How to LEARN - #BelieveLife

It's a lot to remember.

My memory is short.

Good morning, Believe Nation. Today we're going to talk about how to learn.

Accelerated learning is important to me because I realized at a very young age I was the runt of the litter. I grew up, I was very small, I was born premature, got my ass kicked all over the place. And where I could exert my control or shape my own destiny was through learning and using books, documentaries, biographies, mentors in some cases as an Archimedes lever where even as this tiny little kid, I could get good grades, I could out-debate, I could make things, write things, create things that other people couldn't. And I mean, I've seen people do impossible things. I've seen people just in the last few months who have never been comfortable putting their face underwater in 3 or 4 days go from not being able to swim 1 lap to swimming half a mile in the open ocean, learning languages well enough to go on live TV and be interviewed in 3 or 4 days. I've seen just ridiculous stuff, and it doesn't require that you have some special gift. It requires that you find a special toolkit, and all that's related to accelerated learning.

Whenever you don't learn, it's because someone is trying to teach you in a different way. And the different way is— I was a good student in school. I liked learning until I got to junior high school, high school, where I liked all subjects until I got to there, when math became algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. 'Cause when I got there, I totally hated it. So I had no motivation to really learn it. And with no drive to learn something, you don't. But then secondly, since I wasn't driven, it was also the class that usually had the most homework. And if you didn't hand in the homework and you came in the next day, it was like being in a foreign language class. "The hypotenuse of XYZ over—" And all I'm hearing is, "Ahaha, oh yeah!" my brain's searching, go, I don't know what that is. So then I would raise my hand to ask a question which is not a good thing to do in that environment. So I'd say, well, what is a hypotenuse? And they go, oh, that you don't know. That's really like you don't know. So if you want to learn something, if you're not learning, it's not that you're not smart, it's not that you can't figure it out, it's that the person is Explaining it using references you don't have. So I've learned things like quantum physics. I've learned things like nuclear power from physicists. I'll say, okay, explain to me how that's like an orange. How's that least like a solar system? Something I understand. And sure enough, once they make that linkage, you got it. You understand the relationship. You understand what things are.

If you want to learn something, you need to be able to model something. You need to be able to see somebody who's already done it and You need to be able to read about somebody who's already done it. You need to experience somebody who's already done it. You have to not start from scratch. The worst thing you can do in learning is start from scratch because with no foundation of what's worked before, you're just making stuff up and you're reinventing the wheel and that's the slowest way to learn because the wheel was invented a couple thousand years ago. So the worst thing you could do is say, "Oh, let me just go start trying a bunch of stuff." That's not learning. That's called being an idiot. And being an idiot is about just bumbling through life without realizing somebody's already done it for you. So go read a book about somebody who's done what you want to do. Go take a course from somebody who's already accomplished what you want to accomplish. Go, you know, follow somebody's online thing about who's already done what. There's so much example for you to learn from, and it has to begin with that. 'Cause if you have the dream, you have the goal of what you want to learn, and how it means something to your life. Once you've got that goal, now it's about, okay, go learn from somebody who already did it. That will give you a leg up so fast.

If you think of like, what is education? Like, you're basically downloading data and algorithms into your brain. And it's actually amazingly bad in conventional education, 'cause like, it shouldn't be like this huge chore. So you're making it way, way better. But I think a lot of things that I would say you've probably heard 100 times and are, if not doing— like the more you can gamify the process of learning, the better. For my kids, I do not have to encourage them to play video games. I have to pry them from their hands like crack. Yes. It's like drop that crack needle. Yeah. You have that problem at your house too. The crack is addictive. So it's to the degree that you can make somehow learning like a game, then it's better. And I think unfortunately a lot of education is very vaudevillian. You've got someone standing up there kind of lecturing at people, and they've done the same lecture 20 years in a row, and they're not very excited about it, and that lack of enthusiasm conveyed to the students, that they're not very excited about it. They don't know why they're there. Like, why are we learning this stuff? We don't even know why. In fact, I think a lot of things people learn, probably there's no point in learning them. Because they never use them in the future.

Because who's going to launch a rocket into space? I mean, that's just like— Yeah, exactly. That never happens.

Well, you have to say, like, people, I think, don't stand back and say, well, why are we teaching people these things? And we should tell them, probably, why we're teaching these things. Because a lot of kids just in school kind of puzzled as to why they're there. I think if you can explain the why of things, then that makes a huge difference to people's motivation. Then they understand purpose. So I think that's pretty important.

And just make it entertaining. My question is, I want that. Right? How long does it take from starting something and being grossly incompetent and knowing it, to being reasonably good in, hopefully, as short a period of time as possible? So, how long does that take? Here's what my research says: 20 hours. That's it. You can go from knowing nothing about any skill that you can think of. Want to learn a language? Want to learn how to draw? Want to learn how to juggle flaming chainsaws? If you put 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice into that thing, you will be astounded, astounded at how good you are. 20 hours is doable. That's about 45 minutes a day for about a month. Even skipping a couple days here and there. 20 hours isn't that hard to accumulate. Now, there's a method to doing this, because it's not like you can just start fiddling around for about 20 hours and expect these massive improvements. There's a way to practice intelligently. There's a way to practice efficiently that will make sure that you invest those 20 hours in the most effective way that you possibly can. And here's the method. It applies to anything. The first is to deconstruct the skill. Decide exactly what you want to be able to do when you're done, and then look into the skill and break it down into smaller and smaller pieces. Most of the things that we think of as skills are actually big bundles of skills that require all sorts of different things. The more you can break apart the skill, The more you're able to decide, "What are the parts of this skill that will actually help me get to what I want?" And then you can practice those first. And if you practice the most important things first, you'll be able to improve your performance in the least amount of time possible. The second is learn enough to self-correct. So, get 3 to 5 resources about what it is you're trying to learn. Could be books, could be DVDs, could be courses, could be anything. But don't use those as a way to procrastinate on practice. I know I do this, right? Get like 20 books about the topic, it's like, "I'm going to start learning how to program a computer when I complete these 20 books." No, that's procrastination. What you want to do is learn just enough that you can actually practice and self-correct. Or self-edit as you practice. So the learning becomes a way of getting better at noticing when you're making a mistake and then doing something a little different. The third is to remove barriers to practice: distractions, television, internet, all of these things that get in the way of you actually sitting down and doing the work. And the more you're able to use just a little bit of willpower to remove the distractions that are keeping you from practicing, the more likely you are to actually sit down and practice, right? And the fourth is to practice for at least 20 hours. Now, most skills have what I call a frustration barrier. You know, the grossly incompetent knowing it part? That's really, really frustrating. We don't like to feel stupid. And feeling stupid is a barrier to us actually sitting down and doing the work. So, by pre-committing to practicing whatever it is that you want to do for at least 20 hours, you will be able to overcome that initial frustration barrier and stick with the practice long enough to actually reap the rewards. Alright? That's it. It's not rocket science. 4 very simple steps that you can use to learn anything.

Intellectual understanding is the level of learning that most people go for. "Oh, I kind of know that." But knowing and not doing is the same as not knowing. Would you agree? So why do most people do it? This is the expensive notebook I was talking about earlier. And there's a specific reason for it. I'm gonna chunk it down quickly, and then I'm gonna hand back to Brian. But I just want to make you aware of what's going on when we just go to learn something, because there's more to it than just sitting there trying to read something. But the first level of intellectual understanding means nothing. Means what? Nothing. Smokers know they shouldn't smoke. Yeah, smokers aren't unintellectual people. Everybody knows there's no logical argument you can construct on this planet right now for why you should set fire to something toxic, stick it in your mouth, and suck the fumes. Sorry, guys. I mean, yeah, 50 years ago the doctors were telling you to do it. Right? Now we're a little more aware. Now, again, not picking on the smokers as such, although I am. But what I'm saying is smokers know they shouldn't smoke. I know we can get into habit conditioning and different levels of cause and needs, and that's a separate conversation, but for purposes of this analogy, intellectual understanding doesn't mean they're not gonna smoke, correct? What causes somebody to stop smoking is the second level. Where it starts to deepen and we go from intellectual understanding to emotional understanding. When something— you feel something where rather than just the thinking sector kicks in, the thinking center, the feeling center gets kicked in. Then all of a sudden you're compelled to take action. Now instead of me saying, "Oh yeah, I should give up," or "I should go to the gym," yeah, your 6-year-old daughter comes up, looks at you and says, "Daddy, please give up smoking. I don't want you to die. I want you to walk me up the aisle at my wedding, and I don't think you're going to make it," and runs off crying. He's like, "Ugh." Or you go to the doctor's and he says, "Oh, these headaches you've been having, we've had the blood test back, and I'm afraid to say that if you take one more cigarette, you could suffer a fatal stroke." Now, did you suddenly become more intelligent about smoking? No. You didn't learn something new, but you went from intellectual understanding to now, "Whoa, I get it." The penny drops. That level of emotional trigger is really what's required for most people to start to act differently. Otherwise, it's just intellectual, which means you can probably sound smart at a cocktail party, but it's not gonna change your life. So emotional understanding is where you wanna get to, and that's where the why comes in. Why do you want what it is that you want? What is it that you want? Is it for the right reasons, or am I just trying to prove to my parents that I was good enough? Yeah? Or my elder brother? Or the world, or what have you? But emotional Understanding doesn't give lasting change. It gives change in the moment. What gives lasting change is understanding, getting through to the third level or the third stage of deepening the knowledge, which is the identity. It becomes part of who you are. It's a cellular level of learning. It's in your DNA. It becomes your identity. You see, if you've got a smoker, Who knows they shouldn't smoke is not gonna do anything. If you get a smoker who suddenly is out of breath running for the bus and thinks, "That's it, screw it, I'm gonna change my life," emotional. But 3 weeks later they're still smoking unless they change their identity. And unfortunately most people at that point become a smoker who's quit. And if you're a smoker who's quit, it's only a matter of time before you go back. 'Cause your identity is you're still a smoker. And now you're engaged in willpower because, "I'm a smoker, but I've quit." So someone offers you a cigarette, it's like there's this push-pull going on. And willpower has a time limit. I can have all the willpower in the world to hang onto a ledge above a cliff, but if you come back in 2 weeks, I'm not there. Right? That's— But if you change your identity to become a non-smoker, and somebody offers you a cigarette, what do you say? It's effortless. There's none of that push-pull going on. So my question for you before I hand back to Brian is this: When it comes to money, success, business, what is your identity? Who are you? Do you see yourself as a millionaire? Or do you see yourself as somebody who's broke that wants to make more money to get out of pain? Do you see yourself as somebody that's committed to learning and willing to embrace looking stupid, incompetent, not good enough, and all of the emotions that most people run from because you know what's on the other side? Or is it just gonna be, "Well, I'll take the class and therefore it's the world's fault if I don't make it." These are the questions that one has to ask and be honest with yourself. As Brian said, being a humble student, because at that level everything starts to change.

Thank you so much for watching.

We made this video because Emmanuel Hernandez asked us to. If you have a topic you'd like Evan to cover in a future episode of Believe Life, leave a comment below.

I'd also love to know which of the points that we covered today had the biggest impact on you, is going to maybe spark a change in your life. Leave it in the comments below and we'll join the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Have an amazing day. Continue to believe, and we'll see you soon.