Today I was lucky enough to attend a session by Brett, who sits about 4 feets from me at the hub, on how to learn. He is a stunt performer and now an educator. The session covered various of aspects of learning any thing. Basically a framework and required tools for learning and making sure you make progress towards your goals. Here is gist of it.

Learning is about 4 things -

Inspiration - Why you want to learn something? It has to be more than motivation and has to come from with in. 

Information - content, from study books to wikipedia to videos etc.

Practice

People - mentors, communities.

Learning has to be deliberate. You can not say I learn all the time. It has to be much more deliberate and specific than that. 

Learning process has to be

Specific

Measurable

Ambitious

Re-adjustable

Tangible

Inspirational

Evaluate

Step by step

When you start learning some thing new - do a broader study. Learn basic lingo, jargon and concept related to the field. Then move on to unbiased study. Dont restrict yourself to something specific. Go with the flow. And then learn something specific. You can then keep going forward and backwards in three levels of process ie broad, unbiased and specific.

Types of mentors based on how involved they are in your learning and knowledge they have.

1. Motherly - very involved.

2. Sports coaches - some what involved

3. Guru - detached - only knowledge bank

4. Wise Man - help you in asking right questions and finding answers on your own.

Types of mentors in order of accessibility from most to least

Indirect - authors, speakers, writers

Second Hand 

Paid Coach

Infrequent communication

Open communication - 

Learning buddy - some one who is always available and emotional involved in your learning.

Some useful tools to for learning - photo reading, watching videos at higher speeds - helps in covering more content and you can always dive deeper when required.