good morning believe nation today we’re
going to talk about how to master any
skill rule number five is my personal
favorite and make sure to stick around
all the way to the end for my take as
well as some bonus clips and as always
if someone says something that really
resonates with you please leave it in
the comments below and put quotes around
it so others can be inspired as well
enjoy
[Music]
you’re going to spend thousands and
thousands of hours learning over the
course of your life and what’s crazy is
that despite all that time in the
classroom learning languages music
whatever it might be you might be
learning one of the slowest ways
possible not because your teachers
didn’t have good intentions but because
they did not know how to teach you to
optimize that learning experience the
good news is this
there are ways principles that you can
apply to everything from martial arts to
business that are going to help you lap
the competition you can learn much
faster than you are
[Music]
again I think lifelong learning is one
of the most important things in the
world and maybe I’m gonna just I’m gonna
quickly go through a couple of things
that happen in my brain when I’m
learning I think the first thing is is
actually just getting started doing
something instead of nothing and that
happens get started I think that happens
through a couple of things the first
thing is like curiosity so you see
something it inspires you let’s say
you’re interested in learning how to
play the guitar or interested in
photography we’ll go back to my roots
that usually comes around by seeing
pictures in a magazine or seeing a
friend who’s a great photographer
there’s just there’s a little bit of a
thing a curiosity a passion what I incur
you to do is encourage you to do is to
step into that like lean in and say okay
what is it that’s interesting about this
and how can I do it
so the first thing is curiosity my
outline here and then thing to being
here is actually start doing it let’s go
back to the photography example you saw
some cool pictures you say well my
friends are taking up photography I
wonder what I can do you don’t need a
lot of equipment in this stage you can
take out just your phone for example and
start taking pictures the doing part is
actually one of the most important
things you could sit back and
pontificate for a long time but step
into it you don’t have to love
photography you can step into it take
some pictures realize how that’s kind of
not not that exciting or you can step
into four or five or six other things I
think the important thing is doing
something rather than nothing so let’s
follow the thread here we’re gonna step
in and we we start taking pictures with
an iPhone and we loved it oh this is
kind of interesting I wonder what else
there is so that’s when you lean further
in you get inspired this this phase is
really important because this is where
you decide to go deeper you may invest
in some gear or you may rent something
or borrow a friend’s camera and you sort
of lean into the thing at a deeper level
I think this is huge most real learning
doesn’t happen without some genuine
spark some point of inflection where you
really were motivated because without
motivation you’re not gonna get anywhere
so pay attention to those things in life
that motivates you and lean into them
as an adult or somebody who’s probably
trying to build your target skill
outside of the classroom you have to
build your curriculum and to help you
actually build that curriculum I want to
go over a four step process created by
the author Josh Kaufman in his book the
first 20 hours Kaufman is a
fantastically insightful author and this
book Affairs is about rapid skill
acquisition and as the title suggests he
posits that you can build the bulk of
any skill within 20 hours of practice in
the book he breaks down the process of
skill acquisition into four distinct
steps and to show you how these steps
cover almost any skill you’d want to
learn I want to use two different very
diverse examples for each step we’ll
look at both skateboarding which is a
very physical skill that requires
building lots of muscle memory and also
web development which is a much more
cerebral activity that requires learning
several coding languages so the first
step is to deconstruct the skill into
smaller sub skills in the case of
skateboarding you’d want to deconstruct
it into actually balancing on the board
learning how to turn and carve Tic Tac
turnaround on ramps and do basic tricks
when it comes to web development those
skills have actually been broken down
pretty well for you already
the basic structure of the web is coded
in HTML the presentation and design is
done in CSS and a lot of the other
coding aspects are done in JavaScript or
other languages as a budding web
developer all you have to do to start is
basically make a list of the languages
you’d want to learn and in what order
the second step is to identify the sub
skills you want to practice and learn
enough about each one that you can
effectively practice on your own and
also self-correct
in both the case of skateboarding or web
development there are hundreds of online
resources that can effectively teach you
or you could even find a human teacher
alright step number one you’re gonna
want to write this down step on the poor
once you’ve done your initial learning
and you’re ready to start practicing the
third step is to remove any barriers to
that practice whether they be physical
mental or emotional this means making
sure you have access to the equipment
you need to learn the skill like you
probably need a skateboard if you want
to learn how to skateboard and you
probably you’re gonna need a computer if
you want to learn how to web develop but
also you’re gonna want to break down
your tasks into manageable chunks that
you believe you can achieve and on the
emotional side you’re gonna want to make
sure you surround yourself with people
who are positive and encouraging about
this experience rather than toxic people
who only say negative things and finally
we come to the fourth step which is
simply to practice that skill
deliberately now what additional tip I
can give you when it comes to practicing
is to interleave your practice that
means taking multiple sub skills and
jumping back and forth between them for
instance if you spend an hour trying to
learn how to ollie and you’re stuck at
this point it doesn’t really do you any
good to keep hammering away in it
instead you should go try to do
something else maybe try dropping in on
the ramp and later on come back to
ollieing by doing this you’re giving
your brain a little bit of time to relax
and step back from that very focused
concentrated session of practicing that
one sub skill and coming back later
you’re gonna be able to look at it with
a more first perspective and you’ll
ultimately be more successful at it
third tip people get this even wrong I
think from college and it’s that if you
have a set amount of time to dedicate to
any sort of learning endeavor you are
much better off spending that time a
little bit every day then you are in one
batched process there’s some things in
life that do better in batching learning
is not one of them because learning
comes from repetition right I see people
on ecology go but wait a second I
crammed for my last test I did find
eight hours straight a study yes but how
much did you remember three days later
if you’re trying to build a skill you’re
trying to rewire your brain create new
neural pathways say you’re playing the
piano if you sit down for three hours
and play play play play play play play
and then come back a week later you’re
not gonna have it but if you sit down
for a half hour a day walk away come
back the next day half hour you’re
getting to review what you did in a much
shorter time span that’s going to help
you learn faster so keep in mind when
you have something this consistency
every single day with the exception of
things that require rest like weight
training you want to keep that up now a
couple of caveats here first thing is
this takes much more willpower it’s a
lot easier for people to go I’m going to
run really hard for
today than it is to do it for a year a
little bit every day so if you’re
working on willpower you haven’t
mastered that check out our video on
willpower it’s going to help you with
that and the second thing is that this
is true of learning and practicing
though not necessarily of production I’m
a writer and if you’re learning to write
I recommend you read and write every day
but if you’re writing your masterpiece
some people myself included do better to
have these just complete flow
experiences of six hours at a time you
write write write write write walk away
for a week and then come back to it so
learning and production not necessarily
the same mechanics going on here there
were four levels of learning okay let me
tell you what the levels are some of you
might know you’ve been through any
self-development this isn’t very basic
stuff but it’s important here the first
level is called being unconsciously
incompetent and what that means is this
when you first start doing something you
know so little about it you basically
know nothing you don’t know what you
don’t know this is a very scary spot to
be in when you’re thrown into a
situation and you’re a complete novice
you said geez I’d love to get better at
this but I haven’t the slightest idea of
what I don’t know everyone follow that
concept this is what most people start
off okay the next level is becoming
consciously incompetent that means that
you’re like Jesus Christ I don’t know
anything you’re like I’ve is this this
doctors that Zoli strategies they also
get I don’t know them that’s the next
level next level above that is called
being consciously competent consciously
confident means that you’re good at
something but you can’t really do it
with your eyes closed yet your guru
requires all your focus and your mental
energy like remember we were kids
growing up you don’t even tie your shoe
in the beginning you’re like tie your
shoe like you’re putting your things
across and and some of this excuse me a
good note interrupting you can’t tie
your shoe and have a conversation at the
same time right that’s when you’re
consciously competent is lying it
requires all your conscious focus the
next level above that is called being
unconscious competence and that means
when you’re really really great at
something you can do it without thinking
about it
and the only way to get from conscious
competence to unconscious competence is
through practice there’s no other way by
drilling it into your head again and
again and again and again and again
until your brain just clicks and all of
a sudden using the unconscious part of
your mind which is infinitely more
powerful than your conscious mind the
method that I have arrived at after 15
20 years of testing looking for a method
a framework that could be applied to
everything from language learning to
sports is this up here this and it’s an
acronym with the exception of I and
we’ll go through each in turn the first
step is deconstruction deconstruction
means taking something very very large
and breaking it down into smaller pieces
it also means identifying why you might
fail before you start what are the
reasons that you’ve quit what are the
reasons other people have failed and the
goal we look at swimming the goal is to
avoid those problems for at least the
first 5 sessions that’s it this is based
on Nike+ data once you log your data or
just practice in this case for five
sessions they can be very short you can
establish that as a habit that’s your
goal avoid these failure points for the
first 5 sessions so for swimming in my
case I didn’t learn to swim until a few
years ago which is very embarrassing for
someone who grew up on Long Island with
a rat tail
it was always due to difficulty
breathing and exhaustion from kicking
all of the lessons I tried focused on
those things and I failed so I found a
method which is called total immersion
swimming that completely avoids it and
you practice by practicing in shallow
water and then kicking off from the wall
you don’t have to worry about breathing
you don’t have to worry about kicking it
looks like this streamline left to
streamline right and repeat almost no
kicking involved now we can go swimming
for an hour in the ocean to relax it’s
crazy you can apply this everywhere
in cooking for instance it could be too
much gear too much expense too much time
and it’s also a matter of realizing that
cooking as we think of it is not just
one skill for most people it’s shopping
prep cooking cleanup so you need to take
those away so you’re only focusing on
the cooking in the beginning the next is
selection and selection is in effect the
80/20 principle or Pareto’s law where
you’re trying to identify the 20% or
fewer of activities tools etc that
produce 80% or more of the results and
you can you can determine this pretty
easily there’s a lot of research looking
at different fields searching for
exactly this the axis of Awesome some of
you may know the awesomest band in
australia perhaps if you’ve ever wanted
to learn to play the guitar as i had for
a very very long time
found it intimidating for whatever
number of reasons the axis of awesome
has a video online you can find on
youtube very easily where they use four
or five chords to play almost every pop
song you’ve ever heard all the most
popular pop songs you can imagine and
they play them with four or five chords
that is an example of minimalism another
example of minimalism would be language
learning so to become really
functionally fluent in almost any
language you really only need 1,200 to
2,000 words to express any concept and
to understand most concepts communicated
to you this is Cardinal mitzvah fonti
you just sit payments of Auntie born
1774 and he he was an incredible guy one
of the most famous polyglots in the
world he’d been tested in 29 languages
fluent in 29 and was purported to speak
as many as 72 how did he do it you can’t
exactly go to amazon.com and 1774 and
buy materials he did it by using the
Lord’s Prayer he had the Lord’s Prayer
and that to him in one page encapsulated
all the fundamental grammar in any
language and he would have native
speakers simply translate that for him
and I took a very similar approach with
languages in these twelve or thirteen
sentences I’ve applied this to Spanish
to German to Gaelic and I don’t
necessarily rich
call and retain all these languages but
I have done it with four or five that
I’ve wanted to pursue to fluency this
encapsulate Saul the most important
grammar is its subject object verb
subject verb object indirect object
treatments and so on and you can you can
completely deconstruct and in select in
effect the grammar of given language and
let’s say one to two hours here these
are from from from flights with Arabic
and Russian including the Cyrillic
alphabet it’s very straightforward
keeping in mind also that I had actually
failed effectively Spanish when I had to
take it in junior high in high school I
had concluded that I was bad at
languages I wasn’t bad at languages I
just had a bad method so the minimalism
the 8020 approach can be applied to gear
as well as it applies to cooking and I
chose cooking by the way to explore
accelerated learning in the 4-hour chef
because it had beaten me many times
before it’s something I’d quit many
times so I wanted to take that on his
challenge you don’t need an entire set
of 1215 pots or pans to cook effectively
and in fact when I was doing research
for this book which took me from Tokyo
to Silicon Valley to India and elsewhere
in the in the best Thai restaurant India
the executive chef uses two stainless
steel skillets and a chef’s knife
Victorinox chef’s knife that you could
buy at Walmart for $20 that’s it you
don’t need a lot cast iron skillet basic
knife you’re set in terms of coffee just
for those people who might like coffee
you see a number of tools here that I’ve
used
I recommend the Aeropress and all you
need to remember is that you’re grinding
each serving not grinding in advance and
then using water that is 180 degrees
Fahrenheit or less so that’s about 82
degrees Celsius I believe someone else
can check that I’m sure and you won’t
ever have bitter coffee again the next
is sequencing this is the secret sauce
in a lot of ways and the question you
ask here is what if I did things in the
opposite order what if I omitted what
people tell me or best practices and
this has been applied elsewhere in
manufacturing for instance with lean
manufacturing with Toyota
this is Josh Waitzkin one of my favorite
people Josh if you’ve ever seen the
movie searching for bobby fisher’ or
read the book is the chess prodigy from
that book he’s the little kid turns out
that he has a framework it’s not that he
has the inherent skills although he’s a
smart guy he has a framework that he can
apply to many many skills and he’s since
from being one of the world’s best chess
players applied it to Tai Chi push hands
to become national and world champion
it’s applied it to Brazilian jiu-jitsu
to become the first black belt under
Marcelo Garcia who’s like the Wayne
Gretzky Michael Jordan
Tiger Woods combined of Brazilian
jiu-jitsu in the case of chess what he
did is he learned how to do it
completely backwards his first coach
took him and said rather than starting
with openings that are very seductive
and will lead you to memorize things
much like stealing the answers from the
teacher for a math test we’re gonna
start with board control which means
you’re gonna have pawn and a king versus
another pawn and that’s how we’re going
to play so doing things in Reverse
actually can be extremely beneficial
when I was training for Argentine tango
in Argentina this was in 2005 very
accidental in fact but I looked at a
number of ways that the best people
competed what they trained what they
taught explicitly versus doing in
competition but not teaching and I
decided that I thought I could make more
progress by learning the female role
first so instead of learning the male
role first which is a real hassle a real
pain in the ass and very embarrassing I
decided to learn how to follow and I
trained one of the best female dancers
in the world to learn how to follow and
five and a half months later as part of
that was able to go to the World
Championships and make it to the
semi-finals I’m not a tango dancer I’m
built like a monkey look at me
so if I can do it I think you guys could
probably do very much the same
these next two photographs are related
to learning skills under pressure or not
learning them under pressure the worst
time to learn how to cook or for
instance knife skills is when you’re
under pressure to make a meal it’s the
worst time to do it
you should actually look for
opportunities to practice what I call no
stakes practice
so if you look at this second photograph
here I’m learning how to saute which
means to jump in French and I’m not
doing it over the stove I’m actually
practicing the wrist motion with dry
beans and a skillet and I’m kneeling on
a carpet so they don’t fly everywhere on
a hardwood floor you do this for 20
minutes two or three times you’ll have
the motion down and then you can use two
hands over the stove you won’t have any
problem no omelets on the walls all
right the last photograph knife skills
this is something it’s very intimidating
for people and it need not be
intimidating you just need to learn when
you can’t cut yourself so this is a
lettuce knife the green knife is a
lettuce knife has the same form factor
as the chef’s knife next to it so all
you have to do is learn how to hold the
knife properly which you see here and
then practice while you’re watching Game
of Thrones or whatever the hell you may
be watching on TV and just cut celery
just get used to cutting celery again do
that for 20 minutes 2 or 3 times you’ll
be comfortable with a knife and then you
can use the stuff that can stab people
but start with the nose steaks approach
speaking of steaks
this doesn’t mean steak ie piece of cow
it means steak like vampire stake
through the heart steak or Consequences
if you don’t stick to your diet what
happens you just stay the way that
you’ve been you don’t get fired from
your diet you don’t have someone
chastise you necessarily about it of
course in your job you do get fired if
you don’t do something and you therefore
are inclined to do it you have an
incentive it is extremely extremely
effective to build incentives into
whatever behavioral change you want your
life to whatever skills you want to
acquire this is AJ Jacobs AJ Jacobs is a
human guinea pig much like me and in
this particular photo or set of
photographs he decided for a year to try
to follow all the rules in the old and
new testament which is extremely
extremely extremely difficult he lives
in New York City so the after photo that
you see with with the beard there he is
when he was dressed in full white robes
and had his beard grown out and he did
everything in fact when he had to stone
adulterers plays a pretty big part in
the Bible
he was he was at a bit of a quandary
because he didn’t want to get arrested
or just feel guilty or just kill anyone
by stoning them and he realized they
didn’t specify the size of the stones so
he got a pocketful of pebbles little
tiny pebbles and he went to Central Park
asking people if they were adulterers
and then he would you know flick one out
them and run away check and AJ following
this this is a great book called the
year the year of living biblically it’s
a wonderful book decided he wanted to
get in shape and he had never been in
shape he had what he described as a
Python that swallowed a goat physique
which he was not happy with and he
didn’t need a new special trainer he
didn’t need a secret technique from the
former Soviet Union
he needed motivation so AJ is Jewish and
he wrote a check to the KKK for a
thousand dollars and gave it to one of
his friends and said if I don’t lose X
number of pounds 30 pounds by it why
point in time I want you to mail this to
the KKK that’s an incentive money is a
great incentive as all of you know and
you don’t have to do what he did you can
use a tool like stick comm I have no
affiliation with them I’m just a fan
stick comm came out of research done by
professor at Yale it was initially
called The Commitments tour what do you
do you set your goal I want to follow
ABC diet next you set your stakes so I’m
going to take 1 percent of my pre-tax
income and put it into escrow as my
stakes my motivation alright then what’s
not in this in this list right here is
you choose an anti charity so you choose
a charity that you would rather nuke
than give money to that you would hate
to have your name on the record for
giving money to the most popular and
this is not a political statement just
following the data is the George W Bush
Congressional Library
that is the most popular anti charity at
the moment so choose whatever you like
then you find a referee this could be a
merciless friend who is willing to
punish you if you don’t do what you say
you’re going to do or it could be
someone from the site and then you have
support and on you go and I’ve seen the
data from this site when you take
someone and apply stakes and a referee
their compliance goes from something
like 25 up to well over 70% it is it has
a huge impact
so consequences what’s the the overlying
principle for all of this it’s
simplified us to keep things simple and
when you’re looking for solutions to try
to remove things first rather than to
add things this is a really really
critical principle and less can be no
can be more in this particular respect
especially for behavioral change this is
a sign that I have over one of my
doorways in my house simplify and above
that I have a knife Y knife because when
you make a decision the word decision is
related to incision it means to cut off
it means to cut away other options and
to commit and to focus that’s what I
recommend all of you do with whatever
that skill is that you have in your head
still hopefully this is a beautiful
example an elegant example of
simplification to me this is one of the
most delicious scones you might think of
it as a scone or ash cake in this
particular case that was made for me and
it was made for me by cliff Hodges who
is a former MIT engineer runs a company
called adventure out and this was made
in the Santa Cruz Mountains by simply
taking a corn meal which used to provide
75% of the calories for native
Californians and laying it directly on
top of the embers of a fire and it came
out it was absolutely incredible and I
think that that’s what your results can
be as well if you focus on removal so I
would encourage you in closing to hold
in mind a quote from the author of the
little prince I love the little prince
what a lot of people don’t realize is
the author was also a pioneer in
international flight and postal delivery
very very smart guy Antoine de
saint-exupéry it’s my horrible French
for you but in English what he said was
perfection is achieved not when there’s
nothing more to add but when there’s
nothing more to take away and I’ll leave
you with that so my quick take on this
is two things first off you have to have
a passion when you have a passion to
learn something you’re much more likely
to pick up that skill think about what
you had to learn in school through the
textbooks and think about how relevant
some of those things were to your life
and how excited you were but actually
learning it if you are not interested in
learning it but you can’t find meaning
in your life that that’s applicable to
it’s gonna be so much harder to master
the skill if you look at the people
who’ve done insane things or at the
height of their industry and have the
most skills they have a passion to do it
and so stop trying to learn stuff that
you’re not excited about and instead
learn something that you can get really
good at quickly because you love it you
can quickly pass a lot of times people
look at an industry to say oh that
person they have a decade of experience
like Who am I I’m just starting out you
can quickly pass somebody who has years
of experience because you are just so
much more excited about doing it I see
it all the time
in the salsa world with my business
trying to dance salsa somebody who
really wants to learn the material and
is out practicing they go to a class and
they tape it and then they go practice
and practice and practice and they come
back the next week they’re so far ahead
of the person who just came to class
even if that first person has more
skills or has more natural talent you
can overcome any of your shortcomings
through hard work practice and
dedication and that comes because you
have a passion to learn it the second
quick tip I have is model success
whenever you have something that you
want to do and you have no idea how to
do it go find the person who’s done it
and look at how they did it I don’t care
about how somebody does it now somebody
the the peak of their career how they do
it now isn’t as relevant think more back
to the early stages how do they get
started
how do they initially pick up those
skills how do they initially acquire
that knowledge and expertise and then
bring that to life for yourself whatever
it is that you want to accomplish in
life somebody has already figured it out
and just marveling that success you can
quickly learn from them from their
success and their mistakes apply to
yourself to rapidly master that skill
so thank you guys so much for watching I
made this video because sent oshizu
Sarla asked me to if there’s a topic
that you’d like me to cover in the next
edition of believe life please leave it
in the comments below and I’ll see what
I can do I’d also love to know what did
you take from this video that was the
most inspiring most interesting most
applicable to you in your life in your
situation right now please leave it in
the comments below I’m gonna join in the
discussion finally I want to give a
quick shout out to Dolores Clark from
sorted for you co uk the loris thank you
so much for picking up a copy of my book
your one word it really really really
means a lot to me thank you guys again
for watching I believe in you I hope you
continue to believe in yourself and
whatever your one where it is
much love have an amazing day and I’ll
see you soon
why do so few of us master things well
last week I had the opportunity of
spending some time with an instructor
golf instructor Michael and he and I
were sitting down and having a
conversation together and he said you
know the game of golf is very annoying
and very frustrating I said tell me tell
me why he says well because you’re it’s
gone an 80 mile an hour swing and you’re
supposed to hit the small ball and all
the small little angles could dictate
which direction the balls are gonna go
so you could really drive yourself nuts
so I said when does one really start
enjoying the game of golf I wanted to
hear his answer listen to what he told
me he said one learns and enjoys the
game of golf when you know why the ball
went where it went
I said elaborate he said as an amateur
you get up then you try to hit the ball
you miss the ball right if you make a
contact it goes right or goes left it
goes all over the place and you want how
come I went to that place he says once
you learn why the ball is going to the
right and why the ball is going to the
left you get to actually enjoy because
your next swing you just make a minor
adjustment
maybe it’s your shoulders maybe it’s
your back not being straight maybe your
head’s moving more than two or three
inches maybe your weight is on your
heels instead of your toes seventy
thirty maybe you’re not sixty forty on
your back foot maybe you’re the balls
not aligned the right foot with your
left foot if you’re getting to drive or
all of these things you think about he
says but once you figure that out you
actually get a chance to enjoy the game
and I said you know what that’s exactly
what it is to be an entrepreneur and a
businessman you know you sit there and
you wonder why is this thing not working
for me and you know typically what it is
in business it’s one small minor
adjustment you got to make em phone you
start enjoying the game again so you
don’t mind if a certain numbers gonna
lower or higher but you know why that
thing’s gonna lower our hearts because
of this this concept is true in many
aspects of our lives you could say my
lower back is having problems I really
have a hard time with my lower back and
so you go out and work on your lower
back and you hire a personal trainer
said that has nothing to do with your
lower back your hamstrings are weak your
abs are weak you need to work on your
abs and your
hamstring you gotta be kidding me say my
marriage is not working out it’s because
of you know our finances because it is
you go talk to somebody and they say no
it’s because of communication you know
my finances are not working outs because
of my income no it’s because you’re
spending too much money with the
barbecues you do every other weekend a
beer you’re spending 300 bucks every
time that $600 right there but once you
figure out why it is that you’re having
those challenges you’re having and you
make minor little tweaks here and there
you start really enjoying the game of
life and it just becomes so effortless
to you and you know who could do that
anybody you just got to figure out what
those tweaks are they need to make
going to talk about how to master any
skill rule number five is my personal
favorite and make sure to stick around
all the way to the end for my take as
well as some bonus clips and as always
if someone says something that really
resonates with you please leave it in
the comments below and put quotes around
it so others can be inspired as well
enjoy
[Music]
you’re going to spend thousands and
thousands of hours learning over the
course of your life and what’s crazy is
that despite all that time in the
classroom learning languages music
whatever it might be you might be
learning one of the slowest ways
possible not because your teachers
didn’t have good intentions but because
they did not know how to teach you to
optimize that learning experience the
good news is this
there are ways principles that you can
apply to everything from martial arts to
business that are going to help you lap
the competition you can learn much
faster than you are
[Music]
again I think lifelong learning is one
of the most important things in the
world and maybe I’m gonna just I’m gonna
quickly go through a couple of things
that happen in my brain when I’m
learning I think the first thing is is
actually just getting started doing
something instead of nothing and that
happens get started I think that happens
through a couple of things the first
thing is like curiosity so you see
something it inspires you let’s say
you’re interested in learning how to
play the guitar or interested in
photography we’ll go back to my roots
that usually comes around by seeing
pictures in a magazine or seeing a
friend who’s a great photographer
there’s just there’s a little bit of a
thing a curiosity a passion what I incur
you to do is encourage you to do is to
step into that like lean in and say okay
what is it that’s interesting about this
and how can I do it
so the first thing is curiosity my
outline here and then thing to being
here is actually start doing it let’s go
back to the photography example you saw
some cool pictures you say well my
friends are taking up photography I
wonder what I can do you don’t need a
lot of equipment in this stage you can
take out just your phone for example and
start taking pictures the doing part is
actually one of the most important
things you could sit back and
pontificate for a long time but step
into it you don’t have to love
photography you can step into it take
some pictures realize how that’s kind of
not not that exciting or you can step
into four or five or six other things I
think the important thing is doing
something rather than nothing so let’s
follow the thread here we’re gonna step
in and we we start taking pictures with
an iPhone and we loved it oh this is
kind of interesting I wonder what else
there is so that’s when you lean further
in you get inspired this this phase is
really important because this is where
you decide to go deeper you may invest
in some gear or you may rent something
or borrow a friend’s camera and you sort
of lean into the thing at a deeper level
I think this is huge most real learning
doesn’t happen without some genuine
spark some point of inflection where you
really were motivated because without
motivation you’re not gonna get anywhere
so pay attention to those things in life
that motivates you and lean into them
as an adult or somebody who’s probably
trying to build your target skill
outside of the classroom you have to
build your curriculum and to help you
actually build that curriculum I want to
go over a four step process created by
the author Josh Kaufman in his book the
first 20 hours Kaufman is a
fantastically insightful author and this
book Affairs is about rapid skill
acquisition and as the title suggests he
posits that you can build the bulk of
any skill within 20 hours of practice in
the book he breaks down the process of
skill acquisition into four distinct
steps and to show you how these steps
cover almost any skill you’d want to
learn I want to use two different very
diverse examples for each step we’ll
look at both skateboarding which is a
very physical skill that requires
building lots of muscle memory and also
web development which is a much more
cerebral activity that requires learning
several coding languages so the first
step is to deconstruct the skill into
smaller sub skills in the case of
skateboarding you’d want to deconstruct
it into actually balancing on the board
learning how to turn and carve Tic Tac
turnaround on ramps and do basic tricks
when it comes to web development those
skills have actually been broken down
pretty well for you already
the basic structure of the web is coded
in HTML the presentation and design is
done in CSS and a lot of the other
coding aspects are done in JavaScript or
other languages as a budding web
developer all you have to do to start is
basically make a list of the languages
you’d want to learn and in what order
the second step is to identify the sub
skills you want to practice and learn
enough about each one that you can
effectively practice on your own and
also self-correct
in both the case of skateboarding or web
development there are hundreds of online
resources that can effectively teach you
or you could even find a human teacher
alright step number one you’re gonna
want to write this down step on the poor
once you’ve done your initial learning
and you’re ready to start practicing the
third step is to remove any barriers to
that practice whether they be physical
mental or emotional this means making
sure you have access to the equipment
you need to learn the skill like you
probably need a skateboard if you want
to learn how to skateboard and you
probably you’re gonna need a computer if
you want to learn how to web develop but
also you’re gonna want to break down
your tasks into manageable chunks that
you believe you can achieve and on the
emotional side you’re gonna want to make
sure you surround yourself with people
who are positive and encouraging about
this experience rather than toxic people
who only say negative things and finally
we come to the fourth step which is
simply to practice that skill
deliberately now what additional tip I
can give you when it comes to practicing
is to interleave your practice that
means taking multiple sub skills and
jumping back and forth between them for
instance if you spend an hour trying to
learn how to ollie and you’re stuck at
this point it doesn’t really do you any
good to keep hammering away in it
instead you should go try to do
something else maybe try dropping in on
the ramp and later on come back to
ollieing by doing this you’re giving
your brain a little bit of time to relax
and step back from that very focused
concentrated session of practicing that
one sub skill and coming back later
you’re gonna be able to look at it with
a more first perspective and you’ll
ultimately be more successful at it
third tip people get this even wrong I
think from college and it’s that if you
have a set amount of time to dedicate to
any sort of learning endeavor you are
much better off spending that time a
little bit every day then you are in one
batched process there’s some things in
life that do better in batching learning
is not one of them because learning
comes from repetition right I see people
on ecology go but wait a second I
crammed for my last test I did find
eight hours straight a study yes but how
much did you remember three days later
if you’re trying to build a skill you’re
trying to rewire your brain create new
neural pathways say you’re playing the
piano if you sit down for three hours
and play play play play play play play
and then come back a week later you’re
not gonna have it but if you sit down
for a half hour a day walk away come
back the next day half hour you’re
getting to review what you did in a much
shorter time span that’s going to help
you learn faster so keep in mind when
you have something this consistency
every single day with the exception of
things that require rest like weight
training you want to keep that up now a
couple of caveats here first thing is
this takes much more willpower it’s a
lot easier for people to go I’m going to
run really hard for
today than it is to do it for a year a
little bit every day so if you’re
working on willpower you haven’t
mastered that check out our video on
willpower it’s going to help you with
that and the second thing is that this
is true of learning and practicing
though not necessarily of production I’m
a writer and if you’re learning to write
I recommend you read and write every day
but if you’re writing your masterpiece
some people myself included do better to
have these just complete flow
experiences of six hours at a time you
write write write write write walk away
for a week and then come back to it so
learning and production not necessarily
the same mechanics going on here there
were four levels of learning okay let me
tell you what the levels are some of you
might know you’ve been through any
self-development this isn’t very basic
stuff but it’s important here the first
level is called being unconsciously
incompetent and what that means is this
when you first start doing something you
know so little about it you basically
know nothing you don’t know what you
don’t know this is a very scary spot to
be in when you’re thrown into a
situation and you’re a complete novice
you said geez I’d love to get better at
this but I haven’t the slightest idea of
what I don’t know everyone follow that
concept this is what most people start
off okay the next level is becoming
consciously incompetent that means that
you’re like Jesus Christ I don’t know
anything you’re like I’ve is this this
doctors that Zoli strategies they also
get I don’t know them that’s the next
level next level above that is called
being consciously competent consciously
confident means that you’re good at
something but you can’t really do it
with your eyes closed yet your guru
requires all your focus and your mental
energy like remember we were kids
growing up you don’t even tie your shoe
in the beginning you’re like tie your
shoe like you’re putting your things
across and and some of this excuse me a
good note interrupting you can’t tie
your shoe and have a conversation at the
same time right that’s when you’re
consciously competent is lying it
requires all your conscious focus the
next level above that is called being
unconscious competence and that means
when you’re really really great at
something you can do it without thinking
about it
and the only way to get from conscious
competence to unconscious competence is
through practice there’s no other way by
drilling it into your head again and
again and again and again and again
until your brain just clicks and all of
a sudden using the unconscious part of
your mind which is infinitely more
powerful than your conscious mind the
method that I have arrived at after 15
20 years of testing looking for a method
a framework that could be applied to
everything from language learning to
sports is this up here this and it’s an
acronym with the exception of I and
we’ll go through each in turn the first
step is deconstruction deconstruction
means taking something very very large
and breaking it down into smaller pieces
it also means identifying why you might
fail before you start what are the
reasons that you’ve quit what are the
reasons other people have failed and the
goal we look at swimming the goal is to
avoid those problems for at least the
first 5 sessions that’s it this is based
on Nike+ data once you log your data or
just practice in this case for five
sessions they can be very short you can
establish that as a habit that’s your
goal avoid these failure points for the
first 5 sessions so for swimming in my
case I didn’t learn to swim until a few
years ago which is very embarrassing for
someone who grew up on Long Island with
a rat tail
it was always due to difficulty
breathing and exhaustion from kicking
all of the lessons I tried focused on
those things and I failed so I found a
method which is called total immersion
swimming that completely avoids it and
you practice by practicing in shallow
water and then kicking off from the wall
you don’t have to worry about breathing
you don’t have to worry about kicking it
looks like this streamline left to
streamline right and repeat almost no
kicking involved now we can go swimming
for an hour in the ocean to relax it’s
crazy you can apply this everywhere
in cooking for instance it could be too
much gear too much expense too much time
and it’s also a matter of realizing that
cooking as we think of it is not just
one skill for most people it’s shopping
prep cooking cleanup so you need to take
those away so you’re only focusing on
the cooking in the beginning the next is
selection and selection is in effect the
80/20 principle or Pareto’s law where
you’re trying to identify the 20% or
fewer of activities tools etc that
produce 80% or more of the results and
you can you can determine this pretty
easily there’s a lot of research looking
at different fields searching for
exactly this the axis of Awesome some of
you may know the awesomest band in
australia perhaps if you’ve ever wanted
to learn to play the guitar as i had for
a very very long time
found it intimidating for whatever
number of reasons the axis of awesome
has a video online you can find on
youtube very easily where they use four
or five chords to play almost every pop
song you’ve ever heard all the most
popular pop songs you can imagine and
they play them with four or five chords
that is an example of minimalism another
example of minimalism would be language
learning so to become really
functionally fluent in almost any
language you really only need 1,200 to
2,000 words to express any concept and
to understand most concepts communicated
to you this is Cardinal mitzvah fonti
you just sit payments of Auntie born
1774 and he he was an incredible guy one
of the most famous polyglots in the
world he’d been tested in 29 languages
fluent in 29 and was purported to speak
as many as 72 how did he do it you can’t
exactly go to amazon.com and 1774 and
buy materials he did it by using the
Lord’s Prayer he had the Lord’s Prayer
and that to him in one page encapsulated
all the fundamental grammar in any
language and he would have native
speakers simply translate that for him
and I took a very similar approach with
languages in these twelve or thirteen
sentences I’ve applied this to Spanish
to German to Gaelic and I don’t
necessarily rich
call and retain all these languages but
I have done it with four or five that
I’ve wanted to pursue to fluency this
encapsulate Saul the most important
grammar is its subject object verb
subject verb object indirect object
treatments and so on and you can you can
completely deconstruct and in select in
effect the grammar of given language and
let’s say one to two hours here these
are from from from flights with Arabic
and Russian including the Cyrillic
alphabet it’s very straightforward
keeping in mind also that I had actually
failed effectively Spanish when I had to
take it in junior high in high school I
had concluded that I was bad at
languages I wasn’t bad at languages I
just had a bad method so the minimalism
the 8020 approach can be applied to gear
as well as it applies to cooking and I
chose cooking by the way to explore
accelerated learning in the 4-hour chef
because it had beaten me many times
before it’s something I’d quit many
times so I wanted to take that on his
challenge you don’t need an entire set
of 1215 pots or pans to cook effectively
and in fact when I was doing research
for this book which took me from Tokyo
to Silicon Valley to India and elsewhere
in the in the best Thai restaurant India
the executive chef uses two stainless
steel skillets and a chef’s knife
Victorinox chef’s knife that you could
buy at Walmart for $20 that’s it you
don’t need a lot cast iron skillet basic
knife you’re set in terms of coffee just
for those people who might like coffee
you see a number of tools here that I’ve
used
I recommend the Aeropress and all you
need to remember is that you’re grinding
each serving not grinding in advance and
then using water that is 180 degrees
Fahrenheit or less so that’s about 82
degrees Celsius I believe someone else
can check that I’m sure and you won’t
ever have bitter coffee again the next
is sequencing this is the secret sauce
in a lot of ways and the question you
ask here is what if I did things in the
opposite order what if I omitted what
people tell me or best practices and
this has been applied elsewhere in
manufacturing for instance with lean
manufacturing with Toyota
this is Josh Waitzkin one of my favorite
people Josh if you’ve ever seen the
movie searching for bobby fisher’ or
read the book is the chess prodigy from
that book he’s the little kid turns out
that he has a framework it’s not that he
has the inherent skills although he’s a
smart guy he has a framework that he can
apply to many many skills and he’s since
from being one of the world’s best chess
players applied it to Tai Chi push hands
to become national and world champion
it’s applied it to Brazilian jiu-jitsu
to become the first black belt under
Marcelo Garcia who’s like the Wayne
Gretzky Michael Jordan
Tiger Woods combined of Brazilian
jiu-jitsu in the case of chess what he
did is he learned how to do it
completely backwards his first coach
took him and said rather than starting
with openings that are very seductive
and will lead you to memorize things
much like stealing the answers from the
teacher for a math test we’re gonna
start with board control which means
you’re gonna have pawn and a king versus
another pawn and that’s how we’re going
to play so doing things in Reverse
actually can be extremely beneficial
when I was training for Argentine tango
in Argentina this was in 2005 very
accidental in fact but I looked at a
number of ways that the best people
competed what they trained what they
taught explicitly versus doing in
competition but not teaching and I
decided that I thought I could make more
progress by learning the female role
first so instead of learning the male
role first which is a real hassle a real
pain in the ass and very embarrassing I
decided to learn how to follow and I
trained one of the best female dancers
in the world to learn how to follow and
five and a half months later as part of
that was able to go to the World
Championships and make it to the
semi-finals I’m not a tango dancer I’m
built like a monkey look at me
so if I can do it I think you guys could
probably do very much the same
these next two photographs are related
to learning skills under pressure or not
learning them under pressure the worst
time to learn how to cook or for
instance knife skills is when you’re
under pressure to make a meal it’s the
worst time to do it
you should actually look for
opportunities to practice what I call no
stakes practice
so if you look at this second photograph
here I’m learning how to saute which
means to jump in French and I’m not
doing it over the stove I’m actually
practicing the wrist motion with dry
beans and a skillet and I’m kneeling on
a carpet so they don’t fly everywhere on
a hardwood floor you do this for 20
minutes two or three times you’ll have
the motion down and then you can use two
hands over the stove you won’t have any
problem no omelets on the walls all
right the last photograph knife skills
this is something it’s very intimidating
for people and it need not be
intimidating you just need to learn when
you can’t cut yourself so this is a
lettuce knife the green knife is a
lettuce knife has the same form factor
as the chef’s knife next to it so all
you have to do is learn how to hold the
knife properly which you see here and
then practice while you’re watching Game
of Thrones or whatever the hell you may
be watching on TV and just cut celery
just get used to cutting celery again do
that for 20 minutes 2 or 3 times you’ll
be comfortable with a knife and then you
can use the stuff that can stab people
but start with the nose steaks approach
speaking of steaks
this doesn’t mean steak ie piece of cow
it means steak like vampire stake
through the heart steak or Consequences
if you don’t stick to your diet what
happens you just stay the way that
you’ve been you don’t get fired from
your diet you don’t have someone
chastise you necessarily about it of
course in your job you do get fired if
you don’t do something and you therefore
are inclined to do it you have an
incentive it is extremely extremely
effective to build incentives into
whatever behavioral change you want your
life to whatever skills you want to
acquire this is AJ Jacobs AJ Jacobs is a
human guinea pig much like me and in
this particular photo or set of
photographs he decided for a year to try
to follow all the rules in the old and
new testament which is extremely
extremely extremely difficult he lives
in New York City so the after photo that
you see with with the beard there he is
when he was dressed in full white robes
and had his beard grown out and he did
everything in fact when he had to stone
adulterers plays a pretty big part in
the Bible
he was he was at a bit of a quandary
because he didn’t want to get arrested
or just feel guilty or just kill anyone
by stoning them and he realized they
didn’t specify the size of the stones so
he got a pocketful of pebbles little
tiny pebbles and he went to Central Park
asking people if they were adulterers
and then he would you know flick one out
them and run away check and AJ following
this this is a great book called the
year the year of living biblically it’s
a wonderful book decided he wanted to
get in shape and he had never been in
shape he had what he described as a
Python that swallowed a goat physique
which he was not happy with and he
didn’t need a new special trainer he
didn’t need a secret technique from the
former Soviet Union
he needed motivation so AJ is Jewish and
he wrote a check to the KKK for a
thousand dollars and gave it to one of
his friends and said if I don’t lose X
number of pounds 30 pounds by it why
point in time I want you to mail this to
the KKK that’s an incentive money is a
great incentive as all of you know and
you don’t have to do what he did you can
use a tool like stick comm I have no
affiliation with them I’m just a fan
stick comm came out of research done by
professor at Yale it was initially
called The Commitments tour what do you
do you set your goal I want to follow
ABC diet next you set your stakes so I’m
going to take 1 percent of my pre-tax
income and put it into escrow as my
stakes my motivation alright then what’s
not in this in this list right here is
you choose an anti charity so you choose
a charity that you would rather nuke
than give money to that you would hate
to have your name on the record for
giving money to the most popular and
this is not a political statement just
following the data is the George W Bush
Congressional Library
that is the most popular anti charity at
the moment so choose whatever you like
then you find a referee this could be a
merciless friend who is willing to
punish you if you don’t do what you say
you’re going to do or it could be
someone from the site and then you have
support and on you go and I’ve seen the
data from this site when you take
someone and apply stakes and a referee
their compliance goes from something
like 25 up to well over 70% it is it has
a huge impact
so consequences what’s the the overlying
principle for all of this it’s
simplified us to keep things simple and
when you’re looking for solutions to try
to remove things first rather than to
add things this is a really really
critical principle and less can be no
can be more in this particular respect
especially for behavioral change this is
a sign that I have over one of my
doorways in my house simplify and above
that I have a knife Y knife because when
you make a decision the word decision is
related to incision it means to cut off
it means to cut away other options and
to commit and to focus that’s what I
recommend all of you do with whatever
that skill is that you have in your head
still hopefully this is a beautiful
example an elegant example of
simplification to me this is one of the
most delicious scones you might think of
it as a scone or ash cake in this
particular case that was made for me and
it was made for me by cliff Hodges who
is a former MIT engineer runs a company
called adventure out and this was made
in the Santa Cruz Mountains by simply
taking a corn meal which used to provide
75% of the calories for native
Californians and laying it directly on
top of the embers of a fire and it came
out it was absolutely incredible and I
think that that’s what your results can
be as well if you focus on removal so I
would encourage you in closing to hold
in mind a quote from the author of the
little prince I love the little prince
what a lot of people don’t realize is
the author was also a pioneer in
international flight and postal delivery
very very smart guy Antoine de
saint-exupéry it’s my horrible French
for you but in English what he said was
perfection is achieved not when there’s
nothing more to add but when there’s
nothing more to take away and I’ll leave
you with that so my quick take on this
is two things first off you have to have
a passion when you have a passion to
learn something you’re much more likely
to pick up that skill think about what
you had to learn in school through the
textbooks and think about how relevant
some of those things were to your life
and how excited you were but actually
learning it if you are not interested in
learning it but you can’t find meaning
in your life that that’s applicable to
it’s gonna be so much harder to master
the skill if you look at the people
who’ve done insane things or at the
height of their industry and have the
most skills they have a passion to do it
and so stop trying to learn stuff that
you’re not excited about and instead
learn something that you can get really
good at quickly because you love it you
can quickly pass a lot of times people
look at an industry to say oh that
person they have a decade of experience
like Who am I I’m just starting out you
can quickly pass somebody who has years
of experience because you are just so
much more excited about doing it I see
it all the time
in the salsa world with my business
trying to dance salsa somebody who
really wants to learn the material and
is out practicing they go to a class and
they tape it and then they go practice
and practice and practice and they come
back the next week they’re so far ahead
of the person who just came to class
even if that first person has more
skills or has more natural talent you
can overcome any of your shortcomings
through hard work practice and
dedication and that comes because you
have a passion to learn it the second
quick tip I have is model success
whenever you have something that you
want to do and you have no idea how to
do it go find the person who’s done it
and look at how they did it I don’t care
about how somebody does it now somebody
the the peak of their career how they do
it now isn’t as relevant think more back
to the early stages how do they get
started
how do they initially pick up those
skills how do they initially acquire
that knowledge and expertise and then
bring that to life for yourself whatever
it is that you want to accomplish in
life somebody has already figured it out
and just marveling that success you can
quickly learn from them from their
success and their mistakes apply to
yourself to rapidly master that skill
so thank you guys so much for watching I
made this video because sent oshizu
Sarla asked me to if there’s a topic
that you’d like me to cover in the next
edition of believe life please leave it
in the comments below and I’ll see what
I can do I’d also love to know what did
you take from this video that was the
most inspiring most interesting most
applicable to you in your life in your
situation right now please leave it in
the comments below I’m gonna join in the
discussion finally I want to give a
quick shout out to Dolores Clark from
sorted for you co uk the loris thank you
so much for picking up a copy of my book
your one word it really really really
means a lot to me thank you guys again
for watching I believe in you I hope you
continue to believe in yourself and
whatever your one where it is
much love have an amazing day and I’ll
see you soon
why do so few of us master things well
last week I had the opportunity of
spending some time with an instructor
golf instructor Michael and he and I
were sitting down and having a
conversation together and he said you
know the game of golf is very annoying
and very frustrating I said tell me tell
me why he says well because you’re it’s
gone an 80 mile an hour swing and you’re
supposed to hit the small ball and all
the small little angles could dictate
which direction the balls are gonna go
so you could really drive yourself nuts
so I said when does one really start
enjoying the game of golf I wanted to
hear his answer listen to what he told
me he said one learns and enjoys the
game of golf when you know why the ball
went where it went
I said elaborate he said as an amateur
you get up then you try to hit the ball
you miss the ball right if you make a
contact it goes right or goes left it
goes all over the place and you want how
come I went to that place he says once
you learn why the ball is going to the
right and why the ball is going to the
left you get to actually enjoy because
your next swing you just make a minor
adjustment
maybe it’s your shoulders maybe it’s
your back not being straight maybe your
head’s moving more than two or three
inches maybe your weight is on your
heels instead of your toes seventy
thirty maybe you’re not sixty forty on
your back foot maybe you’re the balls
not aligned the right foot with your
left foot if you’re getting to drive or
all of these things you think about he
says but once you figure that out you
actually get a chance to enjoy the game
and I said you know what that’s exactly
what it is to be an entrepreneur and a
businessman you know you sit there and
you wonder why is this thing not working
for me and you know typically what it is
in business it’s one small minor
adjustment you got to make em phone you
start enjoying the game again so you
don’t mind if a certain numbers gonna
lower or higher but you know why that
thing’s gonna lower our hearts because
of this this concept is true in many
aspects of our lives you could say my
lower back is having problems I really
have a hard time with my lower back and
so you go out and work on your lower
back and you hire a personal trainer
said that has nothing to do with your
lower back your hamstrings are weak your
abs are weak you need to work on your
abs and your
hamstring you gotta be kidding me say my
marriage is not working out it’s because
of you know our finances because it is
you go talk to somebody and they say no
it’s because of communication you know
my finances are not working outs because
of my income no it’s because you’re
spending too much money with the
barbecues you do every other weekend a
beer you’re spending 300 bucks every
time that $600 right there but once you
figure out why it is that you’re having
those challenges you’re having and you
make minor little tweaks here and there
you start really enjoying the game of
life and it just becomes so effortless
to you and you know who could do that
anybody you just got to figure out what
those tweaks are they need to make
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