What is a learning curve? It describes the period of time and the experience of going from conscious incompetence in a new skill or with a new process or a new habit to some level of acceptable conscious competence up until the point of unconscious competence where we no longer have to consciously think through our actions on a particular activity. The learning curve is also describes the trial and error process that we go through when learning something.

It is very rarely that we can learn a new skill, process or habit with little effort. These things generally require the development of special abilities. Learning a skill requires a development of the mind and body (e.g. kicking a ball, playing an instrument, dancing). Learning a process requires a development of knowledge, memory and experience through the application of existing skills (e.g. programming a video recorder, cooking a meal, checking your bank balance). Learning a habit requires a development of purpose, organization and scheduling through the application of existing skills and processes (e.g. exercising daily, going to an evening class once a week, brushing your teeth three times a day).

These things link together. You can’t develop a habit if you don’t know the process involved. You can’t develop ability with a process if you don’t have the basic skills that allow you to carry out the process.

At some point we become aware of a deficiency in our abilities that we want to overcome and so we set a desire to learn a new skill, process or habit. That becomes the set-point against which we measure and judge ourselves. If we meet the desire then we feel great and if we don’t then we feel bad in some way. We easily quit learning new skills, processes and habits because in the early stages we have high expectations that are easily dashed making us feel bad. It’s easier to give up than to feel inadequate. Even if we persist we still go through a period where we don’t get what we want. Consequently we feel frustration, annoyance, impatience, disappointment and all manner of mildly negative emotions that can make the learning process a cheerless drudge and difficult to get on with if we don’t manage our expectations and the progression of our efforts from the start.

Recently I signed up for classes to learn all about internet marketing and Boy! was I overwhelmed, I needed to get informed, build skills, learn processes and develop habits like never before and I have to say that it caused me a lot of pain. Basically, I was overwhelmed and I slacked off and found all manner of excuses for not following through. I didn’t like what was happening and so I had to find a way to shorten the learning curve and go through it with a lot less pain. Via this worked example I’ll show you how I approached the problem:

Review and modify expectations
I set out with great hopes for these courses. I was sold on all of the benefits and I felt good about them so I raised my expectations about what results I would get. I expected it to be a whole lot easier to do than it turned out and I expected results quickly and with high certainty. I didn’t get that and I felt bad. I had to accept my reality and adjust my expectations of the courses and of my own abilities accordingly. That brought relief and allowed me to see clearly and pragmatically again.

Clear objectives and purpose
I had a vague idea that I would have to apply every technique that I learned but the sudden deluge of information and the commitment necessary to apply everything made that unfeasible. I easily found myself devoting a lot of effort to things of marginal benefit. By having clear objectives about what results I wanted for my efforts and what I could expect from myself I found it easier to decide what to focus on for best effect within current limitations.

Breakdown of objectives that lead to the final objective
The information and expectations for a course tend to focus predominantly on the final outcome, what it should be, how it should look etc. Very few courses detail the process to get there in entirety. That’s up to the student to do. This requires a conscious recognition of this problem and then a resolve to work out those intermediate steps. This adds the detail and creates the process that makes following through easier and more likely.

Preparation to carry out the work
I can never emphasize enough the vital part that preparation plays in getting things done in a smooth and easy fashion. I was learning plenty but I failed to organize and prepare myself for implementation afterwards. This is the thing that caused me the most difficulty. It was beyond the remit of the courses to do this for me and it took me a while to cotton onto the fact that I had to do this for myself.

The effect of this was that the pain of my learning curve was increased. I learned stuff and then never implemented it as I went onto the learn the next thing. I was getting nowhere in a hurry by devoting time and effort in a way that created very poor results. I had to accept that if I wanted to make use of this learning then I had to set up processes and then make them into habits so that I would develop high-levels of conscious competence much faster and with higher effectiveness.

Intensive training
On top of preparing for implementation I also recognized that intensive repetition would fix the new ability in my mind, reduce the elapsed time to gain experience and hence reduce the learning curve.

Recording progress
It’s very useful to note what goes well when learning something new and going through the trial and error process as this makes you feel good and puts things into perspective. It’s also important to note the things that don’t go well and this can direct efforts at improving with greater precision

80/20 Problem solving
80% of the problems involved with learning and implementing something new come from about 20% of the actions/activities/organization involved. During the intensive training period I focused 80% of my efforts to overcoming the difficulties involved with these particular factors. This supercharges personal development by increasing the effectiveness of the time and effort put into developing a skill, process or habit and decreasing the time on the painful learning curve.

Acceptance
Continuously adjusting to undesired results is all part of the process of keeping on an even keel and preventing debilitating emotions, that screw things up even further, from arising. As soon as some form of annoyance or disappointment arises I stop, take a deep breath and say to myself, “Okay, this isn’t going as I would like it to. I accept that. Now then, what can I do move beyond this?” In this way you remain flexible and you can continuously tap into your resourcefulness.

Ultimately, if in doubt, do more preparation. Not preparation as a means of perfectionism but preparation as a means to overcome immediate difficulties and blocks to progress.

Through going this process and making sufficient preparations in advance you receive multiple benefits:
• You learn faster
• You learn with less pain
• You learn in a highly effective manner
• You reduce the amount of trial and error overall
• You get clear on what’s holding you up so you don’t have to slog away not knowing what the real problem is
• You are much more likely to persist and obtain your objective
• You are much more likely to apply the things that you learn (which is a nice turnaround!)

If you are not content with everything in your life then you have two options. You can either give up on those desires that you can’t currently fulfill so that they stop generating bad feelings or else you can develop the competence and resourcefulness that allows you to fulfill your desires. As a result, you will spend a very large part of your life developing skills, learning processes and implementing new habits. Through getting through the learning curve quicker and with enhanced effectiveness you can power ahead to get what you want with less difficulty.