How to Learn and Master any Skill in 5 Steps

Mastering a skill has little or nothing to do with talent. While talent is good, it is never enough.

As the basketball coach, Tim Notke, rightly said, “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”

So, what could be the secret to mastering any skill? Could it be the renowned 10,000-hour rule?

While the 10,000-hour rule is used in the self-help industry, it has been proven that the 10,000-hour rule was never intended to act as a standard for learning any skills.

The research featured top-ranked violinists to determine how many hours they had spent practicing since they picked up the instrument.

After the research, they discovered that the top violinists had spent an average of 10,000 hours mastering their craft.

However, that’s only peculiar to violinists, not all fields.

The thought of spending 10,000 hours practicing one skill before becoming a master can be a great barrier to learning and developing a new skill.

The Four Stages of Competence:

• Unconscious incompetence:

This is a stage where you are not competent or even aware of it. It has yet to occur to you to upskill or learn a new skill. You can call this “the unaware stage.”

• Conscious incompetence:

In this stage, you’ve realized that you need to learn a new skill but don’t know Jack about it.

You are aware of your incompetence and actively seeking ways to learn the skill.

• Conscious competence:

In this stage, you’ve mastered your skill to an extent and can command a level of results with it.

However, delivering such a level of excellence still takes high focus, attention, and mental energy.

• Unconscious competence:

This is the peak of being competent. You could be tapped from your sleep to say or do something about that skill, and you’d deliver nothing but excellence. At this stage, your skill has become a part of you.

This doesn’t mean that you won’t practice anymore; it only means that you are one of the top people who could give such an excellent output without exerting as much energy as you used to.

Let’s look at the five steps to learning and mastering any skill faster and better.

The ART of Mastering Any Skill

1. Start With A Purpose:

Dr Myles Munroe once said, “Once the purpose of a thing is unknown, abuse is inevitable.”

Many young folks started learning a skill without a clearly defined purpose.

Of course, I understand the euphoria of learning a new skill, especially on your first day, but not having a purpose is not ideal.

You can tell from your previous experiences that you could be better.

As Simon Sinek once said, “Start with Why.” You’ll be under pressure if you learn a skill from peer pressure.Before learning a new skill, set the standards for yourself.

Why do you want to learn that skill?

It might be because you need it to become a sought-after professional. You probably want to improve how you communicate with people.

To find out why you want to learn a skill, I recommend that you use the 7-Why Test by Dean Graziosi.

It’s a simple strategy that lets you discover why you are doing something beyond the surface.

It is not an avenue where you give seven different reasons for doing something; each question builds on the previous answer.

Let’s say you want to learn the skill of writing. This is how the progression will go:

Q1: Why do you want to learn how to write?

A:  I want to learn how to write because it will build my confidence in doing what I love.

Q2: Why do you need confidence in doing what you love?

A: I need confidence because I might spend the rest of my life afraid, procrastinating and never getting to do the one thing I wish to do – write.

Q3: Why do you want to write?

A: I see myself as someone who has the knowledge or some solutions to people’s problems and I want to help via writing and I know I can make money while at it.

Q4: Why do you want the things you mentioned above -help and make money?

A: Helping solve people’s problem will make me feel fulfilled. Making money while at it will make me even happier.

Q5: Why will you feel happier making money?

A: I will be able to cater for my needs and that of those that I love.

Q6: Why is this important?

A: It will make me feel more relevant than I feel right now. It will help me make those around me comfortable.

Q7: Why do you want to make those around you happier?

A: I will die satisfied, knowing I was able to live a full life, solving the problems of people afar off and at the same time making myself and those around me happy.

Looking at this progression, you want to learn how to write because you know someone is out there waiting to be liberated by what you know and ultimately you will live a fulfilled life.

These 7 ‘whys’ are purely fictional. You can create your own for the new skill you want to learn.

2. Have a Goal:

We are creatures driven by goals. It’s not just about learning a skill. In fact, why you are learning the skill is not enough. You must have a goal.

Your purpose is why you do something, but your goal is the specific outcome you want to achieve. It’s also important to ensure your goals align with your purpose.

But don’t just set any goals; set SMART goals. Your goals must be:

S: Specific.

M: Measurable.

A: Attainable.

R: Realistic.

T: Time-bound.

Let’s make use of the previous example. You already know your purpose for writing.

Now, let’s determine your goals. Since you write to sell, writing books is one of the most viable business models you can consider.

You can set a goal to get a good grip on writing in one month or less and then start writing books every month or quarter.

That means your goal can be to become the best-selling author of multiple books. You can break it down using the SMART formula.

3. Rapid Skill Method by Josh Kauffman:

In his book, “The First 20 Hours,” Josh Kauffman describes four methods for learning any skill rapidly.

After you have discovered your purpose and set a goal, how can you learn any skill quickly:

1. Deconstruct the skill: This means breaking down the skill to the barest minimum. Break it into all the sub-skills and sections. Don’t leave any stone unturned.

2. Learn about each sub-skill: One of the best ways to approach a big task is to start small. Learning a skill, especially when it is a broad skill, can be difficult.

However, bringing it into bits and sub-skills makes it much easier for you to learn better and faster.

And it will be easier to piece them up as a whole when you understand the intricacies of each aspect of the skill.

3. Eliminate barriers to practice: You’ll face barriers when trying to learn a new skill. They are parts and parcels of skill learning and acquisition.

The barriers include but are not limited to distractions, noisy environments, fear, doubts, phone calls, emails, social media, etc.

You should also beware of people who discourage you from going after learning.

4. Practice deliberately: When it comes to success, you don’t find time; you create time. Likewise, you have to create a dedicated time to practice when it comes to skills.

You will never have more time. It’s a fallacy to think you’ll learn that skill when you are less busy. The truth is that you won’t get less busy.

Josh Kauffman recommends that you practice the sub-skills of that skill for at least 20 hours. Why?

The early parts of learning any skill are usually the hardest. It’s called the free-fall phase.

So, when you hit the 20-hour mark, you will gain some momentum and can decide on how to proceed.

He recommends cutting down on low-value tasks and dedicating at least 90 minutes daily until you reach the 20-hour mark. Remember, practice makes better, not perfect.

4. Find a Teacher and Imitate That Teacher:

Tony Robbins once said, “If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do, and you’ll achieve the same results.”

He also said, “Success leaves clues.”

The truth is that there is no skill you want to learn today that has yet to be understood by someone else.

Experts are already making loads of money and even teaching others how to do it.

Learning from a teacher helps shorten your learning curve. It also helps you to avoid the trial-and-error system of learning.

While learning by yourself is great, it is much better when you have someone to hold you by the hand and show you what works and what doesn’t.

You can learn from a teacher by buying books that teach the skill you want to know, buying courses that show you how to get started and master that skill, and signing up for group or one-on-one coaching and mentorship programs.

Whatever option you choose, getting a teacher will help you shorten the curve and help you learn better and faster.

Secondly, you can also imitate a teacher. In this case, observation and imitation are your greatest tools.

Find one or two persons who have mastered the skill you want to learn. Observe them carefully and then start imitating their actions.

Imitate them repeatedly until you grasp how they do what they do.

For example, imitating writers exposes you to their world. You get to see from their lens and perspective.

You get to enjoy the story or content from their view, and you recreate the memories in your mind. 

Thankfully, you can apply both at the same time. You can learn from a teacher and also imitate that teacher.

5. Feedback:

Feedback is crucial to learning and mastering any skills. There are several ways to get feedback:

• From your teacher:

This is one of the benefits of having a teacher. If you have a guide looking over your shoulders, it will help you grow faster.

Your teacher has once gone through your stage and has most likely helped other people pass through that stage, too.

They can give you feedback on what you are doing right and what you need to improve.

When you consistently receive feedback from your teacher, it will help you grow faster. One of the reasons you should get feedback from a teacher is that we often overlook what we are doing wrong.

So, we need an extra pair of eyes, especially an experienced one to tell us what we need to work on and improve on.

• Keep a record of your learning process:

Document your progress as you achieve your learning goals and objectives.

Monitoring and measuring your progress will help you know how far you have come and how far you still have to go.

Let’s try another example.

Let’s say you are learning the skill of public speaking, especially how to speak confidently on camera.

When you record any video, probably to learn a speaking or presenting technique, keep them safe because you will visit them soon.

You can set specific timelines for yourself, but it might be after two weeks, one month, or even two months.

Compare the previous video to the one you are recording now. Doing this will help you know if you are improving or just going around a cycle without making specific progress.

Also, it serves as a form of inspiration to keep going. Mastery is birthed from constant and deliberate practice.

It is not enough to practice deliberately; you must also do it consistently.

Conclusion

If you want to master any skill, these five steps are non-negotiable. You must have a purpose, set a goal, practice deliberately and consistently, learn from and imitate a teacher, and get feedback.

They make your learning journey easier and better. These principles are timeless principles to mastering any skill.

If you do a quick retrospection about any skills you have learned now, you will see the traces of one or more of these principles.

Now, imagine using them all together.

Feel free to share your experience in the comments.

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