I
used to teach something called Accelerated Learning. Then I decided it was too
slow, so now I am teaching Instant Learning! The fact is that human beings are
unlimited in their capacity to learn, change, grow, expand, connect, and be
inspired.
In
fact, the first lesson of Instant Learning is to de-hypnotize yourself from the
social programming that tells you that learning should take years.
You
can move forward as fast as you want. You can absorb information at the speed
of thought. You can use the processes explained in this book to get all A’s in
school, to earn a doctorate, to pass an exam, or just to become the smartest
person on the planet.
Learning
is the acquisition of knowledge and skills.
Instant
learning is the acquisition of knowledge and skills as fast as they are taught
or demonstrated to you—instantly.
Step 1: Definition of
Terms
The
first step in learning any new knowledge is to clearly define the terms. The
better and more insightful your definitions, the more meaningful your overall
learning experience will be.
If
you are reading a book or textbook, find out how that author defines the terms
to be used and capture that first.
Definitions:
Learning
is the acquisition of knowledge and skills.
Instant
learning is the ability to acquire knowledge and skills as fast as they are
taught or demonstrated to you—instantly.
The
key question to ask yourself is “What is this really?” Make it a habit to
get down to the root of things right away.
Step 2:
Categorization
Becoming
an expert in any field is the process of making finer and more detailed
distinctions. Experts make finer and more detailed distinctions than others.
An
expert on cars recognizes many types of cars. She can tell them apart by
manufacturer, vehicle type, engine size, make and model, option package, color,
condition, number of previous owners, or place of manufacture. She is an
expert.
Ski
instructors can tell eight to ten different types of snow apart from one
another. The native peoples of the North can tell 50! They are experts.
A
speaker of Japanese can instantly recognize four classes of verbs, all of which
conjugate in different ways. A grammarian who studies classical Japanese
recognizes more than ten types of verbs. They are experts.
As
soon as you have nailed down the most important definitions, start to capture
the different distinctions made by the experts and the categories or boxes that
they put things into. For example, learning can be divided into the learning of
conceptual knowledge or the learning of skills!
This
distinction is important because it affects the process we use in each case. The
key question here is “How do we break this up to make it more understandable or
easier to apply?”
The
more distinctions you know, the faster you grow.
In
the next article we will discuss steps 3 – 5 to instantly learn conceptual
knowledge.
Roice Krueger was a
co-founder of FranklinCovey, the world's largest training and education
company. Amazingly, Roice has consulted
for 80% of the Fortune 500 companies.
Those companies know that Roice delivers the goods, and they continue to
beat a path to his door when they need help! Visit Roice’s 101
E-Book Library at http://www.IdeasThatCanChangeYourLife.com.