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To master anything in today’s information world is becoming extremely challenging. When you’re overwhelmed you seek out distractions. There is more content online than ever before. There are videos, books, seminars, newspapers, magazines, training programs, and advice coming from every direction on thousands of different topics. With low-cost internet, people are harping to online courses, which most of the time are free. But many a time we forget the subject to learn in this information abundance world.
Information World
With Google and YouTube, plenty of information is freely available in today’s internet world. Like when you search for some important thing on YouTube, then what happens immediately after that important video. You simply being directed on some other topic then further on some other. After some time you forget about the useful topic at all.
The same thing happens when you started reading news on any news application, once to finish one news, system algorithms will keep you feeding all the news of the areas of your interest, irrespective of whether they are useful on not. Peoples spend so many hours daily on not so useful content.
Unless you control yourself drifting to unnecessary topics, you will not be able to gain from any of such platforms. You can get so much from these platforms if you focus only on your desired search.
Yes, to build wealth you first must build a wealth of knowledge. You need new information, new wisdom, and new ideas to take your business to a new level, but the power lies in how fast you can implement the right information into your daily routines. The right information is only part of the equation. The real power lies in implementation.
Mastery is Important!
Mastery is one of the highest forms of performance and success. The only way to become successful is to master the fundamentals, but the fundamentals you adopt must be congruent to your end results and goals. Most people have so much information – they read books, they go to conferences and seminars, they watch all the free videos online – but they aren’t intentional, so they get overwhelmed and become paralyzed.
The immature learner wants to get as much information as he can as fast as he can, but you’ll usually find him broke, stressed, and lacking real clarity. The mature learner is very deliberate with what he studies and what he puts to mind. Achievers focus on listening to something until they’ve adopted it into their daily agenda and have experienced increased results. Once they’ve seen progress, they move on to the next skill.
Wanting to learn more when you haven’t mastered the current information is a huge reason most stays broke and stressed. Mastering new skills are not optional in today’s business environment and changing economy. In our fast-moving, competitive world, being able to learn new skills is crucial for success and achievement. It’s not enough to be smart—you need to always be getting smarter, and if you’re not moving forward, you’re falling behind.
Focus and Intelligence
It’s more about focus than intelligence. There are so many brilliant people who haven’t accomplished anything or used their knowledge at all. Knowledge is not power. Action is the only thing that will ultimately determine your success. Unapplied knowledge is useless. The only way to hit those big goals you dream about is to grow into them, and make sure you’re intentional in all you do. Mastery is a new form of learning and you must adopt it into your current lifestyle.
Peter Voogd has given below useful keys to mastery from available information in his book 6 Months to 6 Figures, which I had read a few years back.
Start Small
Self-improvement can feel overwhelming. Realize you can’t take on everything. If you do, you’ll never accomplish anything. Instead, choose one or two skills to focus on at a time, and break that skill or skills down into manageable goals. First of all, you need to define your goals and priorities so you have clarity on what you’re aiming to achieve.
If you have more than three priorities, you don’t have any.— Jim Collins
Reflect Along The Way
To move from experimentation to mastery, you need to reflect on what you’re learning. Otherwise, the new skill won’t stick, and you’ll fall back into overload. Reflecting on and talking about your progress helps you get valuable feedback, keeps you accountable, and cements the change. The writer often hears people talking about how many books they’ve read and bragging about their goal of 50 books this year. Their desire to grow is respectable, but we can master three to five books that are congruent and in alignment with our goals than reading 50. At least you can limit your book topic like for me topics are money, mind, and business.
Challenge Yourself to Teach it to Others
One of the quickest ways to learn something new and to practice it is to teach others how to do it. Share what you learn with your team, your managers, your co-workers, or even your customers. When reading a new book, if I find something very interesting and implementable, I share that with my friends, colleagues, and even with seniors. Most people forget what they’ve read an hour after they’ve read it and it doesn’t help them advance towards the goals they’ve defined. What’s the point of reading if it doesn’t sharpen your perspective, improve your results, or help your legacy?
Be patient
Too often, we approach a new skill with the attitude that we should nail it right out of the gate. The reality is that it takes much longer. It’s not going to happen overnight. It usually takes six months or more to develop a new skill, and it may take longer for others to see and appreciate it. People around you will only notice 10% of every 100% change you make.
From this point on, the writer wants you to be more intentional with what you study, read, or listen to. Make sure it’s congruent with your weekly, monthly, and yearly goals. The simple act of being more intentional with what you study can set you apart from those around you, and successful people are always looking for ways to differentiate themselves. Sadly, most people will operate on information overload instead of mastery, and continue to be overwhelmed. Or even worse, they learn just enough to get by and stop learning.
Apple said it bluntly…
We shouldn’t be criticized for using Chinese workers. The U.S. has stopped producing people with the skills we need.
Develop yourself, grow, and improve your skills, not necessarily through traditional schooling. The school sometimes distracts you from the things that actually matter in advancing your career and life. Weird, but true.
Take self-made billionaire Warren Buffett’s advice:
The best education you can get is investing in yourself, and that doesn’t mean college or university.
Your education doesn’t end at graduation. It begins. The sooner you realize that all the skills you need to learn to succeed will occur after you leave the confines of educational institutions, the sooner you will succeed. Let others overload themselves with information while you commit to mastery.
Amateurs practice until they get it right; professionals practice until they can’t get it wrong.— Unknown
