{"id":77307,"date":"2022-09-05T16:24:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-05T20:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=77307"},"modified":"2022-09-08T11:22:36","modified_gmt":"2022-09-08T15:22:36","slug":"how-to-achieve-mastery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-achieve-mastery\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Achieve Mastery: Learn the Principles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Do you want to know <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-achieve\/\">how to achieve<\/a> mastery of a skill or subject? Is there a secret formula that can help you go from zero to a pro?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The key to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/become-an-expert\/\">achieving mastery<\/a> of any skill or subject is to study its fundamental elements. When you understand the underlying principles\u2014as opposed to simply memorizing the information\u2014you&#8217;ll never forget it. It&#8217;s just like riding a bicycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-master-anything\/\">how to master anything<\/a> that you learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-how-to-achieve-effortless-mastery\"><strong>How to Achieve Effortless Mastery<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In order to learn how to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-master-something\/\">achieve mastery<\/a>, you should <strong>aim to understand the fundamentals behind the knowledge<\/strong>. Understanding the fundamentals will save you time and effort in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you understand <em>how <\/em>something works, you\u2019ll retain the information longer, and you won\u2019t waste time relearning things over and over again. If you understand <em>why <\/em>something happened, you can apply the information to other areas of your life and more easily make connections between various subjects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A classic example of this is understanding the principles of what you\u2019re studying rather than simply memorizing the information. Memorizing may help you pass the test, but you\u2019ll quickly forget it, and it won\u2019t have a lasting effect on your understanding of the world.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How to Apply Knowledge&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>McKeown contends that learning principles helps you more effectively use information in the future. The authors of <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/make-it-stick\"><em>Make It Stick<\/em><\/a><em> <\/em>give tips on <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/make-it-stick\/2\">how to identify the underlying principles and connect them to prior knowledge<\/a>. If you struggle to identify key concepts, try looking at multiple examples or problems together and finding the common threads. Comparing and contrasting can illuminate principles that may not be obvious at first glance. For example, it may be easier to understand whether the United States is headed in the wrong direction when you look at the fall of the Roman empire.<br><br>To more easily make connections between principles, as McKeown recommends, the authors of <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/make-it-stick\/2#how-low-structure-builders-can-improve\"><em>Make It Stick <\/em>provide two methods<\/a>: <br>&#8211; When taking in new information, stop at regular intervals and ask yourself what the main takeaways are.&nbsp;<br>-Reflect on how you apply knowledge in certain situations. This may help you discover how expertise in certain areas can be applied elsewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you want to know how to achieve mastery of a skill or subject? Is there a secret formula that can help you go from zero to a pro? The key to achieving mastery of any skill or subject is to study its fundamental elements. When you understand the underlying principles\u2014as opposed to simply memorizing the information\u2014you&#8217;ll never forget it. It&#8217;s just like riding a bicycle. Here&#8217;s how to master anything that you learn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":27115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,43],"tags":[731],"class_list":["post-77307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-self-improvement","tag-effortless","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Achieve Mastery: Learn the Principles - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What does it take to achieve mastery of a skill or subject? The key to mastering anything is to understand its basic, underlying principles.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-achieve-mastery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Achieve Mastery: Learn the Principles\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What does it take to achieve mastery of a skill or subject? The key to mastering anything is to understand its basic, underlying principles.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-achieve-mastery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-05T20:24:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-08T15:22:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/tennis-skill-practice-sport.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1220\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-achieve-mastery\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-achieve-mastery\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"How to Achieve Mastery: Learn the Principles\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-05T20:24:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-08T15:22:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-achieve-mastery\/\"},\"wordCount\":381,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-achieve-mastery\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/tennis-skill-practice-sport.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Effortless\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Psychology\",\"Self-Improvement\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-achieve-mastery\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-achieve-mastery\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-achieve-mastery\/\",\"name\":\"How to Achieve Mastery: Learn the Principles - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-achieve-mastery\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-achieve-mastery\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/tennis-skill-practice-sport.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-05T20:24:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-08T15:22:36+00:00\",\"description\":\"What does it take to achieve mastery of a skill or subject? 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