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Editor’s note: There is an old saying that “skills are not overwhelming”, and life is alive. Whether it is in the workplace or in personal life, one more skill seems to be a better choice. However, some people say that “skills do not support others”, we should be selective enough to be proficient in a certain field. The original title of this series of articles is Your Essential Guide to Learn New Skills Fast. The author Danny Forest has systematically shared with you how to quickly acquire new skills. The author does not agree with the statement that “skills do not support others.” Instead, he believes that it is not impossible to achieve mastery and mastery. This is the first part of a series of articles, which mainly introduces the importance and necessity of skills acquisition from the perspective of theory and background. At the same time, it also proposes several steps to quickly acquire skills, hoping to enlighten you.

Image source: Pixabay @Pexels

In the past year and a half, after deliberately training and acquiring more than 50 new skills, I have concluded a variety of ways to learn skills. What’s more worth mentioning is that these methods are not only interesting and practical, but also really allow me to change my life development trajectory.

Before sharing these skills acquisition experiences, I hope to give you a pinning pin in advance: in fact, skills acquisition is not as scary as imagined. Through this series of articles, I also hope to be able to share with you the most effective methods I have learned during the skills acquisition process.

For many people, they regularly learn some new skills, but unfortunately, they haven’t thought deeply about this aspect before or in the process of confirming their learning skills. In my opinion, learning new skills can actually be understood as an activity performed by our brain “without our consent”.

This series of articles is divided into 8 parts. Among them, the core part is the fifth part, but I also hope that you can calm down and read the contents of the previous four departments to further understand our brain operations.The way we work, what exactly counts as skills, and why we need to learn and master new skills.

Lazy Directory

I. Brief overview: learning and brain

Second, the core guide

What are skills?

Four or seven reasons that make you have to learn new skills

Five or four steps, let you learn new skills within 20 hours

6. Should I aim for “Mastery”?

7. After watching so much, how should I practice it?

eight, write at the end

Appendix A: Examples of skills that can be learned in 15-20 hours

I. Brief overview: learning and brain

Image source: Shutterstock.com

In the following, I will not introduce the scientific details related to the operation of the brain. I will only use some common words such as “brain” and “memory” to make it easier for everyone to understand what I share.

Basically, skills are actually a series of connections in the brain. When you are practicing a set of actions, your brain creates this series of connections.

While this statement may seem like a good thing, it’s not necessarily true in practice. The brain cannot tell you which ones are good and which ones are bad. That’s why you develop bad habits. The brain just records your various behaviors and stores them in your memory.

In addition, we think that new skills are difficult to learn and master. The reason behind it is also based on the above facts. After all, we cannot make the correct connection in the brain. We ca n’t get throughCorrect behavior to make the process of acquiring new skills easier.

Here, I want to emphasize once again the word I used in the first paragraph of the article: intentional.

When you deliberately focus your attention on the correct behavior of learning new things, you are actually directing your brain to create the connections you want to achieve.

This is actually very effective.

Second, the core guide

The focus of this series of articles will be on how to learn a certain skill, rather than a specific skill, that is, teach it to fish, not fish. In addition, I will also share with you the important reason why we need to comprehensively enrich our personal skills package in today’s era.

It is also worth mentioning that this series of articles is also a condensed summary of more than 120 articles I have written in the past in terms of skills learning, including learning insights and methods I have personally practiced, and have read Books on related topics and related courses studied, as well as various data resources collected and collated from multiple channels.

I hope that through this series of core guides, you can find and start the right journey of learning and developing skills.

What are skills?

Image source: Unsplash @Quino Al

My favorite version of the definition of skills is: skills are the ability to learn something well. This definition is short and concise, but I hope to expand on it:

• “Ability” means a certain degree of proficiency or mastery.

• “Go” means the behavior behind it (the key!).

• “Learning well” means level, like 6 or more points with 0-10 points, but not necessarily 9 or more points (another key!).

• The word “things”, although a bit ambiguous, also happens to illustrate another situation, where the definition of skills is very broad.
  

  SoIs writing a skill? It is a skill, but it is not a practical skill that you must learn.

  In fact, skills can be divided into several sub-skills. The so-called writing skills can actually be understood as comprehensive skills in many fields such as language, grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, format, storytelling, writing and even imagination.

  A professional writer with very rich writing experience and strong writing ability, he must be very proficient in these various skills. Whether writing or other skills, with the help of knowledge in other areas, he will promote your skills.

  From the above skills related to writing skills, you can also learn about the learning methods that I will share below.

  However, when you think of a skill, you can take the initiative to split it and think about the sub-skills required to master this skill. After passing such training for a long time, you will also develop details. Thinking about the habits of great wisdom will help you achieve larger and more ambitious goals.

  Four or seven reasons make you have to learn new skills

  

  When I first started deliberately practicing and acquiring skills, the goal I set for myself was to learn and master three skills every month, and practice three skills each day for half an hour. I have two main reasons for this goal I set:

  1. They are useful.

  2. They are also interesting.

  These two reasons should be the most reasonable and the two most common reasons.

  During my personal practice, I found that if I can learn so many skills in a short time, it can also bring many benefits that I had never thought of before.

  The following five reasons are not necessarily ordered by importance, but they are equally important.

  3. You will also become more interesting

  Unexpectedly, I didn’t realize it. But when I look back, I find it important.

  When you learn multiple skills, you will naturally increase your knowledge. For me, in addition to having in-depth conversations with other software engineers (I am also a software engineer), I can now introduce topics in other related fields for discussion.

  Through electronUnderstanding of business, video editing, camera, art, Spanish learning, composition, website development and many other aspects, I also made more new friends.

  Before that, I was introverted and quiet by nature. When there were no engineers or game developers around me, it was even difficult for me to adapt to the corresponding environment. And all this has gradually changed in the past year and a half, which is a miracle for me!

  So, in the final analysis, in-depth development of interpersonal and professional relationships is actually very beneficial.

  4. You will learn faster

  Another fact that surprised me is that the more you learn, the faster you learn. In this regard, I will elaborate in the next section, it is also one of the key factors to learn how to learn.

  A simple example: If you know one Romance language, is it easier to learn another Romance language? As a native of France, I naturally feel easier and simpler to learn Spanish than English. After all, Spanish and French are derived from Latin.

  5. You will have a stronger learning motivation

  As you continue to practice a skill, you are bound to improve. And progress is equal to winning. The more victories you have, the more dopamine your brain can secrete (dopamine is one of the important factors influencing life satisfaction). The higher your satisfaction, the more motivated you are when you do things.

  For me, continuously completing three skills every morning, then I can win three victories every morning, and this is just the beginning of the day. So, you can think about how much motivation this can generate for me.

  6. You will also have more energy

  The authors and interviewers I met almost mentioned my daily energy status. The problem is simple, I am very energetic, actually because I really like what I do.

  If you are doing something that you are more interested in, do you have more energy to deal with it?

  Skill development can actually become very interesting. I never thought I would fall in love with salsa, but when I came into contact with it, I found that it might even be one of the most interesting skills I have learned and mastered.

  After completing the rehearsal every morning, when I think about the progress I have made since the first day, I will become very energetic, just like the chicken blood.

  If you want to learn a new skill, don’t forget the fun side. If you can’t enjoy the process, you should at least think about what it can do for you.

  For example, a higher salary allows you to have more disposable funds, so you can participate in more paid activities and arrangements with your family. forIn order to achieve this goal, don’t you think that you will be more energetic and motivated to do things immediately?

  7. You will become more successful

  Robert Greene, author of “Mastery,” writes in the book, “The future is to learn and master more skills and use those skills in creative practice. Those people. “

  I strongly agree with this view. Since I have fully developed and expanded my skills, I have found that I have more opportunities. With more opportunities, I will be better able to choose the most suitable, and then calm down to do what I care about most.

  Now, I have been able to work freely anytime, anywhere, and it has been relatively successful. But success doesn’t just mean freedom. Success may be defined differently for different people. For me, it is to achieve a comprehensive and balanced development and harvest in terms of finance, health, love, family and happiness.

  After explaining what skills are and the need to learn them, you can come to the most important part of this series of core guides, namely how to acquire skills?

  Five or four steps, let you learn new skills within 20 hours

  In the eyes of many people, they think that skills learning may be a linear growth process over time, as shown in the figure below.

  

  Or as shown below, it is still a linear and continuous growth process.

  

  But the first case is completely wrong, the second picture is closer to the facts, and may be accepted by most people, but it is also incorrect. This is just a view of our learning effect, but the actual learning effect may actually make people more depressed, after all, the actual learning effect change process may be as shown below:

  

  During skill development and acquisition, you often encounter a so-called “plateaus.” But unfortunately, most people stop after the stagnation period, and think that this is their limit.

  But the truth is, the limits are all personal imagination. We can do much more than we think. In sports, we always see news of athletes breaking the record. Therefore, as long as it can break the record, the limit can be broken, and it will only continue to set new highs again and again.

  So, let ’s dig deeper and learn new skills in 20 hours by following these four steps:

  Step 1: Think thoroughly and thoroughly

  When you were studying in school when you were a kid, all kinds of answers are basically in front of you. The teacher will tell you the specific methods and steps in detail, so that you can better understand and learn a certain concept. After walking out of school and into society, most people may not think about how we should learn new things. And most of the time, we indulge in the Internet and enjoy the so-called personal life.

  Different people have different skills learning methods. For one person, the best skill learning methods may not be applicable to others at all.

  Actually, the best way to learn skills is to find out how to combine the skills you have learned to promote new skills. I will explain in detail in the next step.

  And before hurriedly deciding to learn a skill, you should take the time to think about your skills learning plan. In this regard, you can think about the following:

  • What does mastering this skill mean to me?

  • Can I split this skill into several sub-skills?

  • What resources can I use to learn this skill?

  • Can I keep track of my progress?

  • How can I maintain deliberate and continuous practice during the skills learning process?
    

    Of course, making a skill learning plan cannot be just a bureauLimited to these five issues. You should consider and list other issues according to your actual situation. Understand your own strengths and weaknesses, and then personalize your own skills learning program. At the same time, don’t rush to achieve success. If necessary, you can always split your skills learning program.

    Step 2: Drawing a skill tree

    

    In order to learn to master portrait shooting skills, I will think in advance and draw the sub-skills that I must master, and display them clearly in the form of a skill tree.

    The so-called skill tree is a strong and effective way that allows you to understand and understand the skills you have mastered more clearly, and how to expand and learn more new skills based on this.
    

    If you want to learn new skills within 20 hours, you must understand your current abilities and think carefully about what you can learn next. If you have never played video, then if you want to master portrait shooting skills in 15 hours, I am afraid it is a bit of a fanfare.

    To further elaborate and explain the concept of skill trees,

    • Walking: Stand still-> crawl-> stand with both feet-> active legs while standing-> body balance < / p>

      From the “walk” branch, we can further draw the following branches:

      • Running: walking-> leg-arm coordination-> kick strength-> higher order body balance

      • High jump: walking-> flexing legs-> strength of the legs-> higher body balance

      • Bicycle: Walk-> Sit firmly on the bike-> Leg movement around the leg-> Two-handed manipulation-> Hand-leg coordination-> Momentum-> etc p>
        

        So, asIf you can’t walk, you can’t learn to run.

        Step 3: Stay to the end

        After understanding the necessary conditions for learning and mastering new skills, and having a clearer understanding of specific learning methods, you should take the time to practice. With short text, I cannot describe in detail the importance of continuous practice. However, in terms of learning new skills, the more you practice, the easier it becomes, and of course you can build more connections in your brain.

        There are absolutely no shortcuts for skills learning. To master new skills, you must deliberately and continuously practice.

        Starting from step 1, you should spend one week carefully implementing your plan. Comprehensively think about past learning experiences, which have proven effective and which have proven wrong, and adjust appropriately according to the actual situation. In addition, you should always pay attention to and record the actual situation of your practice process. If necessary, you can also use various efficiency tools to record and evaluate your progress.

        At the same time, try to find an accountability partner to monitor and further urge you to stick to it. You can find friends around you or friends you know on the network as accountability partners. You can also join various skill learning communities and groups and supervise each other with the members.

        It is worth noting that no matter what you do, it may not be ideal at the beginning. This is the most normal thing. The people who really learn the best are those who continue to be willing to try and fight after experiencing countless failures.

        Finally, where appropriate, you can also continuously adjust and update your skill tree as needed. When you visually feel your skills learn and grow through the skill tree, you will find that everything is very worthwhile, and it will bring you more value.

        Whatever you do, do n’t stop when you experience setbacks. Setbacks are the beginning of your true learning.

        Step 4: Improve your memory

        In this step, I will describe memory as the theme, so that you understand the important role that memory plays in the skill learning process.

        1. Long-term memory

        Our brain has two memory systems: short-term memory and long-term memory. Among them, short-term memory can be understood as working memory. To explain briefly, short-term memory basically occurs in the prefrontal lobe of the brain.

        

        Image source: thebrain.mcgill.ca

        Long-term memory is stored in the hippocampus (the hippocampus is located between the cerebral thalamus and the medial temporal lobe).
        

        

        The purple part is the hippocampus. Image source: thebrain.mcgill.ca

        “Memory” always starts with short-term memory. But if you want to look back and think about something you have learned in the past, you must move from short-term memory to long-term memory.
        

        So how to turn short-term memory into long-term memory? It can actually be achieved in multiple ways, but I will show it directly through the following figure:

        

        Simply put, if you want to turn the short-term memory on the left into the long-term memory on the right, it is actually based on recollection. The more often your brain processes certain information, the more this information will form and exist in the hippocampus. As mentioned earlier, long-term memory is stored in the hippocampus.

        Once the information is stored in your long-term memory, it may still change, but the change is not too exaggerated. I will elaborate on it in the next part of this series, which describes the plasticity of the brain in step 7 of this step.

        Thus, I suggest that you “reactivate” your memories “frequently”.

        In this regard, for some skills that you may not have contacted or practiced for a while (such as cycling or playing musical instruments, etc.), when you do this thing again, you may have a deep understanding. You may remember the relevant techniques, but at the same time you will feel a little “rusty”. But it won’t take long for you to get started quickly, as if you never stopped practicing this skill for a long time.

        And this is called “reactivation”.

        During the process of “reactivation” of memory, your brain will once again extract this “just acquired” information and transfer it to long-term memory, allowing you to consolidate the relevant skills. When you go cycling again the next day, you won’t have this “boring feeling” again.

        • Further reading: Core Guide: How to Learn a new skill quickly? (Bottom)

          Translator: Junyi