How To Learn New Skills
And how to avoid The Resistance to do so.
Success comes from doing what makes you uncomfortable. But how often have you set out to try something new, only to find it later, unremembered and unlearned? Here's how to learn new skills:
Here's how to learn new skills.
Choose ONE new habit to learn at a time
PRACTICE 21 times*
Favor QUANTITY over QUALITY, at least at the start
Practice in SAFE situations
REFLECT on how you did
I found this simple, secret recipe when I was 25 in chapter eight of a book about sales (SPIN Selling—still my all-time favorite.) It turns out it's not so secret -- it's called entelechy, and it’s based on an idea from Aristotle. Entelechy means making real what is potential. Neil Rackham, the author, used Aristotle's idea to teach students how to learn his SPIN technique. I changed two things.
First, I added step five, REFLECT. You gotta rewatch the game tape. Every night before bed, I think about my "FUs," my F*ck Ups. For example, in the last three days:
I recited the alphabet when I got mad. Good.
I gave a dull response to the "how are you?" question. Fail.
I shared a section of my ModelOps book with a friend building a data science team--practicing the Law of Reciprocity, but I should have done it sooner. Needs Improvement!
These ideas come from The Daily Stoic, How to Talk to Anyone, and Influence--The Psychology of Persuasion.
I changed the "Practice Three Times" to "Practice 21 Times." Rackham says to practice three times; my wife, Casey, says 21--she sold books door to door in college, and that's the number she learned. Malcolm Gladwell suggests it takes 50,000 hours. So the "right" number lies between 3 and 50,000!
Casey, my wife, wins :)
But no matter--the point is once is not enough. You gotta choose, practice, fail, reflect, and try again, over and over and over. The number depends on the skill. And your grit.
Why Entelechy is So Hard to Do: The Resistance
Since I'm preaching, you might think I have entelechy groked. I don't. I find failed or forgotten skills everywhere like quarters in my car. New skills fall from our pockets thanks to a gravity-like force Steven Pressfield calls "The Resistance" in his best-selling book on writing, The War of Art.
The Resistance tells you not to write today--that blank page is scary. The Resistance convinces you to avoid that tough talk. The Resistance gets you to skip today's workout, because, to quote The Resistance: "It's too cold. It's too hot. You're too tired. You're too busy. You deserve a day off. Like gravity, Resistance holds us all down.
Successful people resist The Resistance. They get up anyway. They write shitty first drafts anyway. They have the scary talk. They know what Casey learned selling books: success comes from doing what makes you uncomfortable.
Entelechy is a recipe for resisting The Resistance. Resistance Kryptonite, if you will. Try it. It's easy. And hard. And it's one of the most important things you can do, for you.
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