Jan 9, 2026

My guide to learning any new skill (from Peak)

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise convinced me that I could become excellent at anything. I just need to choose it and put in the work — the right way.

In 2025, I felt an itch to “build” something. I thought it meant doing something creative and struggled to find an activity that satisfied it, particularly during spare weekends and evenings.

Then, I realised I actually wanted to build something within myself. I want to start learning something from scratch and watch myself improve.

That's why 2026 is my year of learning! I want to develop this meta-skill by deliberately practicing the steps from Peak, so that whenever I learn anything this becomes my default approach.

The main thing I want to avoid is the cycle of excitement, effort, plateau, frustration, quitting. The joy of learning is also in seeing results!

Principles to keep in mind

Practice the actual skill. If you want to be conversationally fluent in Mandarin, you should practice speaking and listening, not reading and writing! You should focus on practicing the conversations you want to have. Knowledge like vocabulary will come as a consequence of practice.

If it's not hard, you're not learning. Zoning out during training means you're not improving your response to your opponent. You're just letting your body do what it's used to rather than challenging yourself to get better. You will learn at the fastest rate if you're constantly working at your limits.

Get useful feedback often. You just need someone who's at least a little better than you at the thing you're practicing to help you course correct. Identify how you'll get feedback before starting to speed things up and keep yourself motivated!

Follow someone else's learning plan. Someone has already worked out how to get good at it. Lean on their wisdom.

Focus and consistency. There are many exciting things to learn and each will require focused time. You've got a whole lifetime to try out different things, but ultimately pick one or two skills to build out at a time.

Have more than one reason to love what you practice. I love BJJ because it is physically exhausting, the community is amazing, and it engages my brain. Having many reasons to love it makes it harder to quit. If I feel lazy that day, I'll still train to see my friends.

Year of Learning

Keep this imagery in mind as you enter the new year bursting with excitement to learn.

Mastery is like climbing a mountain. Just because you didn't reach the peak doesn't mean it was all for naught. The views along the way are beautiful anyway. And if you decide that it's not for you, that's alright — there are many other mountains out there for you.