Brian Tracy argues for learning one skill deeply rather than many superficially. Set a dated goal, find a tutor, practice daily for 6 to 12 months until it becomes automatic. One new skill can materially advance your income and career.
One of the most common New Year's resolutions is to learn something new, is to get back into the books, if you like. Well, this has been a subject of mine for many, many years, and I know a lot about personal development and ongoing learning. So let me give you a couple of ideas. The first key is this is you only learn one subject at a time. If you say, well, I'm going to learn in this area and that area, and you go to the bookstore, you order books from Amazon, what will happen is nothing is you won't even open any of the books, which you know what I'm talking about. Already your home is probably full of unopened books. So what you do is you pick a single subject that you're going to learn in and you give yourself a long time to learn. Give yourself 6 to 12 months. Don't think that you can learn something worthwhile overnight. Personally, I am studying Russian right now when I go to Russia, and I'm studying Chinese when I go to China. I have instructors, tutors in each area, and I have a learning plan. And this is really important. I have a learning plan for each of those languages, and that involves listening to audio programs on pimsleur. It involves studying books, and it revolves and requires that I go on Skype with my instructors once per week. A learning plan, which all teachers have, is really important to you if you want to get on track and stay on track. So here's the greatest question of all. Ask yourself this question. What one skill, if you developed and did it in an excellent fashion, would help you the most to move ahead more rapidly in your life with salespeople? I say, how many people here would like to double their income? Every hand goes up. I say, what one skill, if you became excellent at it, would help you the most to double your income. And then what you do is you focus on a single skill at a time, and you set it as a goal. At the top of the page, you write, I am absolutely excellent in this skill by December 31, 2014. Then you make a list of everything that you would do to learn this skill. Write out your learning plan, think on paper, and then you take action. And here's the final key. Learn something new in this new area every single day. Study a little bit, read a little bit, practice a little bit, but do something seven days a week until it becomes automatic and easy for you to learn. And this will make learning a lifelong habit. Once you've mastered that skill, then you say, now what one skill would help me the most and this becomes your next project. If you'll do this, you'll become one of the most productive, most successful, and probably highest paid people in your industry.
