Connect with us

Success Advice

5 Powerful Steps To Learn Anything Faster

Published

on

how to learn faster

Put an average joe next to someone of success, and you’ll find that the latter had more knowledge to get to where they are today.

While there’s only so much time in the day to learn new skills, you can accelerate how fast you learn something. Whether you want to learn a new language, real estate, or how to start a business, the person who can learn faster will always have the upper hand in life.

Here are 5 powerful steps to learn anything faster:

1. Method beats hours

When it comes to learning something new, the method will always beat the number of hours you put into something. This isn’t to say that the number of hours isn’t important, but you should choose which method will give you the best results.

For example, let’s say two people were driving from Boston to New York City. It doesn’t matter how skilled or committed the first driver is. If he’s driving a beat up pickup truck, and the second driver has a Ferrari, the first driver will lose.

Your method is the vehicle that will become the engine of where you want to go. With anything you want to learn, there will be dozens of available methods to follow, and “experts” to learn from. This means that you want to spend a lot of time understanding who you’re learning from, what credibility they have, and how it fits with your learning style.

“Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don’t want to run out of gas on your trip, but you’re not doing a tour of gas stations.” —Tim O’Reilly

2. Apply the 80/20 rule

As a reader of Addicted2Success, you’ve probably heard of Pareto’s Law. It was a concept developed by an Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto, which explains that 80% of your desired outputs will come from only 20% of your inputs.

5 Powerful Steps To Learn Anything Faster
 

While the exact ratio varies from situation to situation, you’ll find that:

  • 20% of people in your life will lead to 80% of your happiness
  • 20% of your customers will drive 80% of your sales
  • 20% of your learning methods will lead to 80% of your results

When it comes to learning, it feels like there’s so much we don’t know, so it’s easy to jump around everywhere. This will only lead to wasted time. What you want to do is focus on the one or two things that will drive the needle for what you want to achieve, and double down on them.

For example, if you’re learning Spanish to travel this summer, instead of learning how to write or read, you should learn how to speak Spanish. Or instead of trying to please a dissatisfied customer that’s only paying you $37/month, you should add 10x more value to a customer that’s paying you $1,000/month.

 

3. Learn by doing

Immersion is by far the best way to learn anything. And as research shows, it turns out that humans retain:

  • 5% of what they learn when they’ve learned from a lecture.
  • 10% of what they learn when they’ve learned from reading.
  • 20% of what they learn from audio-visual.
  • 30% of what they learn when they see a demonstration.
  • 50% of what they learn when engaged in a group discussion.
  • 75% of what they learn when they practice what they learned.
  • 90% of what they learn when they use immediately.

Think back to how you learned to play basketball, ride a bicycle, or swim. Instead of watching tutorial videos or reading a textbook on how to do something, the way to learn faster is to get into the trenches and gain experience through mistakes.

 

4. Find a coach

From business titans to professional athletes, the people performing at the highest level all have one thing in common. They have a coach.

According to best-selling author, Seth Godin, there are five reasons you might quit in anything you do:

  1. You run out of time (and quit)
  2. You run out of money (and quit)
  3. You get scared (and quit)
  4. You’re not serious about it (and quit)
  5. You lose interest (and quit)

Having a coach allows you to see the blind spots that you couldn’t see before, and guide you through the tough times that inevitably comes when you’re learning anything new.

5 Powerful Steps To Learn Anything Faster

A coach doesn’t have to cost $1M a year, like what Tony Robbins charges, or even $1,000. If you’re trying to learn a language, you could have a language coach you work with. If you’re trying to learn an instrument, it could be finding a private teacher to help you.

The point is, you’re not going at it alone. And having someone that’s keeping you accountable can take you miles further than doing everything yourself.

 

5. Process over performance

Doing the work is often the hardest thing for most people. A common mistake people make when they’re learning something new is to focus on performance over process. It’s hard to see any consistent results until you have put in a significant amount of work upfront.

For writers, this is sitting down and writing 500-words a day, no matter how bad it may turn out. For athletes, this is waking up every morning and training, no matter how groggy and sore you feel. For language learners, it’s forcing yourself to speak the language everyday, no matter how many mistakes you make or how uncomfortable you may feel.

“Seventy percent of success in life is showing up.” — Woody Allen

Taking small steps may not sound sexy, but it has been the proven path to follow for anything you’ll want to achieve in your life and business.

Which step helps you learn faster? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below!
Advertisement
5 Comments

5 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Success Advice

12 Skills to Acquire in 2024 for Career Success

In 2024, the professional world is evolving rapidly, so taking the initiative and planning strategically for skill development is essential

Published

on

skills required for a successful career

In 2024, the professional world is evolving rapidly, so taking the initiative and planning strategically for skill development is essential. If you want to do exceptionally well at your job, moving past the ordinary and concentrating on improving various skills is essential.

This article looks at key abilities that will contribute to your future career. (more…)

Continue Reading

Success Advice

How to Use Link Building to Get More Traffic to Your Website

A meticulously executed link-building strategy can transform your new website into a digital powerhouse

Published

on

link building strategy

Why do some websites skyrocket to the top of search engine results while others languish in the digital abyss? Does the new site you’ve just created have a chance to get a target audience and organic traffic? (more…)

Continue Reading

Success Advice

Simple Secrets to Building a Profit Pumping Freelance Business

Freelancing is a highly profitable venture, but its overwhelming nature tends to be daunting

Published

on

freelance success

Freelancing is a highly profitable venture, but its overwhelming nature tends to be daunting. To maximize profit, it’s important to adopt favorable mechanisms and workflow aids. You can increase your productivity to a significant level by staying true to your workflow. (more…)

Continue Reading

Success Advice

Here’s Why Your Digital Marketing Efforts Fail and What to Do About It

A key distinction between traditional and modern marketing is targeting.

Published

on

reasons digital marketing is failing

In a renowned anecdote, Albert Einstein is said to have given his graduating class the same exam paper two years in a row. His assistant, worried that the great scientist had made an error, alerted him. Einstein’s reply was simple: “Yes, it’s the identical test. But the answers have been altered.” (more…)

Continue Reading

Trending