You can learn anything!
Learning a new skill is easy!
All you need is 5 steps and 20 hours
How many times have you put off learning a new skill? Because of the difficulty, your lack of free time, or how terrifying it was.
You’ve probably heard it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill. Let it sink in. 10,000 hours… Michael Gladwell in his book “Outlier” said anyone can become a master within that time-frame. It’s akin to working on a skill full time for 5 years.
Let’s be honest, do we want to be experts? Or are we happy being competent? The latter sounds good to me. Josh Kaufman wrote, “The First 20 Hours” — all you need to go from 0 to decent. The 5 steps below are his path to knowledge. And yes, you’ll be on your way to playing the trumpet. (Or anything else your mind is set on)
- Decide exactly what you want
- Deconstruct the skill
- Learn enough to self-correct
- Remove practice barriers
- Commit to practicing for 20 hours
The steps
The major barrier to skill acquisition is not intellectual… it’s emotional — Josh Kaufman
1. What do you want?
Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? you want to learn a skill. But to what proficiency? For what purpose?
Learning a new skill often feels overwhelming. You think you’ll never be able to do it. But you aren’t trying to do it all. You are trying to be competent. By defining a target, the task will seem achievable. We are not setting out to speak the entire Spanish Language. We want to be able to get around.
Remember we all start at 0. It starts with discomfort but will reap a lot of rewards.
2. Deconstruct the skill
Competences are not a single skill. They are a set of sub-skills. The key to learning fast is breaking them down. Take them 1 at a time. Not only will this make it easier to digest, but the task will feel achievable. Start by picturing yourself in a challenging situation, only your new skill will get you out of.
If you were in a group of people with no knowledge of English. You do not need to learn all 150'000 Spanish words. You need to be able to introduce yourself, ask about food, destinations, and time. With the help of common verbs and basic grammar; you’ll be holding your own. You now have a list of sub-skills to reach your goal.
- Learn Introductions
- Common words for food/destinations/timings
- Common verbs
- Basic grammar (questions/sentences)
The idea is similar to preparing a meal. You won’t dump everything in at a time — you need to figure out the recipe. It’ll avoid you being overwhelmed with content. Motivation will stay high as each step will be a win. Breaking down the skill also tells you which tools are required.
3. Learn enough to self-correct
We often spend too much time studying. It feels productive as you can never have too much knowledge right?… If you were learning how to chop a potato you would not go about learning the physics of it. You would read up on how to cut it and give it a try. By researching a lot you feel productive although it’s an insidious way of procrastinating.
Josh Kaufman recommends taking 3, 4, or 5 different materials on the subject. Skim reading them to see what they all have in common. This can give you new sub-skills, you might’ve not thought about. Once you’ve learned enough to notice when you are making mistakes — it’s time to practice!
When possible use coaches, software, or mentors as they will accelerate the process by giving you feedback. You don’t need to be doing this alone!
The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you. — BB King
4. Remove practice barriers
Distractions are everywhere. They take you away from the task and hinder your learning. To make progress you will need to block out dedicated time. During which your phone should be off, internet limited to relevant web pages, and when possible alone.
This way you will be able to dive in and immerse yourself — reaching a state of flow. A good solution is to have a logbook/planner in which you enter a time slot for each practice. Take the time to write down honest feedback on each session. This will help you focus as you’ll identify areas of improvement.
5. Do it for 20 hours!
Sounds silly, doesn’t it? The best way for you to stick with it and learn is to commit. If like me you struggle with self-discipline, find someone to hold you accountable. Share your targeted practice time and ask them to check weekly.
20 hours might sound like a lot of time to find. It is actually as simple as taking 45 minutes every day for a month. It even gives you some wiggle room to skip some days. Kaufman recommends breaking it down further. You can fit in 2 or 3 20 minutes practice sessions in a day. This will make it flexible and easier to work around. Shorter sessions also mean less frustration as a beginner. It will lower the emotional barrier to entry.
It’s never too late
You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over. — Richard Branson
You’ve always wanted to play the guitar? Pick one up, take the time and I promise you’ll be surprised how far you’ve come in 20 hours. The most difficult part is getting over the fear of starting. Frustration will be your companion — push through and the reward will be tenfold.
If you want to learn more about Josh Kaufman’s approach, I recommend his Tedx Talk as well as his book “The First 20 Hours”. I am going to pick up this ukulele it has been lying around for months. What will you learn?