FAST: The Most Effective Way for Learning Anything

In this article, we are going to share with you 4 secrets to learn any subject or any skill faster. This is really exciting, who doesn't want to learn any skill faster. In order to do that I want you to remember this thing called ‘FAST’. It's an acronym let's go through this together:

1) F = FORGET

First forget what you already know about the subject.

I would say that among reasons why people do not manage to learn any subject or skill faster is because they feel like they already know something about it. This in turn limits them to learn something new. Hence, one of the key things for learning anything is to start with the beginners mind. Remember, your mind is like a parachute, it works best when its open. So, you wanna be open minded so that you can learn something new.

?Second forget about your situations

Many people don't learn fast because their minds is somewhere else. If 25% of your mind is thinking about the kids, 25% is thinking about your job or your clients, and 25% is thinking about other situations that are going on in your life, that leaves you with only 25% of your focus for learning. ?One thing that you can do, is that if you happen to think of something while learning just take a piece of paper, write it down and put it aside. Because you don't want to resist it, as what you resist persists. So don't resist it, just write it down and put it aside and come back to it later after you're done with what's your learning.

The Third thing I want you to Forget is your limitations

Some people have limiting beliefs. For example, they may think 'I am not smart enough', 'I have a horrible memory' etc. and all of these negative self-talks may become limiting to your effective learning. Your brain is a like a supercomputer and your self-talk is the program it will run. So, if you tell yourself you're not good at remembering names, you will definitely not remember the name of the next person you meet because you programmed your supercomputer not to. ?

2) A = ACTIVE

If you want to learn any skill faster and remember the content, what you don’t wanna do is be passive. Unfortunately, in our traditional education we were taught to sit quietly and just consume information. But that’s not how our brain works when it comes to learning effectively. Our brains work well by not sitting down and consuming information but rather by active participation when learning. You can be active during learning by doing taking notes and asking questions. In fact, taking notes is a great way to boost your retention, however, if not well done, it can lead you to missing what was said while focusing on taking detailed notes on what was just communicated. We will have a separate article on how to effectively take notes.

3) S = STATE

Now, what do I mean by state? I mean the emotional state of the mind and body. Its how you generally feel, both emotionally and physically. Learning is state dependent. If one learns something while in a bad state e.g., emotionally, chances are that, they will not understand or if they understand, they will hardly retain what they have learned. Hence, to learn effectively, one must ensure that they are in a good state.

At this juncture, I have a question for you: who controls how you feel? Of course, you do, right? If you don’t, then you must learn to. A lot happens in our lives that can affect how we feel, however, we must be able to take responsibility for how we feel. Remember, when we take responsibility for something, we have great power to make it better. And this is applicable to almost every aspect of our lives. When we take responsibility for our careers, our health, our relationships, our wellbeing etc., we gain power to make these things better. Probably the most important area to take responsibility for is how we feel, because it determines every thing else. Fortunately, this is possible. This can be achieved by:

o??Changing your thoughts e.g., by focusing on something positive that will make you feel happier / more curious, more excited state. What I usually do before learning any skill is think of how the new skill will benefit me. I just find something to be excited about what I am about to learn and that makes me excited about learning.

o?Changing your body state: for example by standing up, by taking a deep breath or even by smiling may get you in a better mood.

?T = TEACH

In order to learn any skill faster and retain what you have learned, learn it as if you are going to teach someone else. In fact, find someone to teach what you have learned. When we teach, we learn twice. In fact, it is the reason, I personally like to teach others. Because by teaching otherwise what I know / have learned, I become more knowledgeable about it.

Find someone close to you, who you can teach what you have learned every single day that you learn something new. How does this work? When you know that you are going to teach somebody what you are going to learn; 1) you will pay more attention, 2) you will take better notes, and/or 3) you will ask more/better questions. Further when you teach something you have learned using your own words to describe the concepts, you own it, ?and that way the information sticks better.

I hope you found this article helpful. Please leave a comment below to let me us know how you feel about what was communicated in this article.