Over the last couple of months I've been embarking on learning new skills: specifically learning the guitar and learning to speak spanish. Now, despite having a packed schedule I have managed to pick things up pretty quickly. A number of people have been surprised at the speed of my progress and asked me how I managed to do that. So I figured I'd let them know here.. The examples I'm using are two different kinds of skill.. guitar and spanish.

1) Pick a Skill that you would really like to learn. Decide what kind of standard of the skill would you be happy with (e.g. being able to play a particular song on the guitar and have it recognizable). Change your beliefs to say that you can learn the skill easily and will learn it quickly. Also decide that you will keep doing it UNTIL you do achieve this level of profieciency at least.

2) Get someone to show you the basics. You don't need to have a teacher with you the entire time, the key is to get the most useful bits and pieces and begin to practise them immediately. Focus in on only what you need and what understanding you might need. The two keys to know are PROCESS (what you must do and how you must do it) and UNDERSTANDING (what it means).

3) You become good at any process by witnessing how it's done, paying attention, attempting it... witnessing again.. attempting again (for the NLPers out there... the Test Operate Test Exit in strategies). So I hear a word in Spanish and see it, repeat it... hear it, see it, repeat it. I hear a chord, see how it is done... and then place my fingers where I saw and try and make the same sound.

4) You become good at understanding by learning about what the skill means. For example, understanding that there are different notes that you can play on a guitar and that you must play them in a different sequence helps you understand what you need to in order to become good at playing. You need to know what a fret is and what a chord is. Understanding why a word means what it means or the basics of how the language works helps you develop the skill quicker. You need to know what the basic pattern is for creating most verbs.

5) The key is to AVOID at all costs complicated labels or theories when you learn the skill. That is, take in only what you need to know for each basic and once you get your confidence up you can learn the next step. For example, avoid trying to learn about flats, minors, 7's etc... on the guitar until you can play a few tunes. Avoid trying to remember the many different kinds of verbs... preperfect... etc... until you have a basic mastery over the present tense, past tense and future tense. In other words, get to have a basic skill and then work on improving it.

5) Don't try and remember and learn it. Just pay attention, practise, pay attention practise. Continue to do this UNTIL you start to notice yourself getting better. Many things we try and learn we tend to put stress around it. Make learning as much fun as possible.

6) Make sure you have a powerful enough motivator for the skills (being able to travel around south america and have a fantastic experience because you can understand the people you meet / being able to play guitar at the parties you go to and being able to play your favourite songs)

7) Be prepared to make lots of mistakes.. the less you care about failing... the more quickly you will master any skill. Let yourself be ok with making lots of mistakes and realise that it is nothing to do with you... it's to do with the process of learning and is inevitable.

8) Remember you must compare yourself ONLY with yourself and NOT with someone who has already mastered the skill or someone who is useless. So avoid thinking about yourself in comparison to a fluent spanish speaker, eric clapton, your friend Mick who doesn't even know how to hold a guitar or Sheila who can hardly speak English never mind Spanish. The problem is that if you compare yourself with someone better you will lose motivation around the skill because their skills will seem impossible to accomplish. If you compare yourself with others who are worse then you get lazy as you have a false sense of being fantastic even when you have a lot to learn. when comparing yourself to yourself and asking the question 'HOW MUCH BETTER AM I GETTING?' your brain learns to sort in one direction and allows you to stay highly motivated and making great progress.

9) Get Positive Feedback from a few people over how you are doing. Pick only those who will honestly give you positive feedback. Avoid those who are perfectionists and will pick out the flaws. What you are looking for here is two things. Some feedback about whether you are getting it right and what you need to do to get it right. Secondly and most importantly, someone to give to feedback to say that you are picking things up really quickly and doing brilliantly. You need this kind of external feedback to keep you motivated and to build your confidence. The more confident you are the quicker you will learn.