I used to teach something called Accelerated Learning. Then I decided it was too slow, so now I am teaching Instant Learning! The fact is that human beings are unlimited in their capacity to learn, change, grow, expand, connect, and be inspired.

In fact, the first lesson of Instant Learning is to de-hypnotize yourself from the social programming that tells you that learning should take years.

You can move forward as fast as you want. You can absorb information at the speed of thought. You can use the processes explained in this book to get all A’s in school, to earn a doctorate, to pass an exam, or just to become the smartest person on the planet.

Learning is the acquisition of knowledge and skills.

Instant learning is the acquisition of knowledge and skills as fast as they are taught or demonstrated to you—instantly.

Step 1: Definition of Terms
The first step in learning any new knowledge is to clearly define the terms. The better and more insightful your definitions, the more meaningful your overall learning experience will be.

If you are reading a book or textbook, find out how that author defines the terms to be used and capture that first.

Definitions:
Learning is the acquisition of knowledge and skills.

Instant learning is the ability to acquire knowledge and skills as fast as they are taught or demonstrated to you—instantly.

The key question to ask yourself is “What is this really?”  Make it a habit to get down to the root of things right away.

Step 2: Categorization
Becoming an expert in any field is the process of making finer and more detailed distinctions. Experts make finer and more detailed distinctions than others.

An expert on cars recognizes many types of cars. She can tell them apart by manufacturer, vehicle type, engine size, make and model, option package, color, condition, number of previous owners, or place of manufacture. She is an expert.

Ski instructors can tell eight to ten different types of snow apart from one another. The native peoples of the North can tell 50! They are experts.

A speaker of Japanese can instantly recognize four classes of verbs, all of which conjugate in different ways. A grammarian who studies classical Japanese recognizes more than ten types of verbs. They are experts.

As soon as you have nailed down the most important definitions, start to capture the different distinctions made by the experts and the categories or boxes that they put things into. For example, learning can be divided into the learning of conceptual knowledge or the learning of skills!

This distinction is important because it affects the process we use in each case. The key question here is “How do we break this up to make it more understandable or easier to apply?”

The more distinctions you know, the faster you grow.

In the next article we will discuss steps 3 – 5 to instantly learn conceptual knowledge.