It’s Monday morning, and let’s face it: you’re sick of it. Sick of the grind, sick of the routine. You’ve had enough of whatever it is that you’re doing, but you’re also stuck as to would you could possibly do differently.
That was me back in 2010 when, despite long hours of developing curriculum, teaching, marketing and preparing materials, I still wasn’t able to get our intercultural English language school get off the ground.
It was only a few short months later that I found a replacement for my position, quit, and left to travel for a month in Taiwan (then another three or four months bouncing back and forth between the north and south United States). All the traveling and time off gave me a lot of space (lots of space) to reflect over what was holding me back, what was preventing greater success in my life, what was making me feel miserable for the year I tried building that school (which was something pretty cool once you stop to think about it).
The answer didn’t come to me till several years later, when I discovered myself experiencing the same misery and sense of defeat no matter what position or higher (or lower) quality job I took.
Everything we do that gives us hope or a sense of purpose and stands to get us excited about our work inevitably relates to some form of personal growth.
The problem was pretty simple: I had no “why,” no sense of meaning to what I was doing, no real growth in the opportunities that I was finding and creating for myself.
The truth is that everything we do that gives us hope or a sense of purpose and stands to get us excited about our work inevitably relates to some form of personal growth.
Have you noticed how when that growth happens, it almost doesn’t matter what manner of work you’re doing — what position you’re in, what role you’re playing, what other people think of you?
They say that the only person you should ever compete with is yourself. This is no less true when it comes to learning a new skill or building a new skill set, whether you’re already talented at it or not.
When it comes down to it, our lives are nothing more than short but potentially significant experiments for the universe to test new things. As human beings, we seek happiness, and we find that happiness not by getting settled and comfortable, but by building, first, a foundation of security, and then a never-ending pattern of growth upward from that foundation toward the heavens.
We learn and grow from challenges we set for ourselves, even more so than those designated to us by others. (That, by the way, is why your boss will never be directly responsible for your leadership development — just f.y.i.)
This is a fundamental truth and of grave importance for the aspiring lifelong learner. The moment you stop trying to learn, whether it’s a new skill or a new lesson from your past, you stop growing. The moment you stop challenging yourself to be better than who you are currently, you stunt your growth and allow stagnation to set in instead.
Okay, you ask, so what is accelerated learning, and why does it matter?
Simple: it’s learning on steroids. It’s creating habits and goals with crystal clear results in mind, achieved through strategic planning and massive action, with the point of achievement through the least amount of time and the most minimum of means.
When it comes down to it, our lives are nothing more than short but potentially significant experiments for the universe to test new things.
[Example]
So, here are the five components to success in accelerated learning.
1. Get painfully clear about what is actually necessary pertaining to the subject or skill you wish to gain, and what is not. I called this the breakdown, and while that relates specifically to your goals, there are some things that can be broken down just by the very nature of the discipline itself. [Example]
2. Find a mentor. If nothing else, do what you can to find somebody who resonates and aligns with your specific goals and has demonstrated mastery in the skill. Contact them to request wisdom vis-à-vis best advice that will help you on your journey.
3. Find a mastermind group. Most masterminds are focused on helping its members cultivate creativity and achieve significant wealth, but the same principles apply toward any aspect of your life you wish to change in a significant way (and as rapidly as possible).
NOTE: Don’t just look for an interest group that likes to talk about the subject. If you can’t find a group of individuals who are bent toward nothing but maximizing their devices while minimizing the required effort to attaining desired results, then your vision will not be shared and you’ll be wasting your time. Where nothing else suffices, consider creating a group instead by searching for people with the same goals (both in ends and means) that you have.
4. Don’t be afraid to look for “fast tracks.” This point is a tricky one since most people go too far one way or the other, either by doing nothing but looking for the shortcut to the end (confusing “least effort” for “no effort”), or by getting caught up in completing or repeating tasks for their own sake without gauging if they’re getting any closer to their intended results.
IMPORTANT: Fast tracks are not the same thing as shortcuts. Most shortcuts are dismally ineffective and usually at best give you only a few points of insight at the expense of money better invested elsewhere. instead, look for path of achievement that cut out the busy work, the bugs and tips that people who white pride hard work over actual achievement would overlook simply by mistake again for the so-called shortcut.
5. This is one of the most important pieces. You must have an end game, a test of your skill or a clear Milestone that the goal you set out to achieve has indeed become real. Buy clear, I mean that you should set a specific date and either enroll or create a Real Time Event where others will observe or at least have the opportunity to recognize what you have achieved. This raises the stakes some, and that’s exactly why it’s effective in keeping us motivated even at those times when we can’t find the motivation elsewhere to be pulled into doing the actions necessary to get the result.