6 Prep-Steps To Learning New Skills

What impacts how you learn?  Attitude.

Attitude is a result of your choices and degree of motivation to achieve. 

According to Dr. Caroline Leaf, who wrote “The Switch on your Brain”, there are some things to prepare you to better learn.

• When you are first introduced to something new, you must quickly analyze what your emotional response is to this information.

How Do I Feel?

• Once you have pinpointed the type of emotional response you have, ask if you are excited by this new concept? Why or why not? After you decide WHY you feel this way, now try to eliminate the negative responses. Instead of saying “I hate this because I’m horrible at it”, say “What an exciting new challenge to learn a new way of doing this”. Cultivate and feed only the positive reactions. Reprogram your thoughts to make this something to achieve. What will you reward yourself with if you do achieve it?

Why Do I Feel This Way?

• Next, apply this information to your personal situation. How will this skill help you, help your department, help the company? Why would this new skill help? Write it down so you remember the reason and motivation for continuing to master new skills.

How Will This Skill Help?

• Are you willing to plow through uncomfortable ambiguity until you do understand whatever the concept is?

Is This Worth The Effort?

• Can you control your thought life? Remember the more you dwell on something, the more it becomes part of you. Can you conscientiously dwell on only the positive and ignore the negative? “I know this can work!”, “I know I can be creative!” instead of the negative version of those statements? Remember whatever thought you dwell on becomes part of your nature. Almost any situation can be viewed with a positive or negative element. Try to concentrate on just the positive. Are there any famous quotes you can post at your desk to remind you to be positive?

Can I Focus On The Positive?

• Next, consider the fundamentals to learning something new. Did you get enough rest? Are there any personal issues which are distracting you from focusing on something new? Have you been eating a healthy diet?

Am I Physically Primed To Learn?