When it comes to your career, regardless of what path you choose, one of the most important things that’s instrumental to success is continually learning new skills and developing yourself.
But when it comes to how to learn a new skill, it’s not always easy. Have you ever struggled to learn something new and wondered why some things come so naturally while other things are more tricky to learn?
Here’s what you need to know about how to learn new skills:
It was previously thought that as we get older, it becomes harder or even not possible to change but the good news is that you can change at any time. Because that’s what you’re doing when you learn, you’re changing your brain and changing yourself.
In her inspiring TEDx speach, Neuroscientist, Lara Boyd explains all about what happens in our brains when we learn new things, and how we commit things to our long term memory and change as people.
Key takeaways:
- The brain can change in 3 ways to support learning: 1) It can increase the chemical signalling taking place between neurones, which is how you form short term memory; 2) The brain can alter the structural connections between neurones, a process which supports long term memory and 3) As you use a brain region, it becomes more excitable and easier to use again and again, eventually it can even grow !
- The way in which your brain changes every time you learn a new fact or skill is called neuroplasticity
- Your brain is always active whether you think you’re thinking or not, it always working and even your behaviours and the things you do day to day change your brain. (Even the things you say have a huge impact on your brain)
- The primary driver for change in your brain is your behaviour and the amount of practice needed to make changes happen long term is very large, nothing is more effective in helping you learn new things and change as a person than practicing.
So, whether you’re trying to learn a new technical skill, or trying to develop a new habit, you need to keep doing it, practicing it and practicing it, until it becomes easy to do.
What’s more, the harder something is to learn, the more you learn. So the pain and struggle is a good thing.
And it’s not just what you do that matters. What you don’t do is just as important. Because your brain is shaped structurally and functionally by both, what you do and what you don’t do. It’s important to be very selective with your actions AND inactions.
So, study how and what you learn best and repeat those behaviours over and over. Learning is about doing the work that your brain requires.
