TEACHERS DAY LAW – FOR STUDENTS –from sudhanshu

TEACHERS DAY LAW – FOR STUDENTS –from sudhanshu

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TO MASTER IT, YOU MUST CREATE AN

OBLIGATION TO TEACH IT

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This law explains the simple technique that the world’s most renowned intellectuals, authors and philosophers use to become the masters of their craft and how you can use it to develop any skill, master any topic and build an audience.

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THE STORY

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It felt like the entire population of planet Earth had gathered to watch me melt on stage that evening, but in reality, it was just a handful of my fellow secondary school pupils, their parents and a few teachers.

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I was 14 years old and had been tasked with saying a few closing remarks at my school’s exam awards evening. As I walked out onto the stage, the auditorium fell into an anticipatory silence.

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And there I stood, frozen, terrified and mute, for one of the longest

minutes anyone has ever endured, staring down at the trembling piece of paper clasped between my clammy, nervous hands,? experiencing what people refer to as ‘stage fright’.

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The script I had planned to deliver was shaking with such ferocity that I couldn’t see the words. Eventually I blurted out some improvised, clichéd, nonsensical remarks before darting off stage and out of the door as if I were being followed by a firing squad.

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Fast-forward ten years from that traumatic day and I’m speaking on stage 50 weeks a year in every corner of the globe – I’m headlining alongside Barack Obama in front of tens of thousands in S?o Paulo, I’m speaking in sold-out arenas in Barcelona, I’m touring the UK and speaking at festivals from Kyiv to Texas to Milan.

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THE EXPLANATION

I went from being a train wreck of a public speaker, to rubbing shoulders with some of the very best to ever do it, and there is one simple law that I credit with this transformation.

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This law is not just responsible for my on-stage composure, performance and delivery (my skills), it’s also the reason why I have something interesting to share while I’m on stage (my knowledge):

I created an obligation to teach.

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The late spiritual leader Yogi Bhajan

once said, ‘If you want to learn

something, read about it. If you want to

understand something, write about it. If

you want to master something, teach it.’

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At 21 years old, I made a promise to myself that every day at 7pm, I would write a tweet or make a video delivering a single idea, and then post it online at 8pm.

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Of all the things I’ve done in my life to advance my knowledge and skills – – this is the thing that made the most difference.

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It’s no exaggeration to say that it has completely changed the trajectory of my life, and consequently it’s the piece of advice I urge most strongly upon anyone looking to become a better thinker, speaker, writer or content creator.

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The key factor here is that I made learning, then writing/recording and sharing it online, a daily obligation, not just an interest

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So, if you want to master something, do it publicly and do it consistently.

Publishing your written ideas forces you to learn more often and to write more clearly. Publishing a video forces you to improve your speaking skills and to articulate your thoughts. Sharing your ideas on stage teaches you how to hold an audience and tell captivating stories. In any area of your life, doing it in public, and creating an obligation that forces you to do it consistently, will lead you to mastery.

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One of the most valuable elements of this obligation was having to distil any idea I wanted to share down to its 140-character essence, so that it could fit within the constraints of a tweet.

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Being able to simplify an idea and

successfully share it with others is both

the path to understanding it and the

proof that you do. One of the ways we

mask our lack of understanding of any

idea is by using more words, bigger words and less necessary words.

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This challenge of simplifying an idea to its essence is often referred to as the Feynman technique, named after the renowned American scientist Richard Feynman. Feynman won a Nobel Prize in 1965 for his groundbreaking work in quantum electrodynamics. He had a gift for explaining the most complex, baffling ideas in simple language that even a child could understand.

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‘I couldn’t reduce it to the freshman level. That means we really don’t understand it.’

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Richard Feynman

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The Feynman technique is a powerful mental model for self-development. It forces you to strip away unnecessary complexity, distil a concept to its purest essence, and develop a rich, in-depth understanding of whatever discipline you seek to master.

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The Feynman technique follows a few key steps, which I’ve simplified and updated based on my own learning experience:

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STEP 1: LEARN

First you must identify the topic you want to understand, research it

thoroughly and grasp it from every direction.

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STEP 2: TEACH IT TO A CHILD

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Secondly, you should write the idea down as if you were teaching it to a child; use simple words, fewer words and simple concepts.

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STEP 3: SHARE IT

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Convey your idea to others; post it online, post it on your blog, share it on stage or even at the dinner table. Choose any medium where you’ll get clear feedback.

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STEP 4: REVIEW

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Review the feedback; did people understand the concept from your

explanation? Can they explain it to you after you’ve explained it to them? If not, go back to step 1; if they did, move on.

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As we look over history, this is the one thing that every great speaker, renowned author and prominent intellectual I’ve ever encountered or interviewed has in common.

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When Prospect magazine released their list of the top 100 modern

intellectuals, every name on the list followed this law.

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When I researched the pre-eminent philosophers from history, every single one of them embodied and were often staunch advocates of this law.

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At some point in their life, through intention or accident, they had created an obligation to think, write and share their ideas, consistently.

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Whether it’s leading modern authors like James Clear, Malcolm

Gladwell or Simon Sinek who write tweets, online blogs and create social media videos, or ancient philosophers like Aristotle, Plato and Confucius, who wrote on papyrus scrolls and spoke on stages, they all abide by this crucial law; all of them have created an obligation to teach, and in turn they’ve become masters of both knowledge and delivery.

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The person who learns the most in any classroom is the teacher.

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THE LAW: TO MASTER IT, YOU MUST

CREATE AN OBLIGATION TO TEACH IT

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Learn more, simplify more and share more. Your consistency will further your progress, the feedback will refine your skill and following this law will lead to mastery.

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You don’t become a master because you’re able to retain knowledge.

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You become a master when you’re able to release it.

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sudhanshu

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