To become an “expert” with achievements in a certain field, and to become a lifelong learner, you must master the following five core competencies.

1. Cultivate a growth mindset

Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, did an experiment when he was doing research on “how to deal with failure.”

She gave a group of elementary school students some particularly difficult anagrams, and then watched their reactions.

She found that some children would refuse to face failure, throw away anagrams in frustration, or pretend not to be interested in anagrams; others frankly admit and accept the reality that they cannot solve anagrams; however, some children happily do these solutions. Can’t open the problem.

A child said happily: “It’s great, I like challenges!”

The other was sweating profusely, but couldn’t hide his joy: “Puzzle puzzles can make me more knowledgeable!”

Devik immediately realized that there are indeed some people in this world who can draw motivation from failure.

What distinguishes them from others lies in the beliefs they hold- ” Success and talent are obtained through hard work in challenges, not fixed values.”

She calls this mentality a “growth mentality.”

On the contrary, there is another mentality that “talent is a relatively fixed trait inherently possessed”, which is the “fixed mentality.”

In the face of failure, people with a growth mindset will think that intelligence is not a fixed value, but can be cultivated, grown and developed. Therefore, they are willing to accept challenges and feedback, and will adjust more quickly.

On the contrary, people with a fixed mentality, in the face of failure, think that they have insufficient talents or wisdom, and are unwilling to take risks and make efforts. They treat risk-taking and hard work as potential opportunities that might reveal their shortcomings.

Devik said that in her more than 20 years of research on children and adults, she found that the ideas you hold deeply affect your life.

Those who believe in the continuous development of intelligence and personality will have significantly different results than those who believe that intelligence and personality are deeply ingrained and immutable, and whose nature is difficult to move.

Therefore, if you want to become a lifelong learner, you must change your mindset.

Therefore, learning is a “heart door” that can only be opened from the inside to the outside.

If you think you are omnipotent and know everything, you no longer need to learn.

Or think that your wisdom and abilities are fixed (fixed mentality), or think that you can’t learn. These concepts are your “hidden”, they will restrict you from accepting information with an open mind. The way “knows”.

People with a “growth mentality”, even if they already have a lot of knowledge, skills, or experience, will continue to accept new challenges. The key is that their state is “virtual”.

You can refer to the following questions to see if you are in a “growth mentality” or a “fixed mentality”. Ask yourself whether you are “virtual”.

• I believe that human abilities are innate and immutable, or can they be learned or changed through acquired efforts?

• Do I think my personality is like this and it is difficult to change it, or do I believe that human personality can be developed and changed, and that I have many different possibilities?

• For an important skill that I am currently not good at, do I think I am not strong enough and unwilling to try, or do I believe that as long as I work hard, I can get it?

• For those who have performed well in certain areas, I think that most of them are born with those areas of expertise, or do they think they are trained through continuous hard work?

• Faced with some of the mistakes I made, did I feel discouraged or very frustrated, thinking that I was not capable enough, or did I actively analyze the reasons and would like to try new ways to solve this problem?

• Do I think getting advice or feedback from others is important and meaningful, or is the advice of others not worth considering?

• Faced with new things, am I willing to actively try it, or am I nervous and think I should wait and see, or just ignore it?

Changing your mindset and staying open is the first step for you to start learning, change and growth. If you have a fixed mindset, how do you switch to a growth mindset?

According to Professor Dewek’s view, the conversion of a fixed mentality to a growth mentality includes the following four steps.

• Awareness: The above checklist can give you some clues. If you face mistakes, challenges, criticisms or setbacks, or at any moment, doubt your abilities, make excuses or even want to give up, there may be a fixed mentality hidden deep in your heart.

• Pause: When you perceive that the fixed mentality is at work, you should pause. You can take a deep breath or change the environment to let yourself realize that you have a choice. You can accept that you have no talent or ability, or you can change your mindset and accept the growth type. Mentality.

• Thinking: If you are willing to try a growth mindset, then you can respond with a growth mindset model.

• Action: Act according to the response method of a growth mindset, and gradually internalize it into a response mode that you can habitually adopt.

Only with a change in mentality can we open the door to learning and enrich your brain.

2. Find your own enthusiasm

Once you have completed the mentality change, like loosening the hardened soil, you can then “take care of” your “heartland”.

Therefore, the next question you want to answer is: Where do we start in the face of the boundless ocean of knowledge of mankind?

In fact, if you can’t answer this question, you will sigh like Zhuangzi did more than 2,000 years ago: “My life has boundaries, and knowledge has no boundaries. With the boundaries there is no boundaries, and it’s almost gone!” (“Zhuangzi • Master of Health” )

Obviously, everyone’s life is limited, but knowledge is unlimited, and it is rapidly updated and expanded.

If you want to take care of your own heart, you must be clear about the knowledge area you are concerned about, that is, the knowledge area you want to study and make achievements. This is the starting point for you to settle down.

Only by focusing on a segmented area, we are more likely to go deeper and make achievements.

If there are too many points of interest and scattered energy, no seed can survive, because they all need your care, and each of us has limited energy.

So, how do you find your own specificity?

The “Hedgehog Concept” is a practice worthy of reference.

British scholar Isaiah Berlin quoted the ancient Greek proverb “Foxes are clever, hedgehogs have only one trick”, and divided scholars into two categories:

The first category has a unified framework and system for the world, and uses this structure to solve problems (Hedgehog);

The other type uses a wide range of experiences and methods to explain and solve problems (foxes), but it does not have a framework or unified point of view.

Although there are no advantages or disadvantages, in the ancient Greek fables, the two have a clear view.

The fox is very smart, has many skills, is also good at observation and planning, can design many complex strategies to attack the hedgehog, and act quickly, it seems that he is definitely a winner;

The hedgehog looks clumsy and slow to move, but it has a trick-when it encounters an attack, it shrinks into a round ball, and its spikes stand up, making it impossible for the enemy to speak. Therefore, every attack and defense, the hedgehog wins.

Based on similar fables, management scientist Jim Collins pointed out in the book “From Excellence to Excellence” that some companies that have achieved leapfrog development from excellence to excellence have adhered to the simple and profound so-called “hedgehog concept.”

Specifically, they base their strategy on a deep understanding of the following three aspects:

• What are you passionate about?

• In what way can you become the best in the world?

• What is driving your economic engine?

Collins believes that a company that achieves a leap will transform the understanding of these three aspects into a simple and clear concept to guide all work, and long-term persistence can achieve impressive results.

Although Collins is talking about companies here, I think this principle also applies to individuals.

First of all, it is obvious that even if you can’t achieve the best in the world in some aspects, even if you surpass most of your peers, you can still get a good reputation and excellent performance. This is the basis for personal achievement.

Your expertise depends not only on your talent (“I was born to do this”), enthusiasm (“Doing this can make me sleepless and forgetting food”), but also inseparable from your education and work experience (“I am in I have a lot of experience in this area”), the environment, and at the same time rely on methods, after long-term deliberate practice (“I know the doorway in this area”).

Secondly, the ability you are good at should be able to bring you huge returns and create lasting and strong cash flow and profits.

If your ability cannot create value, hobbies and enthusiasm alone will not be sustainable.

Finally, and perhaps most fundamentally or most importantly, what are you passionate about?

If you are passionate about those things, you can go all out to produce the “flow” experience of “sleeping and forgetting” in the process of doing things, and it is easier to develop professional abilities beyond those of your peers.

According to Collins, if you can work hard at the overlap of these three rings and turn it into a “hedgehog concept” of your own to guide your life choices, you are more likely to achieve the leap from excellence to excellence. .

In this regard, you can ask yourself the following questions:

• What am I passionate about?

• In what ways can I be ahead of my peers, or surpass most people?

• What are I very good at?

• In what ways am I talented?

• In what areas have I received professional training or systematic education?

• In which areas do I have a long and varied experience?

• What do I get paid?

• Is the reward for doing these things sustainable?

After writing the answer to each question, see if they overlap.

If so, congratulations, that is the “hedgehog concept” that supports your “open hanging” in life. If not, you may need to make some trade-offs, because there may be shortcomings in your life if you are missing a link, or you need to make some adjustments or trade-offs.

• If you are doing a job that you like but not what you are good at, it is difficult for you to be the best or to be competitive.

• If you are doing a job that you like, but it cannot give you a sustained economic engine, it will not last long.

• If you are doing work that can continue to pay off, but you are not really good at it, it is difficult to be excellent.

• If you are not doing what you like, although you can help you earn a living, or you have accumulated a lot of experience, you may not be happy, always thinking about which day you can do what you like, and it is not possible to do your best Go ahead and get proud achievements.

I remember Mr. Liu Chuanzhi, the founder of Lenovo Group, once advised young people: If you have a chance, do the job you like, or try to like the job you are doing. I think this suggestion is very powerful. It must have ideals and not be idealistic.

Think about it, I hope you can make your own choice.

3. Build a knowledge system

If you want to learn and figure out the overall knowledge structure layout, you will get twice the result with half the effort.

If you want to establish a knowledge system, you first need to figure out the knowledge structure of the field you are concerned about, that is, which parts of the knowledge system include and how their respective relationships are.

Even if you still don’t know anything about the field, you can get a general impression by consulting masters, industry experts, reading literature reviews, and introductory books on knowledge in the field.

How should I start? The following four actions are suggested for reference.

1. Find a mentor

The fastest and most convenient way to learn is to find a teacher or a master who has real cultivating skills (of course, if this master is good at education, it is ideal). The instructor has an overall knowledge structure and will guide you to learn efficiently.

2. Systematic learning

Participate in a training or learning project hosted by an authoritative institution or expert for systematic learning.

For example, if you want to study project management and participate in the Project Management Expert (PMP) certification of the Project Management Institute (PMI), it may be a good choice;

Or you can also consider the professional master’s program in project management offered by some universities, or the project management training of some authoritative institutions. These are learning resources that have been systematically designed.

3. Start from studying the classics

If none of the above resources are available, you can only rely on your own strength.

Then, the safer entry point is to start from studying the classics, because the classics themselves explain its value and importance; some classic books can not only outline the overall framework, provide the essence or verified high-quality information, but also provide you with Guide the direction of follow-up in-depth learning.

4. Self-study or subject reading in a planned way

Develop a systematic study plan, or topic reading plan, that is, around a topic, select some related classic books, carry out systematic reading, study in depth, and strive to understand the topic completely and thoroughly, or participate in a topic based on guidance A step-by-step, phased learning plan.

4. Master the learning method and get twice the result with half the effort

“Learning” is a word that every one of us talks about every day, but few people say it clearly, and there are many mistakes or vague understandings about what learning is.

Therefore, many people have no idea at all, learning efficiency is not high, and doing twice the result with half the effort.

Although our human research on the brain is still very limited, so far, summing up the research results, we can still roughly outline the basic process of learning deep in the brain.

To put it simply, learning is a process in which an individual actively constructs knowledge. It mainly occurs in the human brain, involving a series of complex and subtle processes, and is affected by many factors. Generally speaking, the core points include the following aspects.

First, receive information efficiently.

To construct knowledge, it is inseparable from the acquisition of information, and the acquisition of information will be affected by factors such as concentration, motivation, intention, methods, and resources.

In this regard, if you want to learn efficiently, the first hurdle is to maintain curiosity, and actively and effectively obtain high-quality information with an open mind.

Second, activate existing knowledge, digest and absorb new information.

Receiving high-quality new information, fully digesting, assimilating it, and truly understanding it is the second level of knowledge construction.

Individuals must extract the information stored in the past from the “long-term memory”, use the original information, experience, and rules to analyze and interpret new information so that it can be understood and meaningful.

Information that cannot be understood will soon become meaningless information and be discarded; meaningful information will change its original state, or be connected to or recombined with it, and be “stored” in long-term memory.

The so-called “long-term memory” refers to other areas in the brain, like a huge warehouse, with a very large storage capacity but a slower processing speed, relying on the connections between neurons for “storage” and “extraction”.

Therefore, if you want to improve the learning effect, you must activate the original information, analyze the information from different angles, and integrate with reality to improve the ability to interpret and assign meaning to the information.

Third, apply what you have learned and review the game in time.

If you just memorize the information, it is not real learning.

When an individual actively obtains information, interprets and analyzes it based on the existing knowledge (information processing), understands and remembers some specific rules (similar to “under what circumstances, what problems are encountered, how to do it is successful of”).

When you encounter problems or challenges in similar situations in the future, you can guide yourself to take effective countermeasures to improve the effectiveness of personal actions.

This constitutes a complete learning cycle.

Fourth, make good use of “mental models.”

Along with learning and application, individuals will form some “mental models”, that is, some fixed models to speed up information processing and decision making.

The formation of mental models will speed up the processing of information. Psychologist Eriksson also believes that the biggest difference between masters and novices lies in their “mental representations” (another expression similar to “mental models”).

However, the mental model is also a “double-edged sword”-it will have a negative or negative impact on the above-mentioned key aspects of learning:

• Mental models may give rise to the illusion of excessive arrogance and omnipotence, thereby stifling curiosity, forming prejudices or selective observations, and thus affecting information acquisition.

• Mental models may interpret this information in accordance with the fixed patterns that have been effective in the past, affecting the digestion and absorption of information, and hindering innovation.

• Mental models may form specific value orientations and thinking preferences, thereby affecting people’s decisions and actions.

Therefore, high-efficiency learners must recognize the existence of “mental models”, always maintain an open mind, and effectively apply mental models to accelerate them without hindering learning.

5. Persist in deliberate practice for a long time and accumulate step by step

In 1993, psychologist Eriksson and his colleagues found that experts in many fields began to improve their skills through deliberate practice at an early age. Some so-called “geniuses” were actually intensively practiced for more than 10 years. result.

The result of this research is the source of the well-known so-called “ten thousand hours law”.

Although strictly speaking “10,000 hours” is not accurate, it is just an estimated average value obtained from a series of studies.

In fact, the amount of practice accumulated by different people is very different. For any person, it does not mean that as long as you practice for 10,000 hours, you will be able to become a talent. However, there is no doubt that if you want to become an expert in a field, you must go through Long-term deliberate practice.

First of all, if you want to be successful, you need to be focused.

Secondly, if you want to achieve something while staying focused, you must persist and practice hard for a long time.

Of course, “deliberate practice” is not simple practice. It must have three elements: expert guidance, immersive environment, and personalized and skillful practice.

Therefore, practice and success are not directly related, and the effect varies from person to person, and for different skills.

In fact, deliberate practice is more effective for skills that have regular and systematic training methods (such as sports, music, etc.).

Therefore, in my opinion, to become a master is a systematic project, which requires many conditions, and they influence each other.

There is no doubt that there is no casual success in the world. To become a master and achieve achievements in life and career, the same professional ability is inseparable.

The development of professional ability is not only related to the natural endowment derived from genetics and environmental influences, but also cannot be separated from long-term deliberate practice.

The effect of deliberate practice is related to the length of effective practice, the effect of coaching, the understanding of training rules, etc. It is also inseparable from opportunities.

As you grow up, according to your own situation, find a good coach that is suitable for you. Sometimes it may be difficult to find.

However, as the Western proverb says: Opportunity always favors those who are prepared. Therefore, if the individual has strong abilities and great achievements, the corresponding ability to integrate resources and obtain opportunities, including the opportunity to meet good coaches, will increase, thus forming a virtuous circle that drives growth.

At the same time, the effect of deliberate practice will enhance the enthusiasm of individual practice, thereby forming a self-reinforcing circuit, further improving the effect of practice.