Skill Mastery: How to Learn Any Skill Faster
I always wonder about the role of skills in our personal and professional life because we will need some skills in one condition. For example, when we should give a presentation in front of people. We need good presentation and communication skills.
As an analogy, skill-set is like a set of arrows in a quiver. We use one to shoot a target. We use another to another target. So, we need ‘these arrows’ in one desired target. We need an appropriate skill to hit the desired target.
Skill is beneficial for our life. We need to master some skills, especially in the digital age. We need to learn about digital skills. We are eager to learn it whatever our job is.
In other words, we need to adapt to the change. We can master skills that are relevant to our life and our job.
Skill is more important than a diploma
I used to think that skill is more beneficial than a diploma. It doesn’t mean that it is useless. I mean, the skill should be the focus during the study. The purpose is not to get a certificate as fast as possible but to master skills.
The questions are: What do you want to do for a living? Do you want to be an office worker or a business owner? What beneficial skills will you need then?
A diploma certificate will help you to kickstart your career. But skills will help you long last at work.
Which one is more important for you?
“Universities will try to become relevant again by not focusing on the diploma as much because companies do not require them anymore (unless a doctor or lawyer type). You will see people focusing on back skills, results, and a mega double down on personal brand. “— Richie Norton.
Skill is more important than passion
Then, I believe that skill is more important than passion after I read Cal Newport’s books. My perspective about passion changes. I used to think that pursuing a passionate job can help us to be happy. But I am wrong. We need skills mastery instead.
Like falling in love, we not only love someone, but we should prove it with struggle and effort.
Sometimes, we are confused with our passion. Cal Newport pointed out that it comes after we have sharpened our skills.
Sound logical, right?
“Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before. In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it.” — Cal Newport.
Skills are easy to learn
Based on my experience and the books that I read, I understand if the skills are easy to learn because there are tricks or tutorials in mastering any skills.
It is easy to learn any skill, but we can’t learn overnight. We can do it for several days. At least we can learn the basics for seven days or twenty hours. And we also need a commitment. Without commitment, we can’t master it quickly.
So, the first thing you have to do is strengthening your commitment.
“To become a master at any skill, it takes the total effort of your: heart, mind, and soul working together in tandem.” — Maurice Young.
Now, I want to share tips and tricks to master any skills faster based on several books, such as The First 20 Hours, Peak, Deep Work, and Mastery.
Let’s go into the steps.
Step 1: Set a specific target and use mental representation
If we want to learn any skill fast, we need to chunk it down. Because there are sub-skill in one skill. We should know which sub-skill we want to learn first. I suggest you choose some critical sub-skill. Meaning that it is the core skill.
For example, you want to learn soccer. You can choose the sub-skills like dribbling, shooting, passing.
You have to be curious about what you want to learn can it helps you to improve your performance. You can ask, “How to shoot the ball accurately?”
Even though you focus on the sub-skill, you have to use your mental representation about the overall results. You can imagine your performance when playing in a soccer club someday. It motivates you to keep on track.
Don’t overthink the result but focus on the learning process instead.
Step 2: Learn by practicing & get support from a mentor or coach
It’s good to learn by practicing. Reading or watching a technique will not make us skillful. We should practice it. Sometimes you fail. Don’t worry. Learn from it. Practice again.
If you have mastered several sub-skills, you can try to combine them in a more challenging situation.
I suggest practicing with a mentor or coach. They can give you real-time feedback on your progress. This feedback gets you to improve faster. So, let’s find a mentor or coach.
Step 3: Short and intense deliberate practice
You need to schedule your learning time. Then set your duration for at least three hours a day to master it for seven days. You can learn 1.5 hours before sleeping and 1.5 hours after sleeping.
It’s good to give intense focus on your learning time because it helps you to practice deliberately. It means you can feel your progress.
The last thing is you have to evaluate the result. You can take notes. What’s better? What’s need to improve?
After that, practice it better than before. Try to perfecting the tiny detail of the skill and fixing the mistakes of the execution.
I can conclude that we need skills for personal and professional life. Luckily, we can learn any skills easily and quickly. You can use my tips and trick above. Then, you can master any skill as long as you are persistent toward your target.
Shoot an arrow to an appropriate target.
Good luck!
