My Mastery of the How-tos of Learning- A Journey

“A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”_...One of my favorite quotes reads.

Most people only know an abridged version of this quote and lead a life believing that you can only be good at one thing.

I, on the other hand, have always been a good learner, not necessarily the fastest learner, as I was made to repeat two classes in nursery and primary school.

Back then, I hadn’t uncovered the secret to learning efficiently and it told on my accademic performances. I was consistently in the bottom percentile at my primary and secondary schools and my inability to pass Mathematics in any class consistently frustrated my teachers whose main reaction was always to bring out their canes, and whip the devil out of me.

I cannot criticize my teachers now. To be honest, I was a frustrating student.

However, everything changed when I got to the 10th grade. I made up my mind to actually learn how to learn. The internet was my best place to find value as I would lie to my parents about having tests and assignments that required internet connection and would be given money to go use the cyber café around my house then.

I did eventually learn how to learn and in the 10th grade, I ended the school year with the ‘Best Academic Student’ award and was considered the brightest student from my class. It was a beautiful feeling to finally be amongst the best students of my high school.

My secret to getting there was simple:

Every week, I would go through my lessons from class and then find ways to break them down to the simplest bit.
You could say I was reverse engineering each lesson.

An eternal quote from Bruce Lee's _’A Warrior’s Journey’_ became my mantra for learning anything:

_”Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless -like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend"

Previously, I would struggle to understand concepts and definitions and would resort to attempting to memorize entire sections of my lessons before exams but after I discovered the technique of deconstructing lessons, I began to understand much better and used books and research to supplement and broaden this understanding.

Since then, I have never looked back. I learned to make my mind open to new information by assimilating the information and then making it a part of myself. When asked to define terms during exams or to explain a concept, it was always in my own words.

I apply this technique to every new thing I learn.

Today, I am a Lawyer and what I like to call a fullstack designer (2D and 3D Motion design, Editorial Design, User experience design, Illustration and much more). I cannot claim to be a master of any of these skills and disciplines but I’m certain I’ll leave you in awe with my suite of skills.

Why have I written this?

Well, I am learning a new skill now- Frontend Development and I am pretty sure I will be one of the best soon.

You can learn anything you want as long as you open up your mind to the rules of learning. Remember, you only learn by learning to learn.

If you got this far, I hope you achieve all your goals. Thank you for reading.