How to Learn and Master Any Skill (part 2)

The Incrementalist

When you’re acquiring and developing a new skill, you need to learn how to learn. Learning is a meta-skill for life and for sustaining peak performance. This continuation of a two-parts episode builds on the foundation principles covered in Episode 36.

In episode 37 of The Incrementalist, you will learn:

7 more takeaways to learn and master any skill

• Keep a beginner's mind - be like the child learning to crawl who is not concerned about how she looks or about whether she’s succeeding or failing.
• Invest in loss - give yourself to the learning process and be willing to lose and fail so you can win and succeed.
• Make smaller circles - emphasize depth over breadth; focus on the micro to understand the macro.
• Use adversity - take advantage of setbacks to hone new skills and move out of creative ruts.
• Slow down time - connect the unconscious and the conscious mind through chunking (create neural pathways, chunks, and navigation systems between the chunks).
• Be fully present - pay attention to the learning process to increase clarity in high-stakes moments.
• Get in the zone - use the stress-recovery effect to achieve focus and flow states.

Read the transcript.

Resources cited:

• Josh Waitzkin, The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance
• Dyan Williams, The Incrementalist: A Simple Productivity System to Create Big Results in Small Steps
• Dyan Williams, The Incrementalist podcast, Ep. 5, Finding and Sustaining Flow
• Dyan Williams, The Incrementalist podcast, Ep. 17, Smart Note-Taking for Productive Work

Music by:

• Sebastian Brian Mehr: Album – Olemus; Song – La Nieve (hearnow.com)

Dyan Williams
Check out the book: The Incrementalist, A Simple Productivity System to Create Big Results in Small Steps
Visit website: www.dyanwilliams.com
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