“Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; if it is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
A reoccurring frustration for student entrepreneurs at the Launch Pad was learning all the skills necessary to start a business and make grades at the same time.
I often heard the same woes from students in C3. How can you balance out learning learning a skill like graphic design, photography, animation, writing, etc. and school?
As a full time student and aspiring entrepreneur I had to figure it out myself or get some advice from my mentors – luckily I had gathered some answer for those students.
So, how can you learn multiple skills that take a lifetime simultaneously?
Put bluntly, almost nobody is efficient with their time spent learning new skills. It’s not that people aren’t trying; we’re just not good at challenging ourselves effectively and we often focus on the wrong things.
Build challenging yourself into your daily routine.
Learning is a skill. Skills are like muscles – you have to work them out. If you don’t that skill gets weak. So start doing a little learning every day – if you think you don’t have time for that check out the 5 minutes a day rule. It’s how I manage to fit in something that matters to me into every day. Got it? Good.
When we are focused on the best way to achieve the end goal, instead of focusing on the next task, we are more likely to meet our goals and have results to show for our work. Of course the to-do list has to be worked and items have to be crossed off. But the forest needs to remain in focus at all times, even when we are painfully chopping away at one tree at a time.
‘Don’t Confuse Effort With Results’ – Stone Ward
Focus on the quantifiable, meaningful statistics.
The quickest way to waste your time is focusing on Loose or Low Impact metrics.
Loose Metrics
Loose metrics are usually based on desired results or outcomes – so you want to look for them. But they don’t actually help you get there. They are the products of good work, not the qualifiers of good work.
Low Impact Metrics
These metrics usually matter to some degree – so you want to keep them in mind. But if you focus on them too much you get lost focusing on small specific factors rather than multiplying factors that make up the majority of your progress.
VS
Core Factor Metrics
In every skill-set there are pieces of information you can measure to track progress. These metrics are often simple, quantifiable, and focus on the fundamentals. Something you can come back to time and time again to track progress. They also tend to be the most re-used vocab words and methods in the industry. They are used so often for a reason – those who did the work before you looked back and saw what mattered. These are the metrics that determine whether or not something/someone succeeds or fails.
Train yourself to look for these meaningful bits of information and you’ll start to see them everywhere you look.
| Unhelpful Metrics | Core Factor Metrics | |
Health/Fitness | Loose – mirror selfies, the pump, & “feel” Low Impact – 1000x different diets, workouts, products, or apple cider vinegar | Counting calories, recording body weight, & strength progression |
User Interface Design | Loose – looking good & number of features implemented Low Impact – designing for yourself & copying ‘successful’ layouts | User/customer feedback & accessibility options |
Side Hustle | Loose – money made, social media followers, & social clout Low Impact – also money made, social media followers, & social clout. Knowing how well you’re doing doesn’t make you do better | Sale conversion rates, repeat customers, & growth opportunities |
Instrument(s) | Loose – memorizing that impressive part & “difficulty” of songs Low Impact – number of songs known | Skills/habits that transfer between pieces (playing on beat, speed & precision) |
Programing | Loose – which language to learn, what tutorial you’ve completed, & niche career applications Low Impact – how organized your GitHub is | Understanding functions (arrays, state machines, loops, etc.) & how link them together cohesively |
*Clarification: I’m not saying anything that fall into unhelpful metrics are unimportant or to be ignored! Many times they are incredibly useful for a variety of reasons, but if they’re not going to help you learn then don’t get distracted by them!
Focus on your mistakes as much as your successes
Learning is an active process. If you don’t realize you’re practicing bad habits you’re going to make them stick – that or you can focus early and get rid of the problem before it starts. Or as some say, “practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect” – Ethan Becker.
Be active in thinking about what you are doing at all times or don’t put in the work at all – it’s better to not work than to put in low quality work. You’re just going to burn yourself out doing busy work and rotting your brain without getting anything out of your time invested.
To get better you have to take responsibility for your mistakes and actively work to improve. This is at the core of improving at any skill – for some skills it is harder than others. But this will always be true.
Find your learning style
It can be easy to see somebody else pick something up very quickly or run into somebody who’s really good at something and think “I have to do what they did to get where they are.” Put simply – that’s not always the case. What works for others won’t always work for you and that’s okay. We’ve all heard stories where people give up on something, return years later and say “why didn’t anybody tell/show me that before!? Before when I was doing X I wasn’t picking up anything / it was so much harder than it had to be”
Ask yourself; do I do best with…
- Courses/tutorials (in person or online)
- Instructors/mentors you can talk to – Find a local specialist in what you want to do. They don’t have to be world famous, just somebody who can help you avoid all the early potholes and common mistakes people make. Plus it’s always great to have a friend you can talk to about something you’re passionate about.
- Sink or swim situations – Make a Fiverr.com account and force your reputation with $ on the line to cause a need to create good work on a deadline.
- YouTube rabbit holes
- Short concentrated burst – For those among us who say on Friday “I really want to learn X” and then come out on Monday saying “Hey everybody, look! I can do X now!”
Action Items
Find the overlap between things you care about / have always wanted to do and your daily challenge to get the most out of every day possible. Create a list of 5 to 10 things you have always wanted to learn about but could never make happen. If you really sit down and look for a way to practice them daily you can find a way to fit them in – if you need help check out my 5 minutes a day rule.
There’s enough exciting hobbies out there to keep you occupied for several lifetimes. Some examples include…
- Learn a language
- Learn an instrument
- Learn to code
- Learn a game/sport (chess, sparring sports, for example)
- Learn to cook/bake
- Learn some basic mechanic skills
- Learn to dance
- Learn calligraphy
The list is endless. Just go pick a few and get to it!
Authors Note:
We often only do things we’re already good at – it’s time to break that habit.
We’re embarrassed doing things we’re not good at. It’s been beaten into our personalities that we ought to be good at things – we spend our lifetime building up identities around things we’re good at. Not the things we’ve failed at!
That mindset is killing your progress.
Learn to put aside the idea that you need to be good at something to start doing it.
You will have to learn many skills and much knowledge that you won’t come naturally to you. Some you may outright hate.
Get comfortable with discomfort. You’ll get rid of the pain associated with not knowing how to do something. The next time you encounter a road block your fist instinct won’t be to panic and scramble for an easy answer – you’ll instinctively sit down, put some meaningful thought into analyzing the problem, and chew through it. And often that’s the fastest way forward. A world of opportunities will open up for you – If you don’t know how to do something your first thought won’t be one of the myriad of excuses we all tell ourselves. I’d elaborate but you know what I’m talking about. And close that YouTube tab!!
Start doing something every day that pushes your boundaries. Something that takes all of your attention to get right. Soon you will be putting that same time and attention into everything you do and the results will speak for themselves.
Get out there and do something – those day dreams don’t make themselves come true.