Ways to learn new skills quickly

​How do we learn a new skill quickly and effectively. How do we master any skill.

Many of what we have learned are helpful skills, traits, attitudes, behaviors, beliefs [positive skills] on the other hand there are those which are detrimental to us [negative skills].

All our actions, thoughts, reactions and behaviors whether automatic or as an afterthought happens because of the skills we have learned.

Following are few examples of what can be termed as our habit, nature or personality – yet actually are skills and habits of mind, that we have acquired

1.Being angry vs. showing anger
2.Fear vs Remaining Calm
3.Reacting vs responding
4.Introverted vs extroverted
5.Being confident vs. low self-esteem
6.Assertive vs submissive or aggressive or passive
7.Taking decision easily vs procrastinating
8.Panicking and worrying vs thinking through thoroughly
9.Being able to think differently [creatively] vs structured fixed way of acting
10.Focusing on our needs vs giving priority to other's needs vs having a healthy balance
11.Being flexible and open vs arrogance
12.Being able to learn easily vs unable to learn
13.Being passionate vs operating in comfort zone
14.Taking control vs giving your power
15.Adventurous and experimental vs same approach
16.Worrying always vs carefree or laidback
17.Expressing freely vs being secretive
18.Using gut feeling or intuition vs logic only vs maintaining a balance
19.Acquiring skills that add value to our creativity directly or indirectly vs being slave of routine
20.Becoming emotionally mature vs living and reacting impulsively
21.Developing high social intelligence vs remaining recluse
22.Influencing others vs letting yourself be brainwashed

The list above may not sound like skills or talents.

Because they are so deeply ingrained in our psyche or subconscious, that we failed to see that when we were kids we were free from almost all the above.

We have learned these through circumstances and conditioning that we received during our personality forming years.

Some of the above also could be because of the psychological issues instilled due life altering events.

Like the world's most powerful personality self-discovery tool Enneagram explains that most of the traits, habits, skills and nature we acquire to make us cope with a certain situation, but later we start using them everywhere.

Please remember that all the overused strengths ultimately becomes our weakness.

Then there are hard skills or talents those can be learned and developed much easily in comparison to the soft skills.

Few examples of the hard skills [although many of these would also need the support of soft skills and can be even termed soft skills]

1.Selling skills
2.Communication skills
3.Negotiation skills
4.Problem solving skills
5.Strategizing skills
6.Presentation skills
7.Empathy
8.Listening
9.Asking questions
10.Leadership [this requires a combination of almost all the hard and soft skills mentioned above plus more]
11.Ability to think
12.Using Humor
13.Developing motor skills
14.Making yourself mentally resilient
15.Honing Networking skills
16.Financial skills
17.Earning Skills
18.Future Employability skills
19.Money making skills
20.Wealth building and saving skills
21.Thinking Skills – analytical, strategic, critical thinking etc

Why Learn anything at all

Learning itself is a skill, it's a skill that can be improved. It's also exciting and empowering to learn new skills.

There are many reasons why you may want to learn a new skill, you can add yours

1. To get a promotion at work
2. To move into a different field
3. To keep your employ-ability secured
4. To make your life fulfilling
5. To break the mental, emotional, physical shackles holding you down
6. To become an entrepreneur
7. To leave your mark
8. To establish your credibility as an expert
9. To creating a meaningful life
10. To build great relationship with people important to you
11. To build something new
12. To accomplish your passions and dreams

How to acquire skills successfully and effectively along with retaining them

We would be using skills and talent interchangeably throughout this article.

The following are the fundamental ways you can learn and master most of the skills.

1.Identifying the skills you need
2.Identifying why do you need these skills, if it is just because it is a fad – you can never expect to be an expert. But if it is something that has a great impact on the quality of life you are desperate or passionate enough to have, then it is good beginning
3.Identifying the proficiency level you need for a particular skill, you need not be the greatest expert in all the skills
4.You also need to identify which skills and habits of mind you need to unlearn, to make your learning new skills easier
5.Then breaking the entire skill learning path into measurable small-small units
6.Identifying the most important aspects and basics of the learning steps that would make your learning faster
7.Prioritizing which one needs to be learned first and which ones can be done later, create an order
8.Identify what you can learn on your own and for which aspects you may need external expert's guidance
9.Do Preliminary Research, to explore the best expert, talk with them, negotiate and seal the deal for external learning.
10.Also buildup your self-learning resources through few books, YouTube videos, tutorials and online courses
11.Schedule your learning, by ensuring that you do a regular learning plans in small chucks, so as not to make feel overwhelmed
12.Commit yourself and Start learning
13.Keep to your deadlines
14.Give yourself breaks to sleepover what you have learned and to internalize
15.Let go of the talent myth, that success in learning few skills depends on being naturally gifted
16.Initially do not aim to be the best, but be good enough
17.Create specific goals of practicing whatever you have learned into real time implementation of projects you need these skills for
18.Practice and use the learned skills to solve the problems as often as you can
19.Understand that the skills are fine-tuned only by practice and teaching others how to do it, so do the both regularly
20.Get a mentor to keep you on track and also for advice and clarifications time to time
21.In the initial skill practicing stage take challenges and task those are little stretch, later you can increase the level of difficulties, step by step as per your growing confidence
22.Get feedback on your progress on learning
23.Take test to verify your newly gained competence on a regular basis
24.Demonstrate your capabilities
25.Don't Be Afraid of Making Mistakes
26.Don't expect results and miracles overnight
27.Commit yourself to practicing a new skills at least 3 months
28.Take ownership of your learning process, be accountable and be in control of your learning process
29.Read, listen and watch the master do it then try to use the NLP modeling techniques in incorporates their finesse in yourself
30.Attend training programs
31.Be Curious and become a keen observer
32.Transfer the best practices from elsewhere to your learning and mastering
33.Make learning enjoyable and fun

Few Skills you would find useful to learn, either to learn from scratch or to polish it to master's level [full method and ways on how to learn are there in my blog for the ones marked with * ]

1.Speed Reading
2.Basic Home Repairs
3.Basic Car Repairs, like changing tyres etc
4.Creativity enhancing skills like cooking, gardening, learning to play musical instruments etc
5.Travel Photography
6.Learn Self-Defense Basics
7.Learn to work with your hands make your own DIY
8.Learning to Dance
9.Learning to swim in sea, river and pond
10.Developing Your Skill of Humor*
11.Learn to Start a Fire from whatever is available
12.Sewing, Stitching and Patching
13.Performing CPR
14.Enhancing Mental Sharpness*
15.Ask Powerful Questions*
16.Finding your Passion*
17.Polishing creativity*
18.Handling Change*
19.Develop Confidence*
20.How to be Fit*
21.How to build wealth*
22.How to relax*
23.How handle stress*
24.Communication skills*
25.Leadership skills*
26.Entrepreneurial skills*
27.Presentation skills*
28.How to be assertive*
29.How to solve problems effectively*
30.How to sell How to Negotiate effectively*
31.How to create a classy personality*
32.How to influence people with hypnotic words and language*
33.How network effectively*
34.Business skills*
35.Improving your social intelligence*
36.Enhancing your Emotional intelligence*
37.Upping your spiritual part*
38.How to handle difficult people*
39.How make people your fan*