Give Me 9 Minutes, And I'll Show You How To 10x Your Learning Speed

The Last Airbender is all about the journey of learning new skills from novice to master. It's an animated show, so obviously not everything in it is realistic, but it's very well written, and there are lessons you can take from it to help you master almost any skill. Whether you're interested in sports, languages, music, or social skills, we'll go over some things. Avatar gets both right and wrong so that you can learn any skill way faster and avoid some common mistakes that will stall your learning. Combine this with our other video and you'll be learning at superhuman speed. The first thing to do to master a skill faster is find the right teacher for you.

We've all had masters to help us get better. You should see if you can study with Pian Dao. That's a great idea. I could have never gotten to where I am without Master Paku. Everyone needs a teacher.

This can be someone who teaches in person, but it can also be a video program or even a book. But you have to be careful who you learn from. Not everyone who's mastered a skill is going to be a good teacher.

So.

So there are three learning principles you want to follow to make sure you advance as quickly as possible. The first thing you want is to make sure that each day builds upon the last. If you're learning random things each day and today's lesson doesn't build directly on the last thing you worked on, then you're going to struggle to remember and perfect what you learned before. The second thing you want is someone who teaches you based on your current skill level. As Aang learns while earthbending, there's no point in trying to learn something advanced if you don't have the fundamentals.

So what move are you gonna teach me first? Rocket. The trembler. Oh, maybe I can learn to make a whirlpool out of land. Let's start with move a rock. Sounds good. Sounds good.

In the show, learning can seem very linear, but in real life, it's more complicated. How do you know which part of the basics to focus on? And if you've got the basics down, how do you know what to focus on next? The answer is to try the thing you want to master and see what area you find yourself most frequently running into trouble. For example, let's say your goal is to have a conversation in a new language. Many teachers focus on vocab lists, having you learn animals, colors, and how to count to 100. The problem is when you try to have an actual conversation in that new language, you'll find you rarely have to say the phrase 88 purple pigs. Instead, find a teacher that focuses on your most frequent sticking point, which is likely how to introduce yourself and ask or answer introductory conversation questions. The third thing you want in a teacher is someone who teaches in a style that matches how you learn. For example, Aang wilts under a tough love approach to teaching.

If you're not tough enough to stop the rock, then you could at least give it the pleasure of smushing you instead of jumping out of the way like a jelly boned wimp. Do you have what it takes to face that rock like an earthbender? I don't think I do.

By contrast, when his teacher takes Katara's advice and focuses on positive reinforcement, Aang flourishes.

Hey, Katara, look what I can do. You did it. You tried the positive reinforcement, didn't you? Yep, it worked wonders.

Unfortunately, books, videos, and even most in person instructors won't be able to adapt their teaching style to suit your learning style. So the best thing you can do is keep track of your progress. When you're learning from a new source, what gets measured gets managed. So by tracking your progress, you can see if you're actually getting better or if you're stuck and need to try something new. The second key to mastering a skill is setting goals that are a stretch for your abilities but but are within your abilities. If you regularly set goals outside your abilities, you run the risk of getting demoralized and giving up. This is exactly what happens to Aang when he moves too fast with firebending.

Take it slow. Careful. Now that's firebending. Aang, you'll hurt yourself. I wonder how the juggler did it. I'm never going to firebend again.

By contrast, if you set goals that stretch your abilities but are achievable, you'll set yourself up for a dopamine rush that makes the learning process feel great. This is exactly what they show when Aang pushes himself to earthbend for the first time.

You've got stuff, but do it. You did it. You're an earthbender. I can't believe it.

That type of dopamine rush will keep you motivated to learn more. One thing worth noting when setting goals, make sure success is completely in your control. For example, if you're trying to improve at starting conversations with strangers, don't make your goal to make people like you. Make your goal something like start three conversations today with people I don't already know. Once you've started three conversations, celebrate it as a win. No matter how those conversations go, celebrating your wins is one of the best ways to achieve the third key to mastering a skill, which is to find a way to make it fun to practice. For most of us, you're way more likely to put in the practice to master something if you actually enjoy the process. That's one of Aang's greatest strengths. He loves to learn.

Today's the day. Can you believe it? After all that time searching for a teacher, I'm finally starting earthbending.

One of the best ways you can make something fun is to find someone to learn with. This gives you someone to motivate you when you're not feeling inspired to make practice fun and to celebrate your wins with Aang. And Katara show this dynamic very well. At first, Aang is naturally more talented than Katara at waterbending, which motivates her to practice harder than she was on her own. Then, through dedicated practice, Katara surpasses Aang, at which point, instead of gloating, she works with him to help him catch up.

You make a fine octopus pupil, Aang.

So how do you find a friend to learn with? First, broadcast to your existing friend group what you're interested in learning. You may already have a friend who's quietly interested in the same thing, or who becomes interested when they hear you talking about it. Second, if the skill you're learning puts you around other people with a similar interest, start conversations with them. For example, if you're surfing, start conversations with the other people in the water. If you're playing pickup basketball, talk to the guys on your team after the game. Third, you can look for meetups, Facebook groups, or forums that are specific to your location. You know these people live near you and they already share your interest. So now you get to filter for who you hit it off with. This way you don't have to rely on finding your new friend floating in a chunk of ice. Now, one thing that stands out about Aang that we've already touched on is that he's willing to learn from his friends. He doesn't let his ego get in the way of his learning. This is extremely common to struggle with once you're average or above average. If you desire to have a self image that you're already good at something, it can blind you to your shortcomings. A great way to tell if you're guilty of this is if you blame your struggles on other people or external circumstances. Sokka is particularly guilty of this early on when he loses a fight.

Sokka, what's your problem? Eat. Not hungry. But you're always hungry. He's just upset because a bunch of girls kicked his butt yesterday. They snuck up on me, right? And then they kicked your butt.

But after getting beat a second time, he realizes it wasn't luck and credit to him. He puts his ego aside and tries to improve himself instead of making excuses.

Uh, hey Suki. Hoping for another dance lesson? No, I. Well, let me explain. Spit it out. What do you want? I would be honored if you would teach me.

The parallel in charisma would be making a bunch of bad first impressions and blaming those people instead of looking at yourself. This is very common in dating, where you'll often see someone try to approach a stranger to start a conversation, have it go poorly, and then come back talking trash about the person they just approached. If you catch yourself doing this, then it's a sign to step back and reevaluate how you approach people. Now, while the Avatar show has a surprising amount of wisdom for a cartoon, it does breeze over one aspect of learning a skill, which is the length of time it takes to achieve mastery. For example, here's Sokka on his first day of sword training. Now here he is sparring the same guy after having greatly improved. Guess how many days he trained between these two clips? If you guessed less than one day, you're right. Unfortunately for us, unless you're an insanely gifted savant, that's not how learning a skill actually works. For most skills, if you want to improve rapidly, you'll want to practice at least three times a week. But that doesn't mean you need to practice all day every day. There are ways you can use your time more intelligently to get the quickest results for the time you put in. For example, Instead of doing one three hour session a week, you could do two one hour sessions and two 30 minute sessions spread out over four days. This spaced out recurring practice schedule will help you master your skills faster. Katara is the character that most closely resembles what learning is actually like. She starts off unable to do much, but through regular practice she becomes amazing.

Katara, you have proven that with fierce determination, passion and hard work, you can accomplish anything.

If you want to learn more about how to master any skill quickly, I highly recommend the Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin. I first heard of it from Tim Ferriss years ago and it is incredibly helpful. If you want to understand how to learn faster and more effectively, you can listen to it as an audiobook for free. Thanks to our sponsor for this video audible all you have to do is go to audible.com charisma or text charisma to 500500 and you'll be able to sign up for an Audible trial and get a free audiobook and access to a monthly selection of Audible originals. Personally, I use Audible whenever I have a new fantasy book I want to listen to. It's a nice way to enjoy time spent doing things like driving or doing chores around the house. If you're into fantasy, I recommend checking out the audiobook Theft of Swords. It's a fun story and a great narrator. Again, you can get that free trial@Audible.com Charisma or or by texting Charisma to 500 500. Thanks so much for watching today's video. It was a bit different from the topics we usually cover, so I hope you liked it. I'll see you in the next one.