Target and pick up a few random things. Your livelihood doesn't depend on this one. No rush. </li> </ol>

The other two are a little less bullshitty - one involves sitting down and writing for this novel you want to publish, and the other involves doing some research on this investment opportunity you want to throw some money towards. The coffee is hot and steaming, the sun is just peeking out, and you've got the whole day to tackle it. Now, fast forward the day, and imagine it's 8 PM; the coffee is long gone and so is the sun.

8 AM Saturday morning rolls around and just out of bed. You take a nice hot shower, prepare your cup of coffee, sit down, and open up your planner. You've got four things you need to do. Sounds easy enough, to be honest. Two of them are fairly useless activities like calling your insurance company and running a random errand.

There's an easy way out of this dark rabbit hole though, and I'm not just saying it to sucker you into reading this entire article in some click-bait fashion. If you want the simple answer on how to get out of the deep hole, it really is as simple as this: do something towards your goals every day . If you can manage to follow this simple step, zero days will be a thing of the past. If you're still trying to figure out if you partake in Zero Days, let me explain it a bit more for you.

It starts with a task list. Then distractions. Then we get distracted. The task list's still there, unfazed. Anger sets in. Rinse, repeat. Except this isn't mouthwash we're talking about here. This is your livelihood. But at the end of the day, it doesn't seem to faze us until we're slapped with a dose of "you did nothing you useless bag of potatoes". Zero days , as they're infamously known, are your biggest problem. That's my scientific take. They're your biggest problem because it's the easiest thing to fall victim to. All you have to do is... well, nothing . And voila, you've become a victim to it.

We like games. Video games, board games, cell phone games, and unfortunately relationship games. There's a really popular mental game we play with ourselves, too. It goes something like this: let's see how much we can put off in the shortest amount of time. And then let's follow it up immediately with seeing how mad we can get for pulling off such a feat.

We like games. Video games, board games, cell phone games, and unfortunately relationship games. There's a really popular mental game we play with ourselves, too. It goes something like this: let's see how much we can put off in the shortest amount of time.

8 Timeless Skills to Learn Now in Under 8 Hours to Change your Life Forever

The "No Zero" Day - One Simple Way To Never Have An Unproductive Day

Netera Dawn Steward