Top 7 tips to teach yourself anything

I have a short attention span and was never the “star” student in my classes growing up.  The school system left me feeling kinda dumb when I was a kid.  I realized later that people learn differently such as through listening, doing, reading, writing, lectures etc.. The thing that was hard for me was listening to someone talk at me for hours all day. I would go off into day dream land, and go home and teach myself what I needed to know.  When I had to take an independent course for high-school I almost got high 90’s to my total surprise.  It turned out I can teach myself things exceedingly well.  Lectures still don’t work for me and my eyes still glaze over after 15 minutes of someone talking at me (not with me).  Now I don’t feel dumb, I just know it’s not the best situation for me to figure things out.

So here are my top 7 tips to teach yourself anything

1.  Know your learning style.  People learn in different ways.

2. See if you know someone who is really good at what you want to learn.  Ask them out for coffee and let them know you are interested in learning what they know.  Be sure to compliment them and respect their time.  Over the years I have had mentors in different fields such as photography, art, singing and music, this has helped me learn things quickly and has been really helpful in the process of learning.

3. When in doubt google or youtube “how to _______”, there are millions of tutorials online for FREE!

4.  When you get inundated with what information to choose on Google or Youtube, look at how many viewers for videos, ratings and refine your search key word. You may need to be more specific.

5.  Library (the old fashion way)

6. Schedule time to practice and learn weekly.

7. Be patient, no one became an expert over night.  There are those rare unicorns, but chances are you will need to take time to totally suck at what ever it is.  This is part of the process.  Over time you will get better and better and you will stop sucking at it. Until then, enjoy it for what it is…

Love and good melodies

 

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