Learning Ain’t Easy
The Amplified Impact Podcast
March 19th, 2023
Today I want to talk about learning. I believe that learning is one of the highest ROI skills that you can develop.
Learning is a skill, and many people don’t realize it. Like any skill, you need to practice and keep it sharp. I feel that our modern school system’s feed us information to memorize, but they fail at actually teaching us how to learn.
Now, an important part of learning is self awareness, because everyone learns in different ways. It took me a long time to figure out how I learn, but once I did, it was a superpower in the sense that now I can acquire pretty much any skill…
Because I understand what I need to do to unlock my learning potential. Do you?
TWEETABLE QUOTE:
“True learning, true mastery, occurs when you’re challenging yourself and you’re rewiring your brain to adopt a new piece of information.” – Anthony Vicino
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Episode Transcript:
Learning Ain’t Easy
[00:00:00] Anthony: Hey, what’s up everybody? Welcome back to the podcast. Today I want to talk about learning, and I do believe that learning is one of the highest ROI skills that you can develop. Like the, the, the skill of learning. Learning how you learn is powerful. And I, I find that the, the modern schooling system did not do us a solid in terms of teaching us.
How to, how to learn. It really forced us into conformity, taught us memorization, taught us how to follow directions, how to sit still and listen to a lecture. And that is, that is, I don’t know about you guys, but that’s not how I learn. I don’t learn sitting still. I’m a fidgeter. Like right now, I literally have something in my hands so I can fidget with it.
Like I, I like to move around. I, I have a hard time sitting. and that’s not conducive. Like the modern school system was not conducive for the way that I learned, which is very kinesthetic, very much with my body. And by doing, and it took me a long time to figure out how I do learn, but once I did, like I, it was a superpower [00:01:00] in the sense that now I can acquire pretty much any skill because I understand what I need to do to unlock my learning potential.
So that’s one thing for you to think about in your pursuit of greatness is how do you learn? , what can you do to make that process more effective? Now, the thing I was thinking about this morning though, is that learning is inherently inefficient. And that’s kind of frustrating in a sense, one, because like I’m always in pursuit of optimization and more efficiency.
I wanna be more productive. And there seems like you should be able to learn. Efficiently, and there are things that you obviously can do, but that at its core learning is a slow, cumbersome, uncomfortable, frustrating process cuz learning occurs outside your comfort zone. It’s not something that you can just do passively.
It’s not something that you can do comfortably. Like true learning, true mastery occurs when you’re challenging yourself and you’re [00:02:00] rewiring your brain to adopt a new piece of. and that’s, that’s difficult. And we know this from studies of the flow state, that the first 15 minutes of trying to get into the flow state, when you first pick up an activity, you first sit down into it, is the most difficult because during that 15 minute, there’s still a lot of cognitive residue.
Leftover from whatever you were doing before that task. And so what ends up happening is in that first 15, 20 minutes, it’s very uncomfortable to sit and like work on this thing that if it is possible to put you into flow means that it’s right at the fringe of your abilities. And so you’re struggling and it doesn’t really feel like you’re making progress.
And, and we know from science that that is where the flow state occurs. Like if you push through that frustration state, you can get to the, the, the juicy middle, the place that you want to be, which is this beautiful flow state. But understanding that you’re gonna need to push through that discomfort is, [00:03:00] is key to get there.
And you can’t really get rid of it no matter how effective your systems are or how optimized they are. You, you learning is always a struggle. And I was thinking about that because I, you know, I’ve fall into these routines or in these, um, These rituals where it’s like, oh, I’m gonna read for 30 minutes every day.
I’m gonna study this other foreign language for 15 minutes a day. And you kind of like get into these blocks where you’re just doing everything the same. You’re going through the routine. And I don’t think routine is a great way to learn things. I think novelty and feedback and and challenge are necessary if you really want to develop a skill.
And so I wanted to share that with you today because if you’re trying to learn something, and one, you’re not making as much progress as you would like. It’s maybe because you’re not trying hard enough. And when I say hard enough, not like you’re not putting in the hours, but like during the time when you’re doing the thing, the [00:04:00] energy you’re putting towards it, the focus, the challenge isn’t enough.
stimulate the learning because true learning occurs right at the fringe of your abilities, and it requires deep, deep concentration and focus regardless of how you learn, whether that’s, you know, kinesthetically, auditorially, um, sensorially, I’m making up words at this point, but, you know, regardless of how you learn, it’s going to occur.
Um, at the edge of your ability, and that’s a frustrating, scary, inefficient, ineffective place to be a lot of the time. So I wanted to share that because if you’re trying to learn something right now and you’re really in the struggle bus like I am, there’s some things I’m trying to learn. One, like the example that I was thinking about was photography.
I got this new camera. Uh, this new lens and we’re trying to up the, the quality of our YouTube game, right? And one of the skills that I wanted to a acquire in this next year is the skill of photography. I want to be able to take amazing pictures. Cause I hold man, when I see like Pete McKinnon’s Instagram and he takes these amazing photos.
I’m like, I want to do that. I want to be able to [00:05:00] take an amazing photo. And so it’s one of the, it’s one of the things I’m trying to learn this. . But the process is very hard. It’s very frustrating cuz there’s so many buttons, there’s so many things to consider, you know? And the other day I sat down to record and with the camera and the new audio rig and the new lighting rig and all these things, and it took me like an hour to get it set up.
And then at the very end, as I go to push play, I realize the, the teleprompter I’m using isn’t gonna work with this lens because it’s a wide angle lens and. I was so frustrated. But this is part of the learning. This is where learning occurs, is like, oh, I didn’t even think that was gonna be a problem. I didn’t even know to ask that question.
And so I wasted hours getting all this stuff set up just to learn one lesson and I didn’t get to make the thing that I wanted to make. And that’s learning. It’s frustrating. And I was reflecting it on it this morning cause I was like, you know, That’s the process. That’s, that’s what I’m gonna look back on in a year when I’m doing this.
And [00:06:00] it’s so much easier. It’s instinctive. It’s intuitive, and I can just grab the camera, go. I can take an amazing picture. I can, I know what it looks like to take, um, a good video or make a good video. It’s only gonna be born off the back of these countless repetitions where things don’t go how you thought they would.
You’re shooting the basketball, you thought you were doing all the motions correctly, and the ball’s just not going in the hoop. And you, you just have to accept that it’s gonna take a really long time for the ball to start going in the hoop. And then once it does, it’s gonna seem second nature and easy.
and you’re gonna wonder like, oh, what was the big deal? Like this always been, that’s not so bad, right? But it was. It was bad. Cuz learning is hard, but it’s also one of the birthrights of being a human. It’s what makes being a human so damn cool is the ability to improve and become better and acquire new skills and level up in this thing called life.
So I hope you’re learning something right now. I’d actually really be curious to hear what you’re learning. So find me on Twitter at Anthony Va. and let me know like, what are you working on right now? What are you struggling through? What’s the [00:07:00] lesson or the the skill that you’re trying to learn? I’m genuinely cur curious, so reach out, let me know either in the dms or just at me.
I’d love to have a conversation with you guys, and until then, I will see you back here tomorrow. But do me a favor until I see you tomorrow. Stay hyperfocused my friend.
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