How To Learn Anything Fast

How To Learn Anything Fast

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Productivity Tips you'll learn today on The Sales Podcast...

• The 10 Principles of Rapid Skill Acquisition
  1. Choose a lovable project
  2. Focus your energy on one skill at a time
  3. Define your target performance level
  4. Deconstruct the skill into sub-skills
  5. Obtain critical tools
  6. Eliminate barriers to practice
  7. Make dedicated time for practice
  8. Create fast feedback loops (coaches, partners, recording, blasts, CTAs,)
  9. Practice by the clock in short bursts
  10. Emphasize quantity and speed

Well begun is half done."

• Learning curve charts (performance time vs. practice time and how good you are vs. practice time)

A problem well-stated is a problem half solved." ~Charles Kettering

• The 10 principles of effective learning
  1. Research the skill and related topics
  2. Jump in over your head
  3. Identify mental models and mental hooks
  4. Imagine the opposite of what you want
  5. Talk to practitioners to set expectations
  6. Eliminate distractions in your environment
  7. Use spaced repetition and reinforcement for memorization
  8. Create scaffolds and checklists
  9. Make and test predictions
  10. Honor your biology

There ain't no rules around here. We're trying to accomplish something." ~Thomas Edison

• The price of progress
• Examine the problem
• A potential solution
• So what do you really want to do or need to be done? Like, really. Like, in real detail. Like, specifically?
• Think like a...
  • Salesperson
  • Programmer
  • Marketer
  • Entrepreneur
  • Executive
• Use precise language
• Choose a framework
• Define the end result
• Refine, test, revise
• Enhance, improve
• Embrace chaos
• Expect more losses than wins in the beginning

Anything worth doing well, is worth doing poorly, at first." ~Ray Congdon

• I have seen the enemy, and it is me! (The emotional baggage of change tends to be quite large.)
• Learning a new motor skill requires physically changing the structure of your brain, so you need sleep
• Interference, inhibition, consolidation, activation, patterns, memory
• So practice something new just before going to bed!
• Cognitive interference means you need to space your new skill training
• Remove the training wheels
• Ambient practice is not enough
• You must have focused, deliberate practice
• Conduct focused sprints of intense training

Explore, then decide.

• Map out your strategies
• Map our your tactics
• Know the rules
• Make your "Ear Reddening Move"
• Pattern recognition from 360 degrees is key
• Master yourself
• Use your feelings... 
  • The tactics of the soldier
  • The exactness of the mathematician
  • The imagination of the artist
  • The inspiration of the poet
  • The calm of the philosopher
  • The greatest intellect (Zhang Yunqi)
  • Outwit, outperform
  • Aptitude and control
  • Find and seize the biggest opportunities first
  • Exploit the weaknesses of your opponent

• Gear up
• Follow the script
• Focus
• Study small
• Keep your options open
• Suicide is not allowed
• Strong corners prevent being flanked
• "I know you are but what am I?" is for losers
• Estimating the territory you have won or lost is a skill, and takes practice
• Direct vs. indirect attacks
• Attack from a position of strength
• Connections, joints, approaches, influence
• Recognize, build, and defend two eyes, false eyes, and true eyes
• If you don't know who the chump is, it's you.
• If you're not ready, willing, and able to walk away from the negotiation table, you shouldn't be at it.
• Get your opponent to overextend themselves
• Structured study and practice is key
• "Diary of a Wimpy Salesman"
  • Don't follow your opponents blindly
  • Pat attention to the entire board
  • Make profitable moves
  • Take the initiative, set the pace, set the agenda
  • Play to win, get them playing not to lose
  • Know where you are on the board
  • Know how much territory you have captured or given
  • Do not be envious
  • Avoid wishful thinking
  • Know what victory looks like, i.e., it's okay to lose some battles as long as you win the war
• More "Go" proverbs
  • The enemy's key point is your key point.
  • When in doubt, tenuki (play somewhere else).
  • Make a fist before striking.
  • A rich man should not pick quarrels.
  • If you ride a tiger, it's difficult to get off. (Don't start what you're not willing to finish.)
  • Don't follow proverbs blindly.
  • Only after the tenth punch will you see the fist.
  • Only after the twentieth punch will you be able to block it.
  • Live, kill, secure, invade.
• Go requires making decisions with incomplete information in a changing environment. (Sounds like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, sales, entrepreneurship, and life!)
• Repetition makes your skills become automatic.
• It's not glamorous, but it's important.
• Wind Surfing Tips
  • Watch the wind
  • Put the pieces together
  • The maiden voyage
  • At the mercy of Mother Nature
  • Self-rescue
  • Post-traumatic event analysis
  • Learning from the past
  • Now that you're moving...how do you steer?
  • For everything, there is a season

Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit." ~Conrad Hilton

Sales Growth Tools Mentioned In The Sales Podcast

• Order "The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything . . . Fast!"