Learning something quickly while sharing the learning journey really seemed to resonate with people, and that's why Mike Boyd decided to start his Youtube channel.
He has since gained 2.62 million youtube subscribers and has taught himself how to learn literally anything he wants to. This ranges from learning to build an online game to learning how to break a glass with his voice, you can check his youtube channel to literally see all he has been able to learn and more as he goes on.
The purpose of this blog is to breakdown the methods that worked for him and try to understand how he has taught himself to learn and hopefully, we too can apply these methods too and see significant changes as we learn new skills.
Method He uses to learn Skills:
1. Start Immediately: Start learning immediately the idea pops into your head. Leave no time for barking out.
2. Very little Research: Do some background research on equipment or techniques beforehand but not too much as it may put you off from even getting starting in the first place.
3. Well Defined Goal: Set clear, defined, and unambiguous goals before you begin.
4. Document Progress: He used Youtube as a journal of progress, you could vlog or blog your progress.
5. Stay Disciplined: Stay disciplined and motivated with regard to practice.
6. Embrace Struggle: As you journal your progress, you also record the struggles that you had to endure too. the result? you no longer see struggles that come with learning as something holding you back, rather as something you overcame.
The Learning Mindset
Our brains are like muscles, It can constantly grow, adapt, and be trained. This is known as the plasticity of our brain snd it extends well into our adulthood and doesn't just stop at childhood.
There isn't much difference between training your muscles and training your mind.
Carry this idea of plasticity to each new skill you learn. It will help you get through the hurdles of learning and help you put in the time to learn. the effect? Your brain will become sharper and fitter, set to pick up a new skill.
Always remember, you are not stuck with the abilities you have, you can train your brain for life. Moreso, our brains are not like vessels that can be filled, but like muscles that can grow and adapt with stimulation throughout our lives.
Finding Passion
Where do you find Grit, Perseverance, and Tenacity?
The driving force behind Mike's grit and perseverance for learning those new skills comes from passion. For example, He does film-making week-in week-out because he has a passion for it
But what really is passion?
Passion: A spike in interest. It's evident in what you do, the long hours put into work/skill. Finding passion was not easy for him. He had to work to find something that spiked his interest and that he's passionate about. he tried and quit a lot of things/hobbies.
Grit is what you need to overcome the difficulty in the learning curve. Talent does not make you gritty but passion does. Some underlying level of interest is necessary to get through the learning curve but you need to try things out to know if it's there.
In all honesty, you will not enjoy everything you do, you will inevitably lose interest and move on and that's simply part of the process of developing your passion.
Go out and try many different things until something really takes hold.
Passion is not something that is given to you or you are born with, rather it is something that is kindled, worked on, that is forged. Rather than wait for passion to come to you, Go out there and cultivate it for yourself. Find something that is worth you pouring your heart and soul into because that is how you will make progress in any skill.
Practicing Smart
Get down to it, Practice. Fit your practice time into your daily schedule.
Use the Pomodoro technique, or have some sort of timer with you as you learn.
Merge fun practices with deliberate practice, by blending these two styles of practice, helps you get to your goal while staying motivated.
Break the skill down, change the technique while isolating the issue at a time.
Pushing Through Frustrations
Frustration can make you quit. It is that voice at the back of your head telling you that you just don't have what it takes to learn the skill or that it would take you too long a time to learn.
It happens right at the dip of the learning curve, while your motivation is low and you're still not reaping the benefits of developing a skill set. However, if we can push through this dip in the learning curve, that's when you'll enjoy the ROI of practice.
How to push through the Dip:
Acknowledge that you are in the dip: Accept that there will always going to be a low after the initial burst of excitement of the novelty of learning something new. You are in the dip and this is the worst time for you in your learning progression. It eases your anxiety to know that this is as bad as it's going to get.
Minimize time Spent in the Dip:
Deliberate Scheduled Practice is key: Be really regimented, disciplined, stick it in the diary and get out of bed as early and get on it as quickly as you can. During this time, you probably do not want to practice but practice is the only thing that's going to push you through the learning curve at this point. At this point, you would really need to have more discipline than you would normally have.
Be efficient with your Practice as possible
More fun practice will boost your morale.
Shorter practice session before frustration sets in.
Take a couple of days off just like in physical activities, your muscles may just need a little break.
Break the skill up into component parts and have more focused practicing,. seeing progress on each component level will push you through the dip.
Frustration is definitely going to hit you, anticipate it, there is always going to be a low in the learning curve no matter what skill you are learning, expect it, wether the storm. There are some techniques you can put in place as soon as you start feeling frustration that can help alleviate the feeling and reduce your likelihood to quit.
Success
Success is to clearly achieve a goal that you had set earlier. Be unambiguous as possible with your goal so that the mark of success is really clear.
Pivot and Refine your goals as you progress: Set goals that are not too easy that it feels worthless or too hard that it's impossible to achieve. Shift the goal post as you progress as you learn more of the intricacies of your skill.
Changing Directions
Sometimes, you might realize that you cannot proceed with learning that skill. Don't be afraid to change directions entirely: See it as a stepping stone, not as a failed career, the skills are transferable.
The aim is to maximize your success, not the dopamine you get when you learn new skills.
I wish you success in learning new skills in the future
This blog was curated from my personal notes while taking Mike Boyd's Skillshare class which you can find here