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4 Steps To Learn Anything.
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

To learn anything, you must first examine any psychological barriers you might have and accept that no matter how difficult a subject or topic is, you have the ability to learn and understand it -- even if you’ve tried before and failed. This applies to learning everything from chemistry to in-line skating to certain mastodonic tracks on Guitar Hero.

While it is virtually impossible to account for so many different learning styles and personalities, the following four steps to learn anything can still be helpful for anyone when approaching unfamiliar content or trying to grasp difficult or complex material.

These steps to learn anything attempt to give some enjoyment and apply practical experience to the process of learning.
step 1
Find someone to learn with
In trying to learn anything, finding a learning buddy usually does the trick. While some people might scoff at the idea of finding another person to learn with, there are, in fact, plenty of positives associated with group learning, like:

* Accountability: You are held accountable for learning and understanding material with the involvement of another person.
* An additional mind at work: The different background, experience and knowledge that another person brings to the table can contribute to discussions that open up material, as well as different approaches to learning and understanding.
* Co-teaching: It’s one thing to have read and understood a concept, but it’s something else altogether to try and explain it to another person; this act of teaching a concept can boost your own understanding of it.
* Enjoyment: For many people, learning something in tandem with others instantly makes it more enjoyable. Granted, there’s a greater opportunity to screw off, but that can be diminished with a little discipline.

step 2
Choose a learning method
To learn anything, decide on a method that will best teach you the material beforehand, as opposed to simply diving into the material without a plan.

The learning method you choose should be based on two factors. The first is a method that works with your own preferences; there are literally dozens of learning styles, but you can start with visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning styles (ones that largely rely on the senses) or by using a number of assessments to determine which one is best, such as Kolb's Learning Styles Inventory, Jackson's Learning Styles Profiler or Fleming's VARK Learning Style Test. A simple Google search will land you at their testing sites.

The second factor involves what the subject lends itself to. For example, reading material will guide you in some areas, but if your plan is to learn how to ride a bull, reading material can only take you so far; eventually you'll have to actually employ some mechanical learning and get on the beast. Arguably, there will be no amount of reading that can adequately prepare you for that.

step 3
Set a practical context
Whether you’re out to learn something that’s been assigned to you or it’s merely something that has always interested you, you can give the subject an added significance by tying it with something in your present lifestyle. This can also give you an occasion to practice what you’ve learned.

To some extent, tying the subject into things you already know with a view toward a broad understanding of the subject is known as holistic learning -- connecting unfamiliar concepts, ideas and facts to ones you already know or comprehend. For example, if you have an interest in philosophy or you merely like to read, and you are learning to play a sport, you can read Eugen Herrigel’s classic Zen in the Art of Archery, thereby combining a long-term interest with the subject at hand.

step 4
Put what you're learning into practice
To learn anything, there is no better long-term learning tool than actual practical experience. It is also the greatest trial of your learning style, and of course, experience is the best teacher.

If you’re trying to understand how Wall Street works, there may be no better teacher than opening a brokerage account and actually making small trades (although you might want to start using a mock computer program, just in case you lose your ass on an investment). Foreign languages are never more effectively put into practice than through practical interaction with native speakers -- something the internet is particularly geared toward, especially when you live in a small town or the language you’re learning is only commonly spoken in remote corners of the world. In learning to fly a plane, you can study the instruments and practice on a variety of flight simulators, but nothing will serve your experience better than getting into the cockpit (with an instructor, of course) and taking flight.

July 29, 2008 | 7:52 AM Comments  2 comments

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4 Steps: Stop Worrying
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Worry has a purpose; it alerts you to issues that require your attention. Excessive worry, however, is unnecessarily debilitating, preoccupying and it can be downright bad for your health. Worrying also has the potential to start a chain reaction that may include keeping you up at night, causing you to lose sleep, which can affect your performance behind the wheel, at work and elsewhere. In short, if you worry too much, you’ll likely experience a tidal wave of after effects that can absolutely overtake your life.

Unfortunately, we can’t just turn it off when people tell us to “stop worrying.” Because it’s easier said than done, we’ve devised four steps to help you stop worrying -- whether it’s getting to work on time, finding an apartment or dealing with the threat of a terrorist attack.
step 1
Nail down precisely what worries you
We often have only a vague idea of the issue that is occupying our thoughts, tying us up in knots and causing us to lose sleep. This is especially true for chronic worriers. However, a lack of understanding about what is really worrisome compounds the problem. So, your first step to stop worrying should be to reduce the issue to its fundamentals and then to write it down in a sentence or two. It is the difference between looking at a daunting 500 page novel, replete with details that may not contribute to your understanding of the book, and reading a short, coherent summary of the main themes.

So, stop worrying about some nebulous issue in the back of your mind and bring it to the forefront of your thoughts. A general worry about the future can be overwhelming, but scaling it down to a specific concern about school, where you’re going to be living in six months or the actions of a girl in your life can help put your worries into perspective. This is true whether you’re worried about one thing or a handful of things.
step 2
Break the concern into manageable parts
Virtually every concern can be divided into constituent parts. This step should be done whenever possible, as doing so provides a means for finding a way to tackle the worry and at least bring you some peace for the time being.

Let’s say you’re worried that your bad credit will prevent you from buying a home. Now, stop worrying for a moment so that you can think rationally enough to break your concerns down a bit. First off, do you actually know what your credit score is? And have you tried to get a home loan with that credit score? If not, you don’t have much to worry about -- yet. If yes, order a report of your credit score online and take a look at what can and what can not be fixed. These things are just parts of your wider problem, and taking a look from this angle can set in motion the senses of relief and calm that will help you stop worrying.

Determine what can be done right now
Depending on the worry, there may be nothing to be done about it this instant. Whether there are things to be done or not, at least you’ll have a plan. If that plan is to do nothing, because there’s nothing to be done, it should certainly help you get to sleep on a given night. Otherwise, making a list of actions that can be undertaken to assuage the worry is a good idea -- the very act of making this list sets the process underway, as it’s something that can be done right now to help you stop worrying.

Let’s take that terrorist attack as an example. An experienced worrier can think: ”What if there’s an attack this week?”; “What about my family?”; and “Who will take care of my dog?” These are valid concerns, of course, but what exactly can you do about it in the moment? Join Homeland Security? Not at midnight you won’t. You can, however, sit down and make a preparation list that includes things you’ll need in the event of an emergency (water, canned food, dog food, a first aid kit, and the like).
step 4
Take action
This last step is the most effective way to stop worrying: take action. Do something about your worry. Having nailed down your worry, broken it down and established what can be done, you have nothing left to do but to do it. Taking action may mean doing nothing but stopping the constant worry if there’s nothing to be done about it.

You can start to attack your credit score one issue at a time. You can head out and go shopping for that emergency kit -- even if it’s 2 a.m., the odds are decent that you can find an open Wal-Mart. You can search the internet at any hour for available apartments in your price range or in your area, write down which ones look good and make a plan to contact them in the morning.

In short, nothing -- nothing -- can help you stop worrying like action. After all, what’s the alternative but to stew in your own worry?