The harsh truth about learning any skills.
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officialhogi
I started my self improvement journey in 2020 during the covid pandemic. After a period of meaningless drinking nights, indulging in hedonistic actions, I started to feel numb. I couldn’t really see myself having this type of lifestyle.
So, I started my self improvement journey. However, It didn’t go as smoothly as I hoped as the harsh truth came to light.
After reading multiple books, I became a booksmart. I knew the theories but didn’t gain the knowledge.
I was aimlessly living my life with a head full of theories but did not grasp the depth of acquiring any skills.
- And that’s what I want to talk about in this blog:
- Why I failed (which set me back with 2 years)
- What I did to actually build skills
- How to use books as an leverage
- How to learn any skill and become 31 times better within a year
I thought that by reading self-help books, I’ll automatically acquire knowledge and skills. That if I read atomic habits that makes me knowledgeable in building good habits. That if I read how to make friends and influence people makes me automatically better at communicating.
How naïve I was..
I failed to realize that knowledge becomes wisdom once you actually try to do it yourself.
It is challenging to start because as every normal person, we want to do things perfectly. The system that is ingrained in all of us tells us that failing is bad. That’s why we read and watch educational content.
We want to avoid making mistakes. (P.s learning from others mistakes is good)
No wonder that people fall into the trap of infotainment. It’s a trap where you think that you are doing something productive by watching educational content but instead you watch them for entertainment.
The majority only watch to indulge themselves with information while only a few watch and actually try to do it in real life.
Take Action
There is a quote from chris williamson saying;
‘Preparing to do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
Scheduling time to do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
Making a to-do list for the thing isn’t doing the thing.
Telling people you’re going to do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
The only thing that is doing the thing is doing the thing.” — Go do the thing.’
I have learned this the hard way. In the past few years, I have learned to create animations, to write content, to speak with confidence, to articulate, to set up and design websites, and become consistent in following some habits.
Not through reading or watching videos but through doing the things that I know I should do and must do.
I have wasted a lot of time watching tutorials about after effects, premiere pro and other skill based activities. I thought that by watching others how to do it, I know how to do it as well.
I was wrong.
The harsh reality is that I knew nothing. The first time I actually created an animation was after I watched a 10 hour course on Udemy. I thought I knew every function on After Effect but I failed to morph a square into a circle on my first attempt…
Long story short;
- I start the whole course over and tried to replicate everything at the same time
- Once I became familiar with the tool, I started to experiment by creating small animations without any help.
- I created 52 animations within a year and sharpened my skill
So, every time I had an idea for an animation. I sketched it in a notebook and tried to create a seamless animation.
Be consistent
I became brutally aware of the power of consistency through going to the gym. I was around 14 years old when I started (Forced by my brother) going to the gym. I didn’t like going and I didn’t see any progress in the first few months.
I failed to realize that success doesn’t come overnight or within a month. It comes from being consistent.
Fortunately, I kept going to the gym and eventually became stronger, healthier and more aware of how little I knew about fitness.
What I didn’t realize at that time was that consistency wasn’t about the workout itself. We believe that consistency is taking action and working 100% every time. That’s wrong.
Consistency is showing up every day even if you are performing only on 40%, 20% or 10% of your normal output.
Eventually these small wins will compound. Just as James Clear states “If you master continuous improvement and get 1% better each day for one year, you’ll end up 37 times better by the time you’re done.
Use theories that works for you
In the intro, I explained that watching educational content is a trap but let me elaborate on this topic.
I used to read many educational books because I felt that by reading books I became smarter and wiser. Which is kinda true.
However, I became a booksmart.
Reading didn’t change my situation at all. I was still broke and I had the same skills.
I stagnated without realizing that I stagnated.
I became obsessed with reading without realizing that self-help books are there to support you, not as the main goal.
What I failed to understand is that books are useful only if you actually try the theories in real life.
If you write content, read how to make it better and apply it.
If you create content, read how to improve your content and apply it
The key is to use the theories that help you achieve the goal. If it works, good. If it fails, good. That’s how you know the theory doesn’t work for you.
Become obsessed
I started learning after effects by actively practicing, I improved the skill because I became curious.
I wanted to know everything.
I became obsessed.
I became brutally aware that I knew little. I knew only the tip of the iceberg but I want to know more. So, I dived deep into the unknown.
In my mind, I analyzed every content that I watched, deconstructed how it was created and tried to recreate the effects in my own videos.
I looked at other videos for inspiration then I look back at my own videos for improvements.
That’s how I created my videos. It’s a cycle of exploration and exploitation.
Conclusion
If you want to learn any skill but don’t know where to start, just start.
You start by doing the basics. It is boring, you will fail, you will feel like you have no clue what you are doing and it is challenging. Good.
Once the stage is over, you become more confident in that skill. The key in this stage is to commit and consistently practice. The more you do the more you like doing it. And the better you become.
Until it becomes repetitive.
That’s exactly how I stagnated.
It’s the phase where you know how it works and you might feel like there is nothing more to learn. Wrong.
The problem lies in repetition.You exploit the skill by doing the same thing 10000 times until perfection.
Good.
Now, you have to explore new methods. That will bring you to the next level.
It’s the same with games. You don’t repeatedly beat up the same boss over and over. Instead, you have to find a stronger one.