How to Become an Expert at Anything

There are lots of experts out there. From brain surgeons to master carpenters, experts have highly refined, authoritative knowledge and skill in a given area. But how did these experts become experts? And perhaps more importantly, how can you become an expert? In this post, I will describe how you can very quickly become an expert at anything.

What Does It Mean To Be An Expert?
When you are an expert, you have authoritative knowledge and skills in a given area. This knowledge and skill often comes from extensive experience and education in that specific area. Expertise is usually refined and focused in a given field, though some people can become genuinely expert in multiple fields.

Related Article: How to Achieve Success in Life

How To Become an Expert
In this post, I will share some of the fastest ways you can become an expert in any area. You may be surprised at how easy it is to start gaining vast amounts of knowledge and skill. It can sometimes seem overwhelming, but all you have to do is just start learning and building experience and you will already be moving closer to becoming an expert.

If you want to become become an expert at something, here are the best strategies:

1. Set your goal.  
1. What do you want to be expert at? Before you can really become an expert, you must clearly articulate what you want to be expert at. Do you want to be an expert teacher or writer? Do you want to develop expertise in sewing or organ playing? Perhaps you want to become a motivational speaker? Be totally clear about what expertise you want to gain. 
2. Why do you want to become an expert? Do you want to make a while bunch of money? Do you want to use the expertise to benefit others? Are you planning on giving a presentation on the topic, or do you plan on starting a small business in the area? Whatever your reason, it must be compelling or you may not have the drive to sustain the effort required. 
3. What are the milestones? Sometimes you must achieve certifications or degrees of some kind to gain the expertise that you are working toward. If you want to be a doctor, you must earn several degrees, do a residency, and pass many exams. Be sure to find out what milestones are required and make them a part of your plan.
2. Find a model. Whatever your goal is, someone else has probably already done something similar to what you are working to do. This approach will move you toward your goal very quickly. Find someone that you can model your work after and do the following:
1. Use them for advice. Ask them questions whenever you need additional help or support.
2. Watch them! See how they do their work. Volunteer to work with them for free if you need to, just do what you can to spend time with them and learn by observation.
3. Mimic them. Use the same patterns of action, speech, body gestures, and attitude that your model uses. Adopt their strategies until you make them your own and can adapt them to your own style. 
3. Start learning! Find books, videos, movies, and CDs on the subject you want to learn about and simply start learning. Personally, I became very interested in how people learn and how to help them learn. Early on I started taking classes on communication, training design, presentation skills. I checked out and bought books on training and training design. Eventually I earned an MS degree and a PhD in Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences. But I have not stopped learning - I continually build my knowledge through consistent study. Here are some ways you can start learning:
1.  Read. Libraries are incredible resources of knowledge. I check out a couple of audio books a week and am continually listening to books that will expand my knowledge and give me greater expertise.
2. Online groups and communities. There are many communities online that can provide you with support in your learning. Join LinkedIn groups, discussion groups, and listservs to read about what people are talking about in the field and to ask questions. Get involved with the community.
3. Ask people. If you have a burning question about your chosen field, ask! There are many people out there that will be willing and happy to share their knowledge.
4. Take local community classes. There are all kinds of community classes out there - from cooking to technology you can build your expertise and really extend your practical knowledge and skills.
5. Google. Just start searching and you will likely be surprised at what you can find. I have a friend in an MBA program who wanted to learn about microeconomics and wasn't getting his professor's explanations. He eventually searched out and found a series of excellent YouTube videos that taught the materials very clearly and helped him become more expert.
6. Get a formal education. Very few things can give you expertise like going to college or university. You can start by taking a course or two. Earn a degree. If you want to become an expert at finances or educational design, start taking classes. Start working toward gaining more formal knowledge.
4. Start doing. Begin doing whatever it is that you want to learn about. If you want to learn how to build a log cabin, start by building a deck or a shed. Or perhaps just start building the cabin! The point is to start doing what you want to learn about so that you can learn from your mistakes and keep improving.
5. Keep moving forward. As long as you keep moving toward your goal, you will eventually reach it! Just keep building your knowledge one day at a time, and in time you will have greater expertise than you ever imagined possible.

So, what do you want to become an expert at?

A Challenge to the Slacker: Live Your Potential

I am often amazed and saddened by the number of people that go through life living far beneath their God-given potential. I have learned through many years working with students and coworkers that everyone has the ability to achieve incredible success in their own lives and profoundly impact the people around them. And yet so rarely do people achieve what is within their potential.

In fact, I sometimes get tired of seeing people floating through life, consuming without contributing, failing to see and do the many incredible things that are available. What wasted potential! What a sad thing to watch people of such potential wallowing in their own apathy, falling short of their incredible potential to live a full life and share their rich blessings with the people around them.

What do You Want?
I write this blog post as a sort of challenge to everyone that reads it. What do you want out of life? Is there something that you wish you could do, something that you've wanted to achieve in life but haven't yet done it? Is there something you would like to see, some place you would like to go? What do you want out of life? How do you want to bless and help the people around you? How can you more fully fulfill your own destiny and divinity? When you die, how do you want to be remembered by the people you love?

I am sure that you do have answers to these questions, I believe everyone does. Everyone has the desire for something better. If you do want something different in your life, keep reading. However, if you don't want to accept these challenges, don't waste your time by reading the questions below.

What it Takes to Set and Reach Goals

• Figure out what you want! Discover what you really want to change in your life. Read and answer the questions at the beginning of this post. Think deeply and seriously about where you want your life to head so that you find true clarity on what you really want in life.
• Do it. If you want something meaningful in life, then go for it. Do what it takes to make it happen. Don't spend your entire life thinking about it, worrying about it, and discussing how things aren't quite ideal for you to be able to do it. Get out there and start doing!
• Focus. Minimize and eliminate distractions from your life. Cleanse yourself of mindless television and internet surfing. Consistently increase activities that contribute to personal growth, health, learning, and success. Be sure that you do not get distracted by what you can't do in your own circumstances. Focus on what you can do and do it!
• Plan. Figure out exactly what you need to do to reach your goal. Research what it takes. Talk to people who have done it. Figure out what you need to do. If you can't figure out all of the steps right now, that is totally fine. Just do what you know you can do right now. If you step toward the thing which you desire, you will find yourself closer with the pathway clearer.
• Learn. To succeed, you must fill your mind with positive, true knowledge. If you want to change who you are, you have to drastically change what you allow others to teach you about life. You must acquire and trust knowledge that gives you personal power. Read scripture to heighten your understanding of your divine nature. Listen constantly to motivational speeches and talks to build confidence in yourself and in your abilities. You must flood your mind with good, pure, motivating, useful knowledge so that you have the power to sustain success. And you must eliminate that which lowers your view of yourself and your destiny.
• Get used to discomfort. Working toward new goals and dreams is difficult because it takes you out of your routine. Humans naturally like things to be comfortable and even predictable. Human beings like safety. But if you want to change and improve your life, you have to become friends with the pain of learning, action, and setbacks. After a time, however, you will learn to enjoy these difficulties as personal challenges and will welcome them as a way to improve yourself.
• Get help. If you do not have the knowledge, skills, or resources you need to reach your goals, get help from the people around you. Your spouse, friends, children, clergy members, teachers, managers, and even strangers are very often willing to give you support and guidance in your goals. Seek out the people who will teach you everything you need to do be successful.
• Persist. Keep working toward your goal. If you do not give up, then you cannot fail at reaching your goal. Think about it - as long as you continue to move forward toward your goals, you will succeed! I have seen many of my students overcome incredible obstacles to complete their studies because they kept moving forward and reached their goals. Be persistent - get back up when you fall down. Learn from your mistakes and adjust your approach. Just keep moving toward your ideal life and you will quickly find yourself living it.
• Find joy in the struggle. Working toward a goal is often as satisfying as reaching the goal. Training to run a race can be as exhilarating and beautiful as running the race. Learning so that you can pass as class or earn a degree can be as enriching as earning the degree. Consciously and consistently placing yourself on the path to success is success itself, so learn to love the process and path of success.
• Celebrate success. Set short-term goals for yourself and when you reach them, rejoice! If you run 3 miles for the first time, celebrate! If you complete a difficult course, or lose X number of pounds, celebrate! You are moving along the path to a more fulfilling, successful life.

So, what are you going to do? If you are not satisfied with your life, will you get up and begin to shape and create the life you desire? Or will you continue to meander through life living below your potential for happiness and success? Are you willing to accept the responsibility to make the changes you wish to see in your life? Are you willing to sacrifice the comfort of the apathetic slacker? It is never too early or late to learn, grow, change and achieve.

Are you willing to pay the price?

How to Become a Successful Lifelong Learner

In the knowledge society, being able to gain a depth and breadth of knowledge is absolutely critical. However, many people still believe that after high school or college, they have learned everything they need to succeed. Knowledge and technology are advancing at an incredible pace, and much of the knowledge and technology we will be using in the near future has not yet been created. To succeed, it is absolutely crucial to develop habits of lifelong learning.

Components of Successful Lifelong Learning

6 Self-directed Learning Strategies
To be successful lifelong learners, we must become excellent, independent, self-directed learners. But what are the best strategies for continuous learning in today's society? I have done a lot of learning over the past several years, and here are the six most important ways to take control of your learning.

Related Post: Become an Active Learner (Here's How!)

1. Discover Your Interests
To be successful at learning, you should probably have specific learning goals. What do you want to accomplish? What do you want to work toward? What do you want to be able to do? To gain?
For me, I find that I love learning about goal-setting, motivation, learning, habit change, instructional design, strategies for success, spirituality, Christianity, communication strategies, training, presentation skills, Mormonism, fitness, running, and log cabins (in no particular order). I usually drift from topic to topic, but I am ALWAYS learning about one or more of these topics, and for each topic, I have a specific goal in mind, something I want to accomplish as a result of my learning.

2. Form Habits of Learning
It is vital that you form habits that will enable your learning. These habits can be receptive (in which you are acquiring information) and productive (in which you are creating knowledge or using knowledge). For example, my habits include the following:

• Reading in the morning. I usually wake up around 6:00 am. This gives me about 30 minutes to read religious materials, meditate, pray and write in my journal. I find that this habit helps me start my day in a more centered manner.
• Listening to books, podcasts, and conferences. This is my most effective method for gaining new knowledge. I listen to books while I am walking, driving, working out, and working in the yard. I usually listen to books related to the topics above, and over the last year, I have listened to over 20 books. This is not to mention the many conference presentations and topics I have listened to.
• Blogging and writing. I write a lot about the topics I am interested in, particularly instructional design. I reserve this blog for learning and design-related topics, and I write about the other topics in my journal or in private blogs. If I want to write to academic or practitioner audiences, I also write academic articles. I find that writing about my interests allows me to process and refine my understanding of what I learn, and it also gives me the opportunity to share my knowledge with others.
• Attend conferences. I try to attend a conference every year, sometimes two, when possible. I am blessed to work at a university that supports my conference attendance, and I have really benefited from many of those that I have attended. I've started writing about my conference experiences here and plan to continue to document my learning. There are very often free or inexpensive conferences held by universities, and an individual need only find out when they are held. For example, Franklin University is holding a scholarship forum this September, and Virginia Tech holds a Teaching in Higher Education Conference each year.
• Get a formal education. Attending classes and earning degrees is an extremely powerful, efficient way to build your knowledge. My formal education has given me a foundation that I will build upon for the rest of my life, and I continually receive blessings that come from a formal education. It is definitely an investment, but the benefits will far outweigh the costs.

3. Use Learning Technologies
There are many technologies out there that can make learning relatively painless and meaningful. Here are some of the methods that I use, and there are literally hundreds of methods out there.

• The Internet. Google is still a great way to gain knowledge. You can find a TON of information from simply searching. Videos, tutorials, blogs, wikis, websites, podcasts are all excellent ways to boost your knowledge.
• Audio Books. I have found that listening to books is a great way to maximize my time. As I mentioned, when I run, walk, drive, work in the yard, or shop, I do my best to be sure that I am listening to something meaningful. I have listened to literally dozens of books over the last year or so, and I have many more on my list.
• The library. Yes, the library. I visit the library in my town at least once a week. I am constantly checking out books and audio books and very often I will browse the "new books" section and serendipitously find books that have a deep impact on my life and my learning.
• Friends. While friends are not necessarily a technology, simply having a great conversation can yield great knowledge. Some people exude knowledge, and I try to spend as much time as I can with them.
• Apps. There are a bajillion apps out there that can be used for learning purposes. The main thing is to find those that fit your specific needs and learning goals and interests.

Again, there are literally hundreds of technologies, apps, and media that can be utilized to make your learning more efficient and effective. Your list will likely change and adapt over time - the above are what are working for me right now, and I will continue to seek out new knowledge.

4. Work Toward Your Goals, Adjust as Needed
An important aspect of successful lifelong learning is developing and working toward learning goals. For all of my interests above, I have goals. I study about log cabins because someday I plan to build a log cabin. I study about Mormonism and Christianity because I am a devout Mormon and find great spiritual inspiration and satisfaction from doing so. Whatever your interests and goals, be sure that you are setting goals that will help you succeed. Having goals will also help you chart your own progress as you move forward in your life.

5. Focus on Improvement
Learning should serve a higher purpose. Focus your energy on self-improvement and on improving the world. Focus on what is meaningful and can impact your life and others' lives in a positive way. We all have the capacity to have a lasting, meaningful impact on the world and on the people we interact with. We have the capacity bring light, comfort, strength, opportunities and help to others, to relieve burdens, pain, and discomfort. I believe that we each have a destiny and a calling in life, and doing what we can to learn and grow enables us to better fulfill our purposes.

6. Get Started
If you want to get started on improving your lifelong learning, start to make simple changes now. Write down interests and set goals for what you want to learn about and accomplish. Start to form habits that will help you succeed at lifelong learning. Use technologies to efficiently increase your knowledge. The key is to simply get started! Sometimes it can feel like no progress is being made, but I assure you it is. Just keep learning, and you will be surprised at the great knowledge and skills you will have amassed. Do you have any suggestions from you on how to become an effective lifelong learner?