How to Master Any Skill You Want

Anyone can do various things fine, however, when it comes to becoming a master at one particular skill is rather different. There are complete books, research journals and coaching courses dedicated to mastery. There are many theories and suggestions for mastering skills, but a simple process is outlined here. Keep in mind that simple does not mean it is easy or fast. Simple only means that it is the simplest approach to mastery.

Deconstruct the skill, and make it less overwhelming.

As soon as we start to learn something new, it can become overwhelming and cause us to give up on it before we even start. As the sayings go, “well begun is half done,” “the beginning is always hardest” and “all glory comes from daring to begin.” All apparently correct when you get to know any master. A lot of skills are usually a group of skills put together. By breaking it down into two separate sessions, we won’t overwhelm ourselves with trying to do it all at once.

Watch.

If we want to learn how to do something, we need a teacher. Whether it’s a formal education or a counselor, we need somebody to show us how it’s done first.

As Picasso said, “learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
Being inquisitive is a very healthy approach during this phase, it can be a game changer if you really want to stay in the mastery game. As a matter of fact, even if you become a master and you are not practicing and updating your craft, there will always be someone better than you anyway, but in order to stand out then polishing the skill is the key ingredient which is why constant exposure is important to what we are trying to master.

For example, people trying to learn a new language have to learn the essentials of sentence structure, tenses and words, and sounds and letters even before they can start trying to speak. If we want to learn how to do it, we will need to find a great teacher.

Imagine yourself doing the skill.

As Albert Einstein said so well, “Logic will take you from A to B, imagination will take you everywhere.” Make it a habit to think about yourself performing the skill you are trying to learn. By visualizing yourself doing the job, it boosts our self-esteem, and we subconsciously feel more confident that we can master the skill exactly how we want to. The urge and curiosity go side by side, you can’t be curious without an urge and if you have the urge you will be determined to learn throughout. Also, as I read somewhere online, the only difference between a goal and dream is a plan, as soon as you start imagining and planning to do it, you are on your way to make it your reality and it is not a dream anymore.

Do.

With the tools of observation and experience to the skill, the next step is to try it on our own with our teacher as a guide. If you are a planner, draw up the first structure for examination. If you think you are a leader, take charge of a project or task. This step is critical. Failure does not mean conquer unless we stop trying, and it’s in this critical “do” stage of mastery that we must gather together all of our courage and be willing to fail, only to stand up and try again. Mastery comes from failing and being willing to be taught as we continue to try and learn how to do it better, faster and simpler. Until that one day when we “get it.”

Be self-satisfied, but be humble.

Once we are past the first few hours of practice and we are starting to pick up the skill a little better, feel free to act like a pro. This is another way to boost your confidence and make learning the skill easier. In contrast, don’t let it go to your head. The worst thing we can do to progress is being overconfident because then we will feel like we know everything about it when the truth is we still have a lot to learn. It is okay to feel proud of how far we came, but don’t forget to keep moving forward. Don’t pass along negative thoughts. The negative effect will get into your head that you know everything, you will lose the urge to learn more or even polish the skill you already have acquired.

Teach.

As soon as we start believing that we have achieved mastery, we forget that there is one more step. If we truly are content at our preferred skill level then it’s time for us to strengthen the mastery by teaching. If you cannot explain this to a six year old, you don’t know it well enough yourself. Therefore, if we ever want to see how smart we really are, try to teach someone else. Teaching teaches us flexibility, patience and to see problems and solutions in totally innovative ways, because students are going to ask you some questions you don’t know the answers to at first. Unexpectedly, we realize we all have to keep learning to attain mastery on a constant basis. Teaching is the essential third step that will ensure us in achieving and maintaining mastery.

Conclusion:

I have shared my personal experience and a bit of generic research. When I did my postgraduate, the job market was saturated and employers were only looking for employees at the beginner’s level. Employers were looking to train and offer jobs only at the lowest of wages, which I refused to take. It was a shock and I was forgetting all the knowledge I had acquired and so I grabbed whatever came my way. I worked with bloggers, online magazines, learned social media marketing, practiced magazine journalism, and did two online certifications in digital marketing. Thankfully, Cox Internet prices and its blazing-fast connection were the only support I had at that time and I will always be grateful I had them in my corner.

Guest article written by: Peter Shimming