You are missing an important step
And I'm here to change that
Welcome back, my friend.
This week, there’s a practical how-to I want to share with you.
So, let’s dive straight into it.
Main quest 🛡
When you want to learn something or pick up a skill what’s the first thing you do?
Go find a book title on Kindle
Search for a course in Udemy (or any other similar site)
Look for a YouTube video
Read articles from experts on the subject
Something else
I think you’ll agree that the first step has to do with anything related to getting resources to learn from.
I found something related to it out there a few days ago.
And if you think about it, it makes sense. You’d want to get your hands on quality material to learn from.
But in doing so, you’re missing a super important step. And I’d argue it’s the most important step.
Because it doesn’t matter how fast or efficiently you go if you’re on the wrong path to begin with.
Instead, you want to engage in “goal-based learning” to get better results.
I’ve talked about this before here and online.
The way you do that is by making your first step a written goal of what you want to accomplish with that learning effort. In other words, why do you want to learn that skill?
Is it to progress on the career ladder?
Is it to move to a different area or industry?
Is it to start a new line of business?
Is it because you want to improve an aspect of your life (like fitness)?
Is it to have a non-working hobby?
Etc…
Once you have that intention well defined, now you can proceed to the next steps.
I know it will feel “weird” at first. And most of the material out there is not created with that in mind.
Most courses boast about how comprehensive they are and that they include “everything” you’ll need to know. They say they’re best because they have 20+ hours of content. (Marketplaces like Udemy are the worst offenders in that regard.)
But even if it goes against the grain…
Pick your goal.
Get the resources that will help you accomplish that goal.
Ignore everything else (for now).
I cannot emphasize this enough. (Plus, you’ll hear me talk about this quite often.)
If you accomplished your goal and learnt what you needed for it, you’ll have a much better experience than starting to learn and then get bogged down with the details of everything there is in that area.
That can be the difference between you keep on learning and progressing further or losing motivation and feeling like you’re fighting an uphill battle.
When you successfully accomplish a learning goal, the next common thing that’ll happen is your brain asking, “If I could do this, what else could I do?”.
That’s an initial spark of curiosity, and trust me, curiosity can take you very far.
Accomplish another learning goal and now you have built momentum. And with momentum you can keep going and expanding your horizon further.
You are now in the place where you’re using your neurochemistry for you instead of against you. And great things can happen from there on.
So now, make sure that whenever you’re starting to learn something, set your intention first. Before you go out and scour the internet for resources.
Just doing that step first will separate you from the masses that go in with all the motivation only to quit a few weeks later.
Experiments 🧪
This week I’ve been getting into SEO a lot. Specifically in the area of keyword research.
I’ve attended an online SEO seminar for technical writers and there were a couple of things that reminded me of resources I’ve found in previous years. My brain was like “ohh, I remember seeing something like that in X place”.
I dug up most of those links and then I got a ton of info to go through. But I’ll be taking it step by step because nobody likes to be overwhelmed when learning something (hint hint, wink wink).
Power-ups ✨
This week I don’t have any particular power-up to share with you.
But I’ll bring one for the next week.
From the vault 🏛️
Speaking of learning goals as your first step.
I went into more detail about it in this article.
I also outline the next steps after you’re done with that first one.
That’s what I have for you this time.
I’m off to keep working on my upcoming story-based course.
Have a great start of the week!
Cheers,
Juan.