So you want to be the next Michael Jordan? Pablo Picasso? Bill Gates? Béla Fleck? Yoda? In the last article, I talked about the importance of having something in your life that you strive to be great at. I also promised that I’d tell you how you could go about improving at whatever it is that you’ve chosen. Well, here we go…
There are a ton of things you can choose to do, and I can’t give you a formula on how to be an expert at all of them (actually almost any of them). But, there are a few things you always do when starting out, and some ways to keep improving that apply to almost everything. I’m just trying to get you pointed in the right direction, hand you a map, and maybe help you bum a ride.
The number one way to get better at something is to DO IT!
Besides that, there are a couple of ways to get better at something:
- Learn about it. How can you get great at something if you don’t know anything about it? You will learn a lot by doing, but there are some things you can’t teach yourself (or won’t know to teach yourself).
- Get cultured. Whatever it is you’ve chosen to do, there’s most likely (read: most certainly) someone else who’s doing it too. In fact, there are probably a lot of people doing it too. Every activity, no matter its popularity, has a community, and this community has its own culture. This culture is invaluable for quickly getting yourself up to speed (and making great friends).
The culture surrounding an activity is a fantastic way to dive in and get your mind tuned to what it is you’re trying to do. The best way to get involved in the culture is to go to events (be they jams, races, etc…) and joining clubs. Any time and place you can find a group of people interested in the same thing is a great time and place to start getting cultured.
Mostly, though, I want to discuss where to find knowledge. You’ve got two main sources of information for new topics (besides people themselves): books and the internet. Books are usually more professional but can be pricey, while the internet makes no guarantee of quality but it’s (mostly) free, and there is a ton of great information.
Books are the classic way to learn about things. You’ve probably used books to learn about things your whole life, and there’s a reason for that. They’re great! They contain tons of information, they’re well-organized, and they’re professional. If you’re willing to spend a little money, you can get great information from a book. Plus, there’s something you just don’t get from looking at a screen that you do with a book, where you are literally holding knowledge in your hands.
The best place to get books about anything is Amazon. They literally have books on every topic you can think of. Want to paint, play banjo, play tennis, learn to program computers, run a marathon, or invest in stocks, or learn to do everything? Amazon’s got you covered. A quick search should turn up a great list of books.
There’s also the For Dummies series that covers a lot of common topics and is very good.
The internet is a phenomenal resource. There is an immense amount of information at your fingertips if you know where to look. Where might that be, you ask? List time!
- Wikipedia The online free encyclopedia contains pages about literally everything you could wonder about, and then some. Check the bottom of the pages for links to external sites to dig deeper.
- Google Google knows everything. If there is knowledge on the internet, you can find it with Google. I mean it. Everything.
- Forums Do a google search for “[insert topic here] AND forum” and you’ll find the online hangouts for the community you’re interested in. People post questions, get answers, complain, praise, and generally talk about whatever it is you’re trying to learn.
- Blogs Blogs are fast becoming great authoritative sources of information about niche topics. There are several great places to search for blogs about specific topics, in addition to appending “blog” to any Google query, but the best way to discover new blogs on a topic is to follow links in the blogs’ “blogrolls”. These are usually the author’s favorite blogs, and usually lead to great stuff. Within 2 levels or so into this “link network”, you’ll probably know about all the major blogs in your niche. Subscribe to their feeds to get great information on a regular basis.
- Social Networks A big trend on the internet is social networks that target niche interests. Find one in your topic area, and you’ll have a great network of people to learn from.
- Social Bookmarking Sites These are sites where users submit links to various things that usually get voted on. Search one for your topic. Often, the most popular posts are mega-lists of resources on a certain topic. The best ones are: del.icio.us, Digg, and Reddit. del.icio.us is likely to contain a broad range of interests, whereas Digg and Reddit will be slanted toward technology topics.
- EDIT: MIT OpenCourseware is a phenomenal place to learn about new things. MIT has published a large amount of free lecture notes, exams, and videos for a lot of the classes they teach. It’s like going to MIT from home, and not having to worry about passing! If what you want to learn is something they teach, you really can’t beat this content, besides actually enrolling at MIT. I can’t believe I left this out when I first posted this, but now you know!
Using books and the internet, you can learn just about everything there is to know about whatever you’re trying to learn. But, again, the best way to get good at something is to do it, do it some more, then do it until you dream about it.
Did I forget any great places to get information? Are there better ways to start getting great? Want to get something off your mind? Let me know in the comments.
Here’s to being great!