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If you want to acquire a new skill, you must practice it in context. Learning enhances practice, but it doesn’t replace it. If performance matters, learning alone is never enough.
Training and learning will certainly make it easier to finish the race, but they’re not skill acquisition. Without a certain amount of skill acquisition, training isn’t possible or useful. Preparation and conditioning can make some forms of skill acquisition easier, but they can never replace practice.
Creativity, flexibility, and freedom to experiment—the essential elements of rapid skill acquisition—are antithetical to the credentialing process.
The essential elements of rapid skill acquisition are antithetical to the credentialing process
If you focus on acquiring your prime skill (that is, your most lovable project) before anything else, you’ll acquire it in far less time.
I can’t emphasize this enough. Focusing on one prime skill at a time is absolutely necessary for rapid skill acquisition.
Getting hurt (or killed) acquiring a new skill defeats the purpose.
The more sources of fast feedback you integrate into your practice, the faster you’ll acquire the skill.
Skill is the result of deliberate, consistent practice, and in early-stage practice, quantity and speed trump absolute quality. The faster and more often you practice, the more rapidly you’ll acquire the skill.
Once you start practicing something new, your skills will naturally and noticeably improve in a very short period of time. The trick is to start practicing as quickly as possible. Not thinking about practicing or worrying about practicing, but actually practicing.
Not being willing to jump in over your head is the single biggest emotional barrier to rapid skill acquisition. Feeling stupid isn’t fun, but reminding yourself that you will understand with practice will help you move from confusion to clarity as quickly as possible.
Zero-practice shortcuts don’t exist. No practice, no skill acquisition. It’s as simple as that.
No practice means no skill acquisition
