9 Easy Steps to Learn Anything

1. First, decide what you want to do and where you want to go in life. For this, you’ll need clarity about your goals and what you’d like to achieve even if the circumstances weren’t great. You should know what you want; simply liking a field isn’t enough. 

• What do you want to learn? 
• Who do you want to be like? 
• Is there a particular subject or field of study that has ever drawn you in? 

Write down your thoughts and feelings. Don’t pick a field of study because your friends are doing it. Whatever you decide to learn about should be something you DESIRE to learn about. Only then will you be able to make time for it. Decide and pray istikharah before moving ahead. 

2. Everything we think, feel and do is because of the brain. Skill development too is connected to the brain. How? 

Have you heard, ‘Practice makes perfect.’? One of the easy steps to learn anything is to practice. The more you practice beyond your current abilities, the more your brain gets stimulated, altered and develops. There are no shortcuts. Practice is the only way to skill development and you’ll need to practice often. According to a study, after 10,000 hours of practice in any field, your brain will know, remember and be well-trained to solve problems in new and creative ways. If you practice well during this ‘preparatory period’, your mind and body act simultaneously without second-guessing the reflex. Break your goal into milestones and smaller chunks. As you see, skills are built over a long period of time. You’ll need to stay laser-focused, put in sustained effort, repeat and practice during this long period.

3. Next, feel free to make mistakes. Making mistakes is one of the easy steps to learn. Improving your abilities depend on how often you fail and try again. Whenever you make a mistake, stop and repeat until you correct yourself. Fix your mistakes with practice, work more on whatever needs improvement and you’ll soon be precise and quicker at what you do. 

4. If you’re going to have to put in so much effort and practice, motivation is needed. Initially, you may need to force yourself to sign up for lessons to start feeling motivated. To continue with a lot of practice for a long time, you’ll need to have rock-solid determination and find ways to stay motivated throughout. Staying motivated is one of the easy steps to learn more and progress. You’ll need to be reminded that you can achieve anything if you work hard long-term for it. You’ll need to repeat your goal to yourself again and again. Repetition can keep your mind busy with thinking about success. Motivation has to become a self-driven inner force without relying on external factors. Even perceiving yourself as better than others can motivate you to improve and can act as an advantage multiplier.

5. Then, find a motivational coach or mentor with a vast knowledge of the field and a coaching style that you are happy with. Almost nobody attained success on their own. A mentor has already taken this path, practised extensively and can, therefore, prevent you from squandering time, energy and money on avoidable mistakes. This is probably the easiest of the easy steps to learn. 

• A friendly motivational coach can make you feel good about yourself, motivate and encourage you to learn. 
• They can give clear and precise instructions and guide you to use your resources more effectively. 
• They can also help you with your practice, reward you for working hard, give quality feedback and train you. 

You can pay close attention and absorb their knowledge like a sponge, copy their steps and continue improving.

6. Don’t focus on making money, focus on learning. If there is a training or a job that will help you understand your field of study better, take it even if it doesn’t pay well. You will get a better, well-paid position later, in sha Allaah. For now, focus on gaining as much knowledge and training as possible and develop your skills.

7. Learn to solve problems in new, creative and innovative ways. We are naturally inclined to think narrowly. Asking yourself ‘Is this really the best way to solve this problem?’ is one of the simplest and easy steps to learn and think creatively. 

8. Do more than what you’ve learned. You should surpass and outmatch your mentor eventually and advance forward. You will need to think in new ways, challenge what you’ve already learned, innovate and creative breakthroughs will come to you. This requires you to imagine and believe that everything is possible. This will enable you to flourish and expand in your own unique way. 

9. Last, start practie early in life because you’ll need time to start accumulating a wealth of knowledge. Even if you are a late starter, better late than never. Our mental faculties keep slowing down as we get older and it will take us twice as long to solve problems in our sixties as in our twenties. Even though we cannot travel back in time to start early, we can start now. 

We should encourage our children to concentrate on learning and practicing while they don’t have time-consuming responsibilities such as work. Starting early also means that they get your support as a parent. Forcing lessons on them won’t be a bad thing if it can act as a catalyst to motivate them. We should believe in, support and help them develop skills and achieve greatness. 

Don’t worry about the enormity of what needs to be done to master something. You’ll be surprised if you knew how many people actually embark upon this path. Once you start, you’ll be far ahead already. Just getting started and moving at a slow yet consistent pace is all you need to do. May Allaah make this easy upon you and me.