5 Simple Principles for Becoming an Expert

Editors note: This is a guest post from Corbett Barr of Expert Enough.

There arent shortcuts.

Merely direct paths.

Most people dont take them, because they frighten us.

Things that look like shortcuts are usually detours disguised as less work.

-Seth Godin

For the past month, Ive been studying people who have become skilled and knowledgeable enough to be called experts in preparation for the launch of a new blog.

Ive interviewed experts, spent time with them and have asked them whether shortcuts exist to becoming an expert (and received some incredible responses like the one from Seth Godin above). Ive even read books by people who study success and expertise (expertologists?).

Part of me expected to find some secret shortcuts to becoming an expert, and part of me knew better. Im most interested in how people gain expert-level skills and knowledge on multiple subjects quickly. Being a renaissance man has always appealed to me, as has getting very good at just a couple of things. Both types of expertise are as fascinating as they are useful.

Despite wanting to believe secrets and shortcuts to expertise exist, deep down I think Ive always known what you probably know too: becoming an expert takes hard work, focus and dedication.

There are certainly ways to become an expert faster than traditional teaching might dictate, but theres no getting around putting your time in.

The good news is, becoming an expert is much like changing a habit. The fact that secrets dont exist is a good thing in my book, because we can stop wasting time searching for secrets and start making direct progress towards our goals.

Instead of looking for secrets, rely simply on these best practices for becoming a! n expert :

1. Realize expert is a relative term.

Im a big believer in relative expertise. For most purposes, you dont need to be the worlds foremost expert on something to benefit from what you know. Being expert enough means knowing enough or being good enough to accomplish your goals, however modest or grand they may be.

Someone once told me to think about expertise as a scale from one to ten, not as an absolute. If youre a two or three on the scale, youre expert enough to help people who are ones and twos. In fact, you might be better suited to helping beginners than a ten on the expert scale, because youre closer to their level and better understand where theyre coming from.

2. Learn from books and experience.

Theres a time for learning and a time for practicing. A true expert needs to have both expertise (book learning) and experience (real-world practice).

For example, if you want to become a bodybuilder, all the reading you can possibly do wont help you actually build muscle (unless theyre really heavy books). On the other hand, would-be bodybuilders who just jump into lifting weights without learning about best practices wont know time-saving techniques and principles for optimum rep counts, resting time between sets, nutrition, supplements and more.

Theres a balance between learning and doing. Most people spend far too much time doing one or the other. If youve been mostly learning, its probably time to start doing. If youve long been practicing without the results youre looking for, its time to learn more and time to focus, which brings us to point #3.

3. Focus.

Just as Leo advocates for changing habits, focus is a powerful ally for gaining expertise (especially in the beginning).

When you start learning something new, its easy to become daunted by everything you have to master to reach your final goal. Instead of just foc! using on the very next step you need to take, its easy to be overwhelmed by the bigger picture.

Focus is critical for two reasons. First, it helps you pay attention to the task at hand so you dont become paralyzed by the thought of everything to follow. Second, you have to focus so you can ignore all the possible distractions that are always waiting to pull you off your path.

You can follow Leos four steps for changing habits to focus on what you need to become an expert:

1. Start very small.
2. Do only one change at a time.
3. Be present and enjoy the activity (dont focus on results).
4. Be grateful for every step you take.

4. Get outside help.

When I asked productivity coach Charlie Gilkey about whether shortcuts exist to becoming an expert, he pointed out another critical aspect of gaining expertise:

When you look at peak-performing experts, youll often see that they have either coaches, involved mentors, or a pack of growth-oriented friends that help them excel. You simply cant gauge your performance as well as someone external can, and, past the competent stage of skill acquisition, it gets increasingly harder to both observe what youre doing and find quick and easy answers as to how to improve.

At some point, learning and practicing will only get you so far. You need feedback from outsiders to uncover more opportunities for improvement.

5. Make mistakes.

Fear of failure might be the biggest opponent youll face on your road to learning new things.

Take something as simple as learning a language. As language hacking expert Benny Lewis explains, people who speak a language learn it. People who dont speak a language dont learn it. Its simple: you need to learn and practice. What ! keeps ma ny people from practicing a language is the fear of making mistakes and embarrassing themselves.

You have to be willing to make mistakes in order to learn and grow. Thats what practice is. The sooner you get comfortable with making mistakes, the quicker youll learn your new skill.

Whats on your wish list to learn and do?

Maybe theres a skill youre actively trying to get better at, or maybe youve been afraid to get started. In either case, try these five simple principles and see if you can make a breakthrough.

Try becoming a (relative) expert in something youve always wanted to learn or do. There are few things as rewarding and fun as acquiring new skills and knowledge that enrich your life.

Corbett Barr is founder of Expert Enough, where he helps people become experts of all levels. Read the full answers to the question he recently asked a group of experts: do shortcuts exist to becoming an expert?.