When psychologist Victor Frankl wrote that sometimes the most meaningful journey is the one we never take, he could not have imagined how true his words would be for all of us.
This paradoxical, seemingly contradictory sentiment rings true for so many people in our hyper-connected world: the ones who actually try to become better at something find that success isn’t as hard or difficult as it once was because there are so many resources designed to help them succeed with less work.
This is particularly true when it comes to learning new things. There are countless websites and apps dedicated solely to teaching you a new skill, craft, or language.
There are constant blogs, podcasts and forums devoted to the analysis of specific topics or skills that can be improved upon.
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Of course, this proliferation of learning materials is a net positive for the learner. But can we really learn everything there is to know? Is it really possible to be a master of anything? I argue yes.
Here’s why:
1. Being Human.
Humans have always been capable of exploring and learning new skills, information and things that are beyond our current level of knowledge (even if they were unable to string two words together until the invention of writing).
Imagine a caveman who is trying to figure out the best way to build a fire for warmth, or how to hunt a saber-toothed tiger.
In order to learn how he must be able to think and imagine things beyond his current level of understanding. We all have that ability, even if it’s not as great as we might like it to be.
2. Practice makes Perfect.
The saying goes that practice makes perfect and I’ve found this statement can be applied within many areas of life: cooking, teaching, drawing hell even blogging about learning. The truth is, practicing something over and over again can lead you to learn new information in less time than before.
This is true because repetition creates a form of neural pathway that becomes more powerful. This strengthening of the neural connections allows us to make connections between lessons we are learning and our current reality, thus making the learning process easier because it “seems” like we can already do it.
3. Practice Leads to Knowledge.
Practice is an important factor in learning new things, but it’s not the only factor. Practice can be the base for all your learning endeavors, but knowledge will allow you to start developing new skills and habits that are relevant to you.
So how do we go from knowing nothing about a topic to being completely knowledgeable about it? Well there are several ways
4. Learning by Teaching.
This is a skill that the best teachers seem to master. The process of teaching someone something is the process of teaching yourself how to explain it in a way that is understandable and relatable.
This helps you discover and solidify weaknesses in your own understanding, which in turn allow you to learn new things about the topic in question.
5. Learning by Doing.
The most practical way to learn anything new is to dive into it wholeheartedly. If you want to learn how to run a marathon, then go out and do it. You’ll discover pain, sweat, muscle aches and betrayal by your lungs. But in the end you might just learn something completely different. You might appreciate the challenge of pushing your body to physical limits.
6. Improving with time.
Most people know that practice makes perfect, but what many don’t realize is that there are different levels at which practice can take place.
For example, when you’re learning a new skill (say juggling 3 balls) at first you might just be practicing the movements involved in throwing and catching the balls successfully. This allows you to improve quickly because the movement is purely physical (it involves no cognitive processing).
Once you have this basic level of competency you can then start learning the next movement in the process – how to control the direction of the ball while in mid-air.
This might sound like a lot, but when you consider that the movements will be exactly the same (just in different directions), it is easier to learn and master this concept.
At every point during this process you will have learned something new and as a result your skill set will continue growing and evolving over time without requiring as much work as it did initially.
