How to Learn Anything (and Be Good at Everything)

This article is a step-by-step guide to learning and mastering any skill you want to learn – whether it be a language, sport, musical instrument, or something else.

1.    Read everything you can find about the subject.

Read all of the books written by the masters.  Use this information to formulate a practice plan, and stick to it.

2.    Practice every day.

This is probably the most important rule.  Consistency is key.  Make the activity a part of your daily routine.  There is magic in doing an activity every day.  Over time, it becomes a part of you.  Daily progress, even in small amounts, is one of the biggest keys to mastery.

3.    When you get bored, it’s time to learn something new.

Boredom means that it’s time to advance – it doesn’t mean it’s time to stop.  Boredom is a sign that you’ve graduated from what you’re doing, and it’s time to move on to the next step.  Start trying more difficult tasks.

4.    Immerse yourself in the culture of the subject.

Watch videos, read magazines, and listen to podcasts about the subject.  Learn about its history.  How it started and got to where it is today.

Learn about the masters.  Listen to their interviews.  Read their writings.  Watch videos of them at work.  Ask yourself, what did they do that made them so good?  Pick up whatever tips and tricks you can from them.  Learn how they lived.  Study their ways of being.

Learn about the businesses, trades, and industries involved.

Learn the terminology and forms of speech.  Learn to talk the talk.

5.    Engage with other people who love the subject.

Join groups and clubs built around the thing.  Make friends with other people who do that thing.  Find mentors who are farther along in their journey than you are.  Stay away from negative people.

6.    Write down what you learn.

Take notes.  Keep a journal.  Every time you learn something new, write it down to reinforce it.

7.    Set goals.

Set goals.  Keep quiet about them.  Crush them.  Then make new ones.

Goals keep you motivated.  If your goals don’t motivate you, then you’ve chosen the wrong goals.  Choose goals that excite you.

Make your goals quantifiable and give yourself a time frame.  Goals must be measurable and have a completion date to be meaningful.

8.    Don’t expect it to be easy.

Expect that you will have to work hard and be dedicated to get good.

Expect to have to leave your comfort zone.

Remember that your dreams and your goals are your responsibility and yours alone.  Don’t wait for other people to support you, and don’t expect them to.  If other people support you, great.  If they don’t, keep going anyway.

9.    Don’t compare yourself to other people.

Comparison is the thief of joy, and it can also be very limiting.

Allow yourself to learn at your own pace.  Don’t worry about whether other people started ahead of you or are learning faster than you.

Take the long view.  Just because you may be learning slower than someone else doesn’t mean that you won’t go farther than them in the long run.  If they quit and you keep going, you will end up going a lot farther than they did.

Give yourself time to develop.

10.    Enjoy the process.

Avoid self-judgment.  Talent is overrated.  If you train properly and stay committed to what you’re doing, you will develop the skills you need to go as far as you want to go.

If you aren’t developing the skills you need to go as far as you want to go, then you aren’t training properly.

There will be ups and downs in your development.  Stay positive and keep showing up every day.

Some days, you might suck.  That’s okay.  Keep showing up, anyway.

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