Recently, I bumped into a lecture video which was delivered by Tim Ferris. For those of you who do not know him, he is a renowned and if I may, sensational, author and blogger who committed himself to being a human guinea-pig (in an attempt to delve into the human body), provides venture capital and mentoring to many startups, holds the world record for the most tango spin under one-minute, and just continues to dazzle and being awesome. In fact, in one interview I remember the interviewer dubbing him as the real life 'world's most interesting man' - a title given after a certain viral beer commercial icon.
Well, he is interesting and that happens when someone sets himself apart from the rest of the population in terms of what he does and achieves in life. Surely we can learn a thing or two from this guy. So, in that lecture Tim basically shared 4 ways on how an individual could master anything new. It can be summed up with the DiSS acronym.
1. First alphabet, the D
It stands for 'deconstruction', which means breaking the outcome into small bits and pieces. I don't know how, but shortly before I came across this video, I've had a very similar idea. I am currently working on a VBA-based risk management software and in designing the software, I have to make a list of the qualities that this software has to possess. And from there onwards, I work backwards to make every single quality comes into realization. In a sentence: breaking our goal down helps us to define it - comparable to a work-breakdown-structure.
An important idea under this alphabet is also knowing exactly what turns you off. Deconstruct your de-motivators. For instance, if you would like to learn cooking but due to some unclear reasons, hate to do it, all you have to do is to identify the sources of those negative energy. It could be the dislike for grocery shopping and dish-washing. In that case, get someone else to do those things for you so that you can focus on the act of cooking itself.
2. Be fussy, do the S
Yes, 'selection'. Wether or not we have noticed this, getting to our goals faster and working more effectively are possible if we focus on a certain percentage of the ways to get there. Tim is known for being a proponent of the Pareto principle, which states roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. If you would like to learn a new language, you need to focus only on a handful forms of sentences in order to be able to achieve a certain level of mastery in that language. Simple as that. This is also in harmony with the principle of minimalism.
3. OMG, another S!
This time it stands for 'sequencing'. To me, this sounds more like pseudo project management now. After identifying and choosing only the necessary work-package, you have to sequence them. Logical.
4. The final S
'Stakes'. Here Tim tries to bind the logical to the emotional. He proposed to have a negative consequence should we fail to achieve our goal. Something that we really, really hate to see to happen. Nowadays, you can tie it to a lot of things, like donating to the George W. Bush Foundation or something. And always keep in mind that money is a very powerful motivator to the majority of us. So, make use of that fact in a positive way!
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