We all have a passion to learn something new,
whether it’s
getting new skills, picking up a new habit, or
just taking on
an entire new learning experience. However,
unless you’re
incredibly dedicated to it, learning something
new can prove
to be quite hard. So, how do stick to that new
skill, subject
or habit you want to learn until you master it?

1. Know why you want to learn it

First things first, you need to figure out what
you’re actually
interested in and why you’re interested in it.
That seems
easy on the surface, but with so much
information out there
it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what you want to
learn or what
skills you want to develop. That’s it’s usually
recommended that you try your hands on a
couple of things
and do your research to spark curiosity.
Curiosity requires some initial knowledge.
We’re not curious
about something we know absolutely nothing
about. But as
soon as we know even a little bit, our curiosity
is piqued
and we want to learn more. In fact, research
shows that
curiosity increases with knowledge: the more
we know, the
more we want to know.

2.Be innovative with how you learn

It’s incredibly important as an independent learner that you
understand how you learn best . Some people prefer to learn
on a defined path (syllabus) and others prefer a kind of
unplanned and unsupervised learning which has to do
with starting with the thing you’re curious about, and letting
yourself follow the tangents you need in order to
understand what you’re interested in, or master the skills
you want. So, some self-reflection and innovation really
matters.

4. Space out your learning calendar
All those nights spent cramming for tests and
examinations in school, might have you believe
that those
short bursts of study time are the best. But,
that is further
from the facts, research shows that spacing
out your
studying over a period of time is actually the
best way to
enhance your memory of the material.
In fact, if you want to remember something for
5 years,
your best choice is to space out your periods
of study of
that thing around 6 months to a year. That
seems
completely counter-intuitive but doing this
helps the brain
build a solid foundation for knowledge.

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3. Learn by doing as much as possible
In most cases you’re going to learn best by
doing. For
instance, learning computer programming is
best achieved
by making programs,. Also, learning a new
language is best
achieved by speaking it. If you’re having
trouble getting
over the learning process and it starts to get
difficult
sticking to it, you might simply need to change
the practice
context. The summary is that you should
practice, practice,
practice!
Neuroscientists have discovered that certain
areas of your
brain do expand while you are in the process
of learning
something new. This characteristic of the
brain is called
neuroplasticity. Some neuroscientists believe
this occurs
when your brain is trying to solve a problem it
doesn’t know
the answer to.
Your brain (or more specifically your cortex)
doesn’t
necessarily know which area of the brain is
best equipped
to solve the problem or learn a new skill. So it
recruits a
good portion of the cortex, to hunt for the
answer. When
this happens, your cortex expands and new
neural
pathways are created.

5. Make Mistakes
You may as well get used to making mistakes
right now
because whenever we learn something new,
we can’t help
but make them. Our ability to make and learn
from our
mistakes is essential to acquiring a new skill
and even to
our very evolution and survival.
The brain’s medial frontal cortex (located in
the frontal
lobe) monitors negative feedback, action
errors, and
decision uncertainty — it’s perfectly suited to
process our
mistakes. The frontal cortex adapts based on
negative
feedback or diminished rewards.
When your brain has finally solved a problem,
the cortex will
once again contract. The skills that we
acquired during that
learning period remain. And because the brain
work this
way, it means making mistakes is vital to the
learning
process.
If you make a mistake don’t panic, don’t give
up. Realize
that everyone makes mistakes and that by
doing so, you are
actually training your brain to avoid the same
ones in the
future. Without mistakes, we simply would not
be able to
learn or grow.

Insightful

6. Eat right and get enough sleep.
Foods like whole grains, fish and nuts are
known to be good
for the brain. It is important to get the right
food in the right
quantity for proper functioning of your brain
when learning
something new. The importance of sleep for
cognitive
functioning of our brain and memory
enhancement cannot
be overemphasized as it helps to solidify what
we have
learned and it helps to clean out old memories
from our
brain to make room for the new ones. So,
when we are
learning something our best choice is to sleep
more.

7. Learn to enjoy the initial frustration
The frustration barrier doesn’t just make
learning more
difficult, it also cuts you off from new life
experiences.
When you face the barrier repeatedly in one
area of skill,
you may confess to yourself that you are
simply not born
with the talents necessary to be successful in
that area. But
that’s not true, all masters of different fields all
passed
through moments of frustration while acquiring
their skills
when they felt like they were incompetent.
It’s true that it’s easier to enjoy things your
good at.
However, just like you can have fun on a
cloudy day, you
can have fun being lousy at a skill as well. Fun
is mostly
about creative perception, so if you learn to
enjoy the
intensity of the challenge you are under, you
can surmount
the frustration barrier.

8. Have a Huge Dose of Patience
Patience is highly required especially when you
have a
million and one things you could be doing with
much less
effort. Live in the present moment. What
you’re
learning may seem simple when done by those
teaching
you or others you know who do it well, but you
just started
learning it and they have been doing it for
years.
So give yourself space and time to learn
without demanding
too much all at once. Remember that we don’t
learn
everything all at once and that’s okay. All
learning takes
time and if you keep at it, before you know it,
you will know
that thing as if you were born with it.

9. Use the Internet
Use a search engine such as Google and type
in something
you’ve always wanted to know. It could be
anything from
the history of a mathematics to the process
used to
assemble cars. The Internet has rapidly
become the best
source of quick and up-to-date information.
Using the Internet allows to easily customize
your learning
experience and get fresh information quickly.
The reality of
learning is an ever-changing one. What we
used to have to
ask our mother for is now replaced by
“Google”. Learning
is rapidly changing for everyone with the
revolution of the
Internet.

10. Just do it
Our brains are spectacular but they don’t work
magic. Don’t
expect to understand a subject when you’ve
only just
started reading about it. Your brain makes
neural
connections; the more you get to know about
a subject, the
more you practice a skill, the better the
connections and
consequently the easier it becomes to
understand and
remember the concepts and use the skill.
So, whatever you are trying to learn will only
be learnt when
you work at it patiently and consistently.
Just read, even if at first you don’t understand
what you’re
reading.
Just do it, even if at first you are totally bad at
the skill.
It’ll only be a matter of time before you
become good at it.
Cheers!

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