The effective and efficient acquirement and application of knowledge is one of the most fundamental skills that you can acquire in life. Learning how to learn how to develop skill in the most efficient and effective way. Understanding this is life changing on many different levels. Its the fundamental skill that better allows you to access the other skills that you want to learn and master. However even though must understand the utility and importance of learning how to learn in the most effective and efficient way possible, few know how.
Now again what I’m laying out here isn’t the end all or be all of education or learning. It’s what’s worked for me and students that I’ve had across a variety of modalities. From teaching writing classes, to teaching history, to instruction in martial arts and more. It is a general framework for learning that you can tinker with and adjust to work the best for you. Everyone is different and not everyone is going to learn best in the exact same ways.
But with that being said there are some fundamental things that are going to hold true for all learners and by understanding these fundamental things you can set up the most effective and efficient way for you to learn and master both knowledge and skill. Regardless if it’s boxing, painting, public speaking, or any skill.
The Three Pillars Of Mastering Any Skill
When we look at the mastery of a skill, and to a lesser extent the acquirement of knowledge, there are many ways to go about learning it. We’ve probably all heard that some people are going to favor being a visual learner, auditory learner, or kinesthetic learner and that there are multiple types of intelligences. And while there is truth and value to both those statements I don’t think it really encompasses the most important parts of education and learning. We need something broad and more encompassing. Which brings us to the three pillars of learning any skill.
The three pillars all work together in harmony, each making the other stronger and more effective. You can’t do two of the pillars and expect to see the results that you want. Sort of like to get in shape you have to eat right, exercise, and get good sleep. Two of the three isn’t good enough. Same with the pillars of mastering any skill, two aren’t good enough. Use two pillars and the skill will topple over, you need all three to make sure it’ll work and you’ll be learning in the most efficient and effective way possible.
But what are the three pillars. In a broad sense the three pillars are instruction, live training, and modeling. We’ll get to more exact definitions and examples later but here’s a broad overview to get you started. Instruction means learning as we normally see learning lectures, books, instructional videos, the teacher showing something and then you doing it, drilling, and things of that nature. Instruction in another word.
Next we have live training. Live training is what I like to call “doing the damn thing” so it’s when you’re doing the skill you’re trying to get good at, live practice. So if the skill is painting it’s when you’re setting brush to paint and then canvas. If it’s boxing it’s when you’re in the actual ring live sparring, not working the bag, not shadow boxing, not doing back and forth drills. But actually doing the thing that you want to get good at, more on that later.
Then we have modeling. Modeling is watching the masters doing it in whatever capacity that you can. So say for painting it’d be watching a video of a master painting doing the work from start to finish, seeing what process they used, how they did it. For ice skating it’d be watching ice skating competitions, especially high level ones. For baking it’d be watching a master bake, maybe getting in the kitchen with them if possible.
Maybe these words don’t fit these things exactly but they give a good overview and are a good way to remember each. Use your own words if that works better for you. But for me I see them as instruction, live training, and modeling. Now we’ll dive more into each one.
The Instruction Pillar Of Skill Acquirement & Mastery
We’ll take a deeper dive into the instruction portion as it’s the way that everyone is familiar with. I’ll use three example skills for my examples here. The first will be becoming a full time self-published novelist, the next will be competing in mixed martial arts competition at the professional level, and the third will be becoming the best selling salesman on you car lot. Now let’s dive in.
Instruction is someone telling or showing you something. It can be lectures, instructional videos, courses, reading books, essentially any way that you can acquire information and knowledge. That is instruction and it is essential to developing and acquiring skill. For becoming an author the instruction portion of learning could come from courses on becoming a better writer and marketing your books. It could come from reading books on becoming a better writer and marketing your books.
For the MMA fighter it would be going to class and watching the instructor show something and then doing drills to mimic it and learn it. It could also be watching instructional videos online either on a video sharing site or ones that you pay for done by professional coaches, fighters, and the like. For the sales professional it might be taking a sales course online or reading books about selling mastery and car sales in particular.
The Live Training Pillar Of Skill Acquirement & Mastery
You’ll never get better at something if you never do the thing. If someone held a gun to your head and said you could only pick one pillar for skill development and mastery, this would be the one that you’d have to pick, because without actually doing the thing you’ll never get better at it. Now with that being said if all you do is do the thing and neglect the other two pillars what you do learn you’ll learn the heard way and your progress will move at a glacier pace but you will still develop skills.
Whereas if you only do one of the other pillars you won’t have much to show for it. The guy who does drills and bag work every day but nothing else will never be a good a fighter as they guy who does live sparring. That’s just a fact. You can never get around doing the thing. It’s the fundamental part of skill development. Doing the thing means doing whatever your skill is how it’s supposed to be done.
Examples. For our author it’d be writing the book. Not plotting, not outlining, not dreaming up cool scenes, but sticking their butt in their chair and typing out words. Nothing less and nothing more. Actual writing is what is live training in this case and nothing else. Nothing else can replace putting words on paper which is the very act of being an author. For the MMA fighter it’d be live sparring under the equipment and ruleset that they’re going to compete under.
So it wouldn’t be using boxing gloves and boxing, it wouldn’t be grappling without MMA gloves, though both help. It’d be in a cage preferably, fighting under rounds similar to the competition, and using the gloves that they’ll fight in. The closer that you can get live training to what the skill actually is the better off that you’ll be. So it’d be live sparring with MMA rules and gloves. Now for the sales professional.
For the sales professional it’d be the act of selling, which is a varied act. It’d be reeling prospects in, selling them on the right car for them, and then closing the deal, the act of selling and nothing else. It’d be live training in front of real people in a real sales situation. It’d be going into work everyday and making the most of every prospect. Nothing more nothing less.
Again live training is simply doing the thing, don’t forget or underestimate this.
The Modeling Pillar Of Skill Acquirement & Mastery
I consider modeling the “secret sauce” of skill acquirement and mastery. It’s one you don’t hear about as often as the other two and I think it’s the most underestimated of the three pillars. Modeling is about your subconscious, mirror neurons, getting things at a deep level, and what almost amounts to magic when it comes to skill acquirement and mastery. It’s what separates good from great. It helps you to “get it”, perform at a high level, and develop your skills to the upmost.
Modeling is watching your skill at a high level and absorbing it. It’s seeing your skill done is the highest expression possible. When watching mirror neurons and neurons in general are firing and you’re picking things up, even if you don’t realize it. Modeling helps to not only develop skill in a broad sense but it also helps fill in all the little gaps that instruction and live training may leave behind. It speeds up development and acquirement of skill like nothing else.
Let’s use some examples. For our author modeling would be reading novels. Reading as many novels as possible. Novels in the genre, novels out of the genre. Best sellers, ones that aren’t so great, ones that interest the author, ones that don’t interest the author as much. But especially in his genre and that sell well. For the MMA fighter it’d be watching film. Watching UFC fights, watching Bellator fights, watching MMA fighting done at a high level by the best practitioners in the world.
Watching film over and over again. His favorite fighters, his least favorite fighters, fighters that mirror his build and skill set, fighters that have different builds and skillsets, the great fights, the GOATs, as well as lesser known fighters that may just excel in one area. You can learn from it all but especially high level fighters of a similar skillset and build. For our sales professional it’s going to be a little harder. He could watch the highest selling salesman that’s currently on the lot. Or perhaps find video of lives sales done well and how they work.
Modeling is watching the skill done at the highest or at least a high level.
The Knowledge Of Skill Acquirement & Mastery
This framework of instruction, live training, and modeling is wide enough to encompass many things and ways of learning yet narrow enough to be effective and efficient. Use this knowledge to accelerate your skill acquirement and mastery. Use it to succeed in all facets of your life and learn the most effective and efficient learning structure for you personally. Make sure that when working on mastering and developing a skill you have an instruction part, a live training part, and a modeling part.
And you’ll develop and master skills at a faster rate than you ever have before.
If anything I said here interests you I’d highly recommend you check out The Ultimate Alpha Collection which is a compilation of 16 of my books for the price of 5. It covers everything from being a man to making money to getting the right mindset to getting girls to fighting and more and is a resource no man should be without. Pick up your copy today!
-Charles Sledge
