Wanted to share this vid on learning a new skill and practicing it.  By the way, I got this from my son’s Grade 2 teacher 🙂  I had the chance to watch it and I would like to recommend to those who want to pick up new skills / expertise to try this method out.

Video entitled – “The first 20 hours – how to learn anything” by Josh Kaufman.  Some of the points he mentioned:

• Set aside 45 mins each day to practice it consistently for a month or so
• 4 simple steps to rapid skill acquisition:
  • Deconstruct the skill: Decide exactly what you intend to do, look into the skill and break it down into smaller and smaller pieces
  • Learn enough to self-correct: Eg: Refer to 3 to 5 books, DVD titles etc but don’t use those as procrastination ‘tools’. Learn just enough that you can practice and self-correct / self-edit.
  • Remove practice barriers – Stay away from TV, Internet, etc
  • Practice at least 20 hours – There are frustration barriers.  Commit to practicing at least 20 hours. Stick with practice to reap what you sow.
• Barrier to skill acquistion > Its Emotional NOT Intellectual. Feeling scared, feeling stupid … but if we put that practice hours ….

There you go. I’m gonna try this and see how it works.  Let see:

• Learn a new language (Arabic) .. i’m still rusty
• Learn the nifty features of Adobe Photoshop
• Get MS Excel skills to Intermediate level

and the list goes on ….

Hopefully this has benefitted you in one way or another. Good luck trying. And Thank you Josh for the encouraging TED talk.