Cinquafoil.
10 Ways Some
People Learn Things Much Faster Than Others
Matt Duczeminski
Humans’ ability to learn complex, abstract ideas and
concepts is what separates us
from all the other species on the planet. But that
doesn’t mean it’s a simple process.
And anyone who’s taken calculus can attest to that.
If you’re looking for “tricks” that will allow you to
take in information or gain abilities effortlessly
like Neo in “The Matrix”, you might be disappointed to
discover that you simply won’t find them here. What you will find are tried and
true methods which require discipline,
but almost guarantee success.
If you’re willing to put in the time and effort required
to learn something new, following these ways that those who learn faster
already live by will certainly make the process as easy as possible.
1. They Set
a Purpose
Everyone’s done it: you watch a video of Jimi
Hendrix shredding on the guitar and think,
“I wish I could do that.” You take a forkful of your
favorite meal from your favorite five-star restaurant and think, “I wonder
if I could make this at home.”
You finish reading a book that has kept your attention
for an entire Sunday afternoon
and wonder how in the world someone could create
something so magical.
Well, the truth is, none of these creators did so by
accident. They all started out not knowing
the first things about how to create any of what is now
seemingly easy for them to do.
But they set a purpose for learning their skill: what did
they want to learn,
and what did they hope to get out of learning it?
When setting out to learn something new, don’t just say,
“I wish I could do that.”
Instead, say, “I wish I could do that so I could…”,
knowing your skill will be put into practice
once you become a master at it.
2. They Set
Measurable, Reasonable, and Reachable Goals
Maybe you won’t be the next Hendrix, or the next Stephen
King. The goal of learning isn’t to surpass anyone else but yourself. When
setting out to learn a new task, you should set daily
and long-term goals that are doable and actionable, and
which build upon your current skill set.
If you’ve decided you want to learn a new language,
it would be counterproductive to set your goal as, “By the end of this month, I
will be conversational in Spanish.”
For one thing, it most likely will not happen, and you
will assuredly feel let down.
Secondly, there’s no way to measure what “conversational”
Spanish is. Instead, set a goal such as, “Today I will study Spanish vocabulary
related to the family, and by the end of the week
I will be able to teach my son the Spanish translations
for father, mother, sister, and brother.”
By setting tangible goals, you can measure the
effectiveness of your studies,
and modify them accordingly.
3. They Set a
Schedule
Along with setting goals, you also must set a schedule
for your learning.
Learning a new skill doesn’t just require practice; it
requires study, comprehension,
and practical use as well. Learning to play the guitar,
for example, involves reading about
how to string and tune the instrument, listening to how
chords should sound, understanding
why certain chords sound good together, and how to place
your fingers on the fret board.
In this case, it’s not enough for you to say, “I’ll
practice guitar for an hour a day.”
Instead, set a schedule to include all aspects of the
instrument: Today I will watch a YouTube video on stringing and tuning the
guitar, then I will do it myself; tomorrow I will read about
the most common chords used, and practice playing each of
them in succession.
By the end of the week, I will strum a G, D, and then a C
chord to create a song of my own.
By setting a schedule for your learning, you reinforce
the goals you’ve set for yourself.
4. They Collect
Multiple Resources
Remember in high school when you were assigned 15 pages
to read in your history book
for homework? If you were anything like your faithful
Lifehacker, you probably read them,
memorized the names and dates you saw,
passed the quiz the next day,
and promptly forgot everything you’d read the night
before.
Obviously, that’s not an effective way to learn anything.
To truly learn everything
about a specific topic, you need to collect various
books, articles, videos,
and other media pertaining to the subject in question.
And you actually have to use them.
Don’t be discouraged if you don’t understand a concept
during an initial reading of a text;
make a note of it, push forward, and come back to it
later. Chances are, after watching a video
or listening to a podcast, your mind will be able to wrap
itself around ideas
that were
completely new to you hours or days before.
5. They Review and
Record Progress
Learning is, of course, a long-term process. But it’s not
one long, continuous process
with a singular goal (as mentioned before); there are
steps along the way.
Each of these steps need to be reviewed and evaluated
upon completion to assure accuracy,
and to tweak technique if needed. Like we said before,
it’s not enough to simply read pages
from a book, especially if you didn’t
comprehend what you read.
Be honest with yourself at the end of a learning session.
If something was difficult,
make a note of it, and come back to it. Pressing forward
to the next step without solidifying
your foundation of understanding will certainly lead to
disaster.
On the other hand, recording and reviewing your
accomplishments over the past week, month,
or year is a great confidence booster. Even if you’re not
the best (yet),
you’ll see how far you’ve come from knowing absolutely
nothing.
6. They Follow a
Model
No matter how good you get at whatever skill you’ve set
out to learn,
there will be ways to get better.
And, unless you’re a World Record holder, there will
always be someone better than you.
This isn’t a bad thing; having someone to look up to is
beneficial in many ways.
For one, it gives you something to strive
for. Secondly, you can further your learning
by analyzing an expert’s performance. Sure, Hendrix
taught himself how to play guitar,
but he was influenced by greats like BB King and
Muddy Waters.
The man commonly thought to be the greatest guitarist of
all time may never have even picked up
a 6-string if it wasn’t for the greats that preceded him.
When learning something new,
don’t be pressured to reinvent the wheel – just look to
improve upon it in your own way.
7. They Search Out
Feedback
We live in such an amazing time, in which professionals
in all fields
are more than happy to give feedback to beginners in
order to help them improve.
Don’t be shy; many experts are honored that people come
to them for advice.
Of course, they may not have time to get to everyone
though, so broaden your scope.
If you’re trying to break into the blogging business,
search out other authors
who have successful blogs within your chosen niche, and
read about them.
Once you have a good idea about how they got where they
are,
and you have a decent amount of articles posted, seek them
out and see what they say.
Don’t be discouraged if they have some criticism; it’s
exactly why you contacted them
in the first place. Instead, use their advice to focus
your practice on improving those specific areas. Constructive criticism from
experts is perhaps the most valuable tool
you can have when
learning something new.
8. They Teach
Others
As we just mentioned, there are a ton of experts out
there who are more than happy to teach beginners how to get moving. You can be
this person to anyone below you in skill level!
While watching pros do their thing can be intimidating,
teaching people who are just getting started has the
opposite effect.
Although it might be a tad selfish, it definitely will
make you feel better watching a beginner fumble through playing their first
song; but this is mostly because you’ve been there, and you know
they’ll soon improve. Doing so also gives you
perspective; you might not be a professional,
but you definitely have gotten better from when you just
started.
Lastly, to be able to teach something requires you to
have a deeper understanding of the skill,
so you can explain to your student why what their
learning is important,
and where they will go from where they are.
9. They Reward
Themselves
Successful people find various ways to reward themselves.
Mind you, these rewards
are not counterintuitive (such as rewarding yourself for
hitting your fastest mile mark by taking
a week off from
training, or rewarding yourself for your weight loss by eating a bowl of ice
cream), but actually build upon accomplishments. Notice the implication of the
previous example:
the person might be training to get into shape,
but he’d much rather be sitting on the couch watching TV.
If he actually wanted to beat his fastest mile, he
wouldn’t take a day off at all. Instead,
he might reward himself by running through the park
instead of on the treadmill,
or taking his kids for a relaxing jog instead of going
all out.
The reward and motivation to get better is intrinsic: the
outcome is the reward.
With this way of thinking, every small accomplishment
made is another reward
on the path to success.
10. They Learn on
Their Own Terms
The best learners are able to translate abstract concepts
and ideas into layman’s terms,
not for others, but for themselves. I used to find
my wife, an incredibly hard-working student
of optometry, muttering to herself about a
subconjunctival hemorrhage caused by
a ruptured blood vessel in the eye, which
sounded absolutely frightening until she clarified:
“Oh, it’s just a bloodshot eye.” (Note: That’s an
oversimplification that I had to Google
to even come close to pulling off, but hopefully you get
my point).
Using Tier III language (field-specific jargon), and
translating it into every day vocabulary
is imperative to truly understanding the concepts behind
the skill you wish to learn.
By using the language of the field in your every day
life, the learned skill becomes
not just something you know, but it becomes a part of who
you are.
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/10-ways-some-people-learn-things-much-faster-than-others.html
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Advanced Reading Skills Perhaps you’d like to join my FaceBook group ?
Perhaps
you’d like to check out my sister blogs:
www.innermindworking.blogspot.com
gives many ways for you to work with the stresses of life
www.ourinnerminds.blogspot.com which takes advantage of the experience
and expertise of others.
www.happyartaccidents.blogspot.com just for fun.
To
quote the Dr Seuss himself, “The more that you read, the more things you will
know.
The
more that you learn; the more places you'll go.”
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