The Science of Self-Learning: How to Teach Yourself Anything, Learn More in Less Time, and Direct Your Own Education (Learning how to Learn Book 1)

by Peter Hollins

Mastery. There’s nothing like the satisfaction of knowing you’re doing something well, that you’ve worked and practiced hard to achieve your own standards of excellence. That’s what mastery is: the drive to improve our skills or knowledge in areas we’re passionate about. Mastery is a motivating factor because it gives us a sense of progress (at least if we can stick it out through the beginning phases of learning something brand new, when we’re bound to be frustrated from time to time). We keep pushing through in areas because we want to learn something new every day. We want to arrive at a point where we do only what we want to do, without being sidetracked or stunted by “busy work” or purposeless tasks. We want a sense of accomplishment that we can draw upon daily. Mastery might be the most obvious stimulating component in self-learning. You might be driven to understand every nuance of Shakespeare’s work, build a mechanical go-cart from scratch, become an ace audio producer, or understand all the ins and outs of business contracts without having to call a lawyer. The goal of every student is to gain expertise in their field, and a great self-learner keeps the prospect of mastery uppermost in their mind at all points in their journey. Mastery is doubly gratifying when you know that it’s because of you and your drive alone, rather than following the droning of a set of professors.