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5 steps to learn any new skill
Mohammed Sameer G
June 05, 2023
5 steps to learn any new skill
Reading time ~ 5 min.
What’s Inside ?
An post about the 5 steps that will help you learn any new skill
A short poll
Interesting “thing” of the week
Skills are everywhere and you can apply them anywhere. From a simple thing as fixing your leaking pipe to a difficult one as learning a programming language, each is a skill.
We live in a Skill based world, They identify and create pathways for us. It can be a technical skill, a behavioural one or a social skill, your skills determine your success.
Your skills help you survive in this volatile and challenging world and help you grow. This is why it is important you invest time, effort and money learning them.
Today I present you a simple 5 step formula to go about learning a skill, lets go !
Identification
The first step is to dig into the purpose and ask below questions to yourself
What exactly is the skill ?
Why do you want to learn it ?
How does it help you ?
You will ask me - Why should you ask these questions?
Simple - learning anything requires commitment, you should spend time/effort/money. If you are unclear about the purpose behind, you will quit. This is why, it is important to convince yourself thoroughly before you jump onto the bandwagon.
lets take an example - You want to learn a new programming language ? Lets put this step to test,
What exactly is the skill ?
Learn programming language Python - specifically usage of classes, error handling, decorators - not interested in the data analysis flavour of python.
Why do you want to learn it ?
I want to learn it to improve my programming capabilities - this is the first object oriented and scripting language I will learn.
How does it help you ?
It should help me learn new software module at work, which in-turn will help grow my influence at work, which should lead to monetary or career benefits.
Did you see the benefits of step 1 now, it will clearly state to “you” first the whole reason why you want to go in this direction.
Pro tip - If possible, do this exercise on a paper - best if you put it in your personal diary or a simple notebook. This can be read later whenever you feel like quitting or changing it when your goals change.
Understand the skill
You are now clear about the learning the skill, the next step is to understand it better.
What does it mean ?
For any skill, it is important to know what it is and how it works.
For ex: If you want to learn Kick boxing, you need to know that it will be a physical activity, you would need a coach, you need boxing equipment and you need a space to practice. For non-physical skills, you need to list down the resources you will learn from, a practice medium etc…
This step is about building the foundations for your journey, the stronger your foundation, the higher and stronger your building. Lets put this step to test to the same example,
What do I need to learn this Skill ?
I need a dedicated PC, a book, a online/physical resource where I can learn from
How much can I commit to the activity ?
I can start with 2h per week and go unto 6h per week.
Where can I practice ?
I would need a playground git hub repository or some example SW code that I can play around
Any other considerations ?
Best would be if I can get a buddy who is also learning Python, so that we can help each other out.
See, you have already put yourself in your learning shoes and have started asking questions that will help your journey.
The questions you ask can vary for different skills. What is important is to ask yourself - “What do I need to get started with the journey ?”
Most times, we don’t do this detailing, the side affect of this is that you will quit or your learning is ineffective.
If you are not comfortable writing all these out, at least spend some time thinking over this. You can club this step with the previous one but it is better to do it separately.
Plan your learning
Enough soft work, let’s get into real work.
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