Josh Kaufman in his book, The first 20 hours, he explains how you can get a basic level of proficiency on any skill with four steps. So the first step is to deconstruct and sequence a skill. So you break a skill into small parts, and then you prioritize those in order to become more efficient on the learning process. And we are going to cover that on this course, with a lot of practical examples. And a mind map is a great way to go through this step in order to deconstruct a skill. The second step is to start learning that skill.

So you start learning and gathering information about a skill. And this doesn't mean you're going to read all the books in the market on that topic. So do not overwhelm yourself with information before starting. I've done this mistake a lot of times where I just start reading a lot of books and then I find myself lost because I see that I've made no progress because the only thing thing where I focused my attention on was on reading, and I made no progress at all. So most people, including myself spend too much time searching, pondering, planning, and do not take action is the most important thing when starting to learn a new skill is to take action is to just simply start with no matter the resources you have, I could have right now a basic level of proficiency in many other skills. If I just started, don't wait for the perfect time nor the perfect resources, start doing something now, because acquiring a basic level of a skill doesn't take much time.

What are the three simple steps you could take right now, to start learning a new skill the first one might be continued to watch this course in order to learn the effective method you can use the second one would be watch a YouTube video of learning with an introduction of the skill you want to learn. So if you want to learn Adobe Photoshop search for Adobe Photoshop for beginners on YouTube, Watch a 10 minute video on that topic, anything but do some type of action right now to keep the momentum going. And the third step might be to buy or to borrow to get whatever the resources you might need to get started. So if you want to learn how to play guitar, maybe it's good if you just order a new guitar or if you just ask a friend, do you want to learn Adobe Photoshop?

Maybe it's a good idea to download the software to your computer. Or if you want to learn a new language, just buy a new notebook Jocko willing, a Navy SEAL says the only way to beat procrastination is just start. Don't think about where do I start? When do I start do it now. And he says stop thinking about it. Stop dreaming about it.

Stop researching every aspect of it and reading all about it and debating the pros and cons of it. Start doing it. Take the first step and make it happen. get after it here and now. So The third step of learning any skill is to remove physical, emotional and mental barriers that stop you from practicing. So regarding physical barriers, it might be good to order the things you need to start practicing that skill.

Like I said before, maybe it's mean buying the guitar or tuning the guitar, changing the strings, something like that. It's a mental and emotional barriers are related with your mindset. And those are more difficult to overcome. If you keep thinking that you can't learn a new skill, then it's true. But if you keep thinking that you can learn a new skill, it's also true. start trying to control your negative thoughts because they have a huge influence in your ability to learn or to not learn.

So start writing your negative thoughts and then try to come up with ideas in reasons why they are not true. I learned the yams technique, automatic negative thoughts on this book over here. Your brain change your life written by Dr. Daniel Amen, who is a neuroscientist in psychiatry? First, I'm going to share some science behind every thought that we have. And by only reading that, on this book, I became much more aware of the impact that every thought has on myself. Your thoughts directly impact the way you feel and the way you behave.

Every time you have a bad, cranky and happy thoughts, your brain releases negative chemicals that activate your limbic system and make your body and mind feel bad. And your thoughts are not always true. So you have to question them, but if you come up with them and you do nothing about it, you will feel bad in front of your negative thoughts, challenge them question and talk back to them and then try to correct them because most of your thoughts most of your negative thoughts are not true. And so if you question them, if you Make fun of them, they will live, they will have no power over you. And every time you have a happy, a good thought, your brain releases chemicals that will make your body and mind feel good. So your body reacts to positive and negative feelings, even if you don't say them out loud.

So every time you want to feel good, think of positive things. When you are learning a new skill, you will have a lot of discouraging thoughts ABCD I will never learn this. I don't have the mental capacity. I don't have good memory, good memory to learn a new skill each will take me years to learn this. I suck in a lot more in all of those thoughts should be challenged. And if you do challenge them and question them, you will have no power over you.

And remember, you don't have to believe every thought you have. So when you have a negative thought ask these four questions. Is it true? Can I absolutely know that it's true? How do I react when I believe that thoughts who Would I be without that thought? Or how would I feel if I didn't have that thought?

Now write those answers down in question your thoughts make them have no power within yourself. So the fourth step on learning any skill is to practice the sub skills until you reach the level you desire. So when I was starting to learn how to I could edit videos, I watched a lot of YouTube videos, and then I would replicate what they were doing. And that way I could practice myself because I replicated but I was also learning at the same time by practicing and by learning through imitation. So imitation is a powerful tool when you want to learn something new. So this means you can learn with others by doing what they are doing.

So go find a few people who are doing what you really want to do, and then copy them. Austin kleon as a great book called steal like an artist, and he talks about the power of imitation but he said start copying what you love. Copy, copy, copy, copy. And at the end of the copy, you will find yourself so the author copied a lot of artists in order to learn with them. This is not about using other people's work and telling it's your own work. This is about getting inspiration from their work and their results, and then trying to learn it from yourself.

If you steal from an author, it's plagiarism, if you steal from many it's research. And that's what also I learned in college. So if you want to learn photography, check other people's photos and then try to do the same photos yourself. It's much better to learn with others by watching YouTube videos, reading books, taking online courses, or taking personnel having personal lessons than to try to go through everything by yourself, watch, recreate, fail, practice and repeat. And remember, fail fast. I have not failed.

I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work. When you make mistakes, you'll learn quicker. So don't stop yourself from drying even though you know you're going to fail. Using the right method to learn a new skill will help you to progress much quicker, but he won't avoid failure because if you want to avoid failure, you'll also have to avoid action. As Barbara Oakley said, the law of serendipity, Lady Luck favors the one who tries so don't feel overwhelmed with everything you need to learn about a new subject. Instead, focus on nailing down a few key ideas, you will be surprised at how much that simple framework can help and remember that the number of hours you put into learning a new skill depends on your own goals.

So if you only want to learn a few songs on guitar for fun, you might only need 20 hours of practicing but if you want to become a professional guitar player, you might need a lifetime. So it's important to set your goals before starting learning any skill and to know exactly what's You level you desire but allow yourself to go further if you're feeling like it