Master Playbook - Mastery - May 2024

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Table of Contents
The Top 5s ……………………………………………………………………..……………. 4
The 5 Best Frameworks ……………………………………………………..………… 5
The 4 Week Game Plan ……………………………………………………………... 17
The 3 Daily Keystone Habits ………………………………………………………. 27
The Mastery Playbook: The Top 5s
Top 5 Quotes:
"Learning is not aƩained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and aƩended to
with diligence." – Abigail Adams
"Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow." – Anthony J.
D'Angelo
"I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it." – Vincent van
Gogh
"In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn." – Phil Collins
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." – Mahatma
Gandhi
Top 5 Ques ons:

How can I make my learning sessions more effec ve?
What am I most looking forward to learning today?
Who can I teach what I’ve learned?
How can I receive be er feedback?
What did I do well today, and how can I build on it tomorrow?
Top 5 Books:
Limitless by Jim Kwik (video)
The Art of Learning by Joshua Waitzkin (video)
Peak by Anders Ericsson (video)
Make it S ck by Henry Roediger, Mark McDaniel, and Peter Brown (video)
Decoding Greatness by Ron Friedman (video)
Mastery Playbook:
The 5 Best Frameworks
The Mastery Playbook: The 5 Best Frameworks
Framework #1: The DiSSS meta-learning system

Framework from Tim Ferriss’ book “The 4-Hour Chef.”
“It is possible to become world-class, enter the top 5% of performers in the world, in almost any
subject within 6– 12 months, or even 6– 12 weeks. There is a recipe, and that is DiSSS.” – Tim Ferriss
How can I break this What future

What sub-skills will I What exercises or lessons
‘skill’ into smaller, commitment can I make
use most when should I focus on next to
more manageable to intensify my focus
performing this skill? make rapid progress?
pieces? and push my abiliƟes?
Deconstruct:
While a skill might seem complex, it's built from simple sub-skills you can isolate and prac ce. For
instance, the golf swing is a collec on of seven primary sub-skills (each cri cal to hi ng the ball well):
setup, takeaway, backswing, transi on, downswing, impact, and follow-through. Isola ng each
component helps you be er understand the golf swing and determine which parts you must learn first.
Deconstruc ng a skill allows you to be er generate ques ons and develop prac ce drills.
Think of deconstruc ng like an engineer disassembling an engine - laying all the engine components on
the ground and labeling them. By breaking things down, you learn vital terminology and spot
interdependencies (which is necessary to complete the next two steps – select and sequence).
See deconstrucƟon methods in the “4 Week Game Plan” secƟon (page 18)
Select:
“What you study is more important than how you study. If you select the wrong material, the wrong
textbook, the wrong group of words, it doesn’t ma er how much (or how well) you study. It doesn’t
ma er how good your teacher is. One must find the highest-frequency material. Material beats
method.” – Tim Ferriss
Now that you’ve broken down a skill into smaller components, determine which components are most
cri cal or used most o en.
 There are 171,476 words in the English language. But if you master the most frequent 1,200
words, you will achieve conversa onal fluency.
 You could learn over 1,000 guitar chords, but if you master the 10 most common chords, you can
play 1,000 popular songs.
Most skills follow a similar power law – get excep onal at 10-20% of the movements or material, and
you will perform well.
Sequence:
Learn sub-skills in the correct order, so you are mo vated to con nue learning. Focus on sub-skills that
yield quick wins and have a wide margin of error.
When learning how to swim, don’t start by learning the proper kicking technique because you’ll make
minimal gains in swimming speed. Instead, prac ce pushing off the side of the pool and gliding through
the water. This will give you a feeling of competency and mo vate you to keep learning.
When learning to cook and deciding between grilling, sautéing, or braising, start with braising because it
is the most forgiving method (you don’t have to do it perfectly to get a good meal).
Stakes (raise the stakes):

The right amount of loss aversion ensures you show up to prac ce when you don’t want to and
maximize your prac ce me.
“A goal without real consequences is wishful thinking. Good follow-through doesn’t depend on the right
inten ons. It depends on the right incen ves.” - Tim Ferriss
Tim recommends using a site called s ckK.com to set ‘stakes.’ The site allows you to pick any goal,
choose a referee (a friend to keep you honest), put money on the line, and pick an ‘an -charity’ – an
organiza on you despise so much that you’d rather slam your head in a car door than donate to them.
“Based on s ckK’s goal comple on percentages from 2008– 2011, we find that the success rate with no
stakes (no money on the line) is 33.5%. Once we add stakes like an an -charity, that success rate more
than doubles to 72.8%!” – Tim Ferriss
In week 2 of the “4 Week Game Plan” secƟon, you’ll discover concrete ways to implement the DiSSS
meta-learning system.
Framework #2: The “Proac ve Imperfec onist Player”

Framework inspired by Adam Grant’s book “Hidden PotenƟal.”
There is one thing that predicts your future growth more than anything else. It's not your gene cs or
your intelligence. It's your character skills. Character skills allow you to override your ins ncts and hold
true to your values. Unlike personality traits, your character skills are not fixed. Research shows that
adults earn an average of $320,000 more over their life me if they had an experienced kindergarten
teacher who taught them to be more proac ve, coopera ve, focused, and persistent.
We can strengthen similar character skills (regardless of how old we are) and tap into our hidden
poten al by adop ng the following iden ty: “A Proac ve Imperfec onist Player.”
Proac ve Imperfec onist…

Most perfec onists fail to maximize their poten al
because they learn to hate mistakes and avoid
cri cism. Making mistakes lowers their self-esteem
and makes them think, "I'm not doing that again."
And shrinks their comfort zone. This way of thinking
repeats un l their comfort zone is ny, and they only
do what they know they’re good at.
A “Proac ve Imperfec onist” counteracts perfec onism by se ng a “mistake quota.” For instance, a
Proac ve Imperfec onist learning a new language tries their best to speak fluently, but expects to make
200 mistakes a day. A Proac ve Imperfec onist student does his best to ace prac ce exams, but doesn’t
stop studying un l he gets 100 prac ce exam ques ons wrong.
Make a mistake quota: When you set a “mistake quota,” you seek discomfort – which is crucial because
how much you grow depends on how much discomfort you're willing to experience. I challenge you to
set the following mistake quota this year: experience two project failures (a side hustle project, a
learning project, etc.). If you don't encounter at least two failures, you either finished too few projects,
or your projects didn’t push your skills enough.
Seek out hard truths: A “Proac ve Imperfec onist” not only seeks out mistakes, but also seeks out
cri cism and hard truths that most people's egos can't handle. A Proac ve Imperfec onist seeks out
people they respect and asks, "What one thing can I do to get be er?"
…Player
Reaching your poten al requires incredible discipline.
 Discipline to do focused, deliberate prac ce for several hours a week.

 Discipline to resist short-term pleasure and pursue long-term growth.
However, research shows that people with extreme discipline rarely use it. In other words, disciplined
people stay disciplined because they don’t rely on willpower. In the famous marshmallow test, the
disciplined children who resisted the marshmallows the longest didn’t rely on willpower because they
either covered their eyes, covered their marshmallows, sat on their
hands, or mushed the marshmallows into balls and bounced them
like toys. Those crea ve and playful strategies allowed them to stay
disciplined. You see a similar principle in the lives of people who
excel at their sport, cra , or profession. Masters in all fields design
and redesign their prac ce to be fun and effec ve by engaging in
what psychologists call “deliberate play.”
Incorporate “deliberate play” into your deliberate prac ce to prevent your prac ce from turning into an
emo onally draining obsessive slog that leads to “boreout” (losing interest and qui ng). Be a “Proac ve
Imperfec onist Player” by injec ng novelty (prac ce in different loca ons and switch up equipment),
alterna ng between skills (play mul ple instruments), playing against the clock, and measuring your
performance so you have a score to beat next prac ce. The less prac ce feels like work but s ll pushes
you out of your comfort zone, the further you will go.
“Without enjoyment, poten al stays hidden.” – Adam Grant
Framework #3: SPICE up your prac ce

Framework inspired by Anders Ericsson’s book “Peak.”
“The most effec ve (improvement) method of all: deliberate prac ce. It is the gold standard, the ideal
to which anyone learning a skill should aspire.” - Anders Ericsson (Psychologist who studied the science
of exper se)
Turn your prac ce into deliberate prac ce by incorpora ng the following elements:
pecific performance target

If your goal is to ‘get be er’ or ‘succeed,’ you’re simply was ng your me. To
improve performance, you need specific performance goals. In the book ‘Peak,’ a
study par cipant named Steve Faloon recited 82 digits by establishing clear
intermediate goals every step of the way. If he could successfully recite 39 digits, his
sole focus was ge ng to 40 digits.
“Deliberate prac ce involves well-defined, specific goals and o en involves improving some aspect of
the target performance; it is not aimed at some vague overall improvement.” - Anders Ericsson
eriods of intense undistracted focus

Before Steve Faloon a empted 39 digits, he gave himself an exci ng pep talk (“You
got this Steve!”) and then concentrated intensely on the numbers Anders asked him
to recite for the next 60 minutes. During Steve’s 1-hour memoriza on sessions, all
he cared about was hi ng the next performance target.
“Deliberate prac ce is deliberate, that is, it requires a person’s full a en on and conscious ac ons. You
seldom improve much without giving the task your full a en on. It isn’t enough to simply follow a
teacher’s or coach’s direc ons.” - Anders Ericsson
mmediate feedback
To improve at anything, you must think about what you’re doing in new ways by
crea ng “Mental Representa ons”. For example, Steve began to visualize digits on
branches of a tree in his mind. This crea ve mental representa on allowed him to
chunk incoming informa on and make it easier to remember.
“Deliberate prac ce both produces and depends on effec ve mental representa ons. Improving
performance goes hand in hand with improving mental representa ons; as one’s performance improves,
the representa ons become more detailed and effec ve, in turn making it possible to improve even
more.” - Anders Ericsson
To verify whether a representa on is effec ve, you’ll need to receive accurate and immediate feedback.
The quicker the feedback, the faster you’ll improve your mental representa on. Steve knew if his
approach was working a er each a empt. Imagine if he had to wait 10 minutes before knowing whether
the last six a empts were correct…
“Without feedback— either from yourself or from outside observers— you cannot figure out what you
need to improve on or how close you are to achieving your goals.” - Anders Ericsson
ycle between comfort and discomfort

Approach skill development the same way you’d approach bodybuilding: a period of
discomfort (li ing weights slightly heavier than what you can currently li ) followed
by a period of ease and comfort (recovery phase) to grow new muscles and li
heavier weights next week. You improve by pushing outside your comfort zone,
returning to your comfort zone, and then pushing outside your comfort zone again.
“Deliberate prac ce takes place outside one’s comfort zone and requires a student to constantly try
things that are just beyond his or her current abili es. Thus it demands near-maximal effort, which is
generally not enjoyable.” - Anders Ericsson
xpert coaching
Expert coaches provide effec ve mental representa ons to expedite the learning
process. They also help with every other aspect of deliberate prac ce: giving clear
performance targets, raising the intensity of prac ce, providing immediate feedback,
and knowing when to go hard and when to go easy.
“Deliberate prac ce develops skills that other people have already figured out how to do and for which
effec ve training techniques have been established. The prac ce regimen should be designed and
overseen by a teacher or coach who is familiar with the abili es of expert performers and with how
those abili es can best be developed.” - Anders Ericsson
Framework #4: The six accelerated learning methods

Framework inspired by Peter Brown, Henry Roediger & Mark McDaniel’s book “Make it SƟck”.
Rereading is a terrible study strategy, and mass repe on is an unproduc ve skill development strategy
because they’re too easy!
“The more you repeat in a single session, the more familiar it is and the less you struggle to remember
it, therefore the less you learn. Learning that’s easy is like wri ng in sand, here today and gone
tomorrow.” – Make it S ck
Here are six learning methods (backed by peer-reviewed science) that actually increase informa on
reten on, skill acquisi on, and lead to mastery.
Predic ng (Pre-learning ques oning)

What do you think you’re going to learn in this document?
Take a minute to ponder that ques on. Think of all the learning techniques you
know and predict three techniques you might encounter.
Congratula ons, you just increased your chance of remembering the lessons I’m
about to teach you. According to Judy Willis, M.D., and neuroscien st, “every predic on you make
triggers an increase in a en on and dopamine.” Dopamine is a neurotransmi er that reduces noise in
neural networks and increases pa ern recogni on.
“(If you test your knowledge before learning), you will be more astute at gleaning the substance and
relevance of the material.” – Make It S ck
Self-quizzing
Pause an Audiobook or put down a book every 15 minutes and ask yourself: What
were the key ideas? And how can I use those ideas?
WARNING: It’s hard to recall the details you’ve just heard or read!
According to empirical evidence, you forget roughly 70% of what you read and hear
shortly a er you learn it. Your minds are in a constant state of forge ng. But when you work hard to find
a path back to the informa on you want to remember, you slow your rate of forge ng.
When you retrieve informa on, your brain automa cally reshapes the informa on to understand it, thus
making it unique and more likely to s ck. A 2007 study by Dr. Karpicke at Purdue University found that
“retrieving knowledge improves one’s ability to retrieve it again in the future. Prac cing retrieval does
not merely produce rote, transient learning; it produces meaningful, long-term learning.”
“The harder it is for you to recall new learning from memory, the greater the benefit of doing so…the
effort of retrieving knowledge or skills strengthens its staying power.” – Make it S ck
Mnemonic making
“’Mnemonic’ is from the Greek word for memory, and mnemonic devices are like
mental file cabinets. They give you handy ways to store informa on and find it
again when you need it.” – Make It S ck
The most common mnemonic devices are acronyms. When you want informa on
to s ck, use the first le ers of key concepts to create an acronym. For instance, if you just learned that
the word ‘affect’ is used as a verb and ‘effect’ is used as a noun, you can use the acronym R.A.V.E.N. to
remember when to use affect or effect: ‘Remember Affect Verb Effect Noun’.
A er reading ‘Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath,’ I used the acronym W.A.R. to remember the three most
important decision making techniques (i.e. wage W.A.R. on bad decision making).
 W: Widen your opinions

 A: A ain emo onal distance
 R: Reality-test assump ons
“Having effec ve retrieval cues is an aspect of learning that o en goes overlooked.” – Make It S ck
Teaching (The Feynman Technique)

“Even if what you are studying is very advanced, simplifying so you can explain to
others who do not share your educa onal background can be surprisingly helpful
in building your understanding.” – Barbara Oakley
Richard Feynman, the Nobel prize winning physicist, once said, “The first principle
is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool.”
To verify you understand a concept you’re studying, complete the four-step Feynman Technique:
1. Take out a blank piece of paper and write down the concept at the top of the page.
2. Write out a simple explana on of the concept in your own words (pretend you’re teaching the
concept to a 5th grader on a whiteboard).
3. When you no ce a gap in your understanding, go back to the source material - book, website,
teacher, or other reference material to close that gap.
4. Repeat steps two and three un l you can clearly explain the concept.
One way to make an explana on clearer is to add examples or analogies – informa on a person can
relate to and visualize. Science students find it easier to understand the structure of an atom when they
see the similari es between an atom and the solar system; the sun is like an atom’s nucleus and
electrons spin around the nucleus like planets. When you relate a new concept to something you already
understand (i.e., use analogies and examples) you gain a deep and intui ve understanding of that
concept.
“Virtually every concept you learn has an analogy—a comparison—with something you already know.
Some mes the analogy or metaphor is rough—such as the idea that blood vessels are like highways, or
that a nuclear reac on is like falling dominoes. But these simple analogies and metaphors can be
powerful tools to help you use an exis ng neural structure as a scaffold to help you more rapidly build a
new, more complex neural structure.” - Barbara Oakley, A Mind for Numbers
Interleaving (Variable prac ce)

Instead of prac cing one skill over and over, shi between two or three similar
skills.
“A baseball player who prac ces ba ng by swinging at fi een fastballs, then at

fi een curveballs, and then at fi een changeups will perform be er in prac ce
than the player who (goes between the three pitch types in random order). But the player who asks for
random pitches during prac ce builds his ability to decipher and respond to each pitch…and he becomes
the be er hi er.” – Make it S ck
When learning to cook, don’t master one meal at a me. Instead, master five similar meals at a me,
and never cook the same meal twice in a row.
Spacing
When you space your self-quizzes and review sessions, you reduce the slope of
your forge ng curve, making you more likely to remember what you study (you
transi on informa on from short-term to long-term memory). For instance, if you
spend 1 hour repea ng the same material over and over, you are far more likely to
forget that material than if you reviewed the material one day later, seven days
later, and 14 days later (for just 5 minutes each).
“The increased effort required to retrieve the learning a er a li le forge ng has the effect of
retriggering consolida on (brain’s method of encoding informa on), further strengthening memory.” –
Make it S ck
Why are these learning techniques so effec ve?

Because they’re hard! The harder you work to retrieve, organize, and explain informa on, the more
likely that informa on will s ck. Effort = Reten on
In week 3 of the “4 Week Game Plan” (page 22), you’ll discover concrete ways to implement all six
accelerated learning methods.
Framework #5: Five step pre-performance ritual

Framework from Jason Selk's book "10-Minute Toughness."
"A considerable body of research validates that each of these five tools is highly effec ve for improving
an individual's ability to perform…Give it a try. Complete the mental workout for two weeks, and judge
for yourself if it helps you to improve focus, ability, and consistency." – Jason Selk
15-second centered breath

When you feel performance pressure, your heart rate naturally increases. If you don’t
take steps to control your heart rate, you’ll impair your ability to think clearly
(shutdown down execu ve func oning in the brain) and ac vate your fight-or-flight
response.
“An effec ve way to control heart rate is to use a ‘centering breath’ before and during compe on. The
centering breath is a fi een-second breath in which you breathe in for six seconds, hold for two, and
then breathe out for seven. In doing so, you will biologically control your heart rate so as to be er
control your arousal state and ability to think under pressure." – Jason Selk
Jason Selk has found that when elite athletes and top business execu ves slow their breathing to 15-
second intervals before going on stage, they get enough air into the diaphragm to trigger a relaxa on
response and steady their heart rates.
Performance statement
"A er taking your centering breath, repeat to yourself the statement that most
effec vely focuses you on what it takes for you to be successful in compe on.
Repea ng the performance statement in your mental workout will help remind you
of the most helpful thought necessary for success." – Jason Selk
Without a performance statement, your mind will naturally fill up with thoughts of worry and self-doubt.
Repea ng a performance statement is an excellent tool to reduce nega ve self-talk during
performances. A cyclist’s performance statement may be: "Weight back and breathe easy." A business
execu ve’s performance statement might be: "Listen first; then decide; be swiŌ and confident.”
Discover your performance statement: "Imagine that you are about to compete in the biggest game of
your life, and the best coach you have ever had is standing right next to you. Sixty seconds before the
compe on begins, your coach looks you in the eye and tells you that if you stay focused on this one
thing or these two things, you will be successful today. What one or two things would the coach name?
(Be as specific as possible, and avoid using the word don't)" – Jason Selk
Visualiza on
A er reci ng your performance statement, spend one minute visualizing past success
(seeing highlights from past performances), one minute visualizing ul mate success
(seeing yourself performing well on the biggest stage you can imagine, ex: a stadium
full of people), and one minute visualizing a successful upcoming performance.
Visualiza on Guidelines:
A. Rapidly replay a scene in your mind un l it feels right.

B. Ensure your final visualiza on is at 'game speed' (how you expect to experience the upcoming
performance in real me).
C. End each successful visualiza on by congratula ng yourself on an excellent performance.
Ques ons to ask yourself while visualizing (answer with as much detail as possible):
1. What do I see?
2. What do I hear?
3. What do I feel?
4. Emo onally, what does it feel like to be successful?
Iden ty statement
"Upon comple ng your personal highlight reel, repeat to yourself your iden ty
statement to help mold your self-image. The iden ty statement is a proven tool for
boos ng self-confidence, which is the single most helpful mental variable in
improving performance." – Jason Selk
Complete the following statement:
 “I am incredibly _________KEY STRENGTH__________ (ex: passionate, though ul, crea ve); I

am the ____DESIRABLE LABEL____ (ex: best speaker at this conference, most effec ve
salesperson at this tradeshow, etc.).
Jason Selk’s iden ty statement: "I am more mo vated than my compe on; I am the most effec ve
sports psychology consultant in the world."
Final 15-second centered breath

"The mental workout ends the way it begins, with a fi een-second deep breath. This
breath resets your heart rate to a level of controlled arousal and increased mental
focus.
"The 10-MT workout is designed to help athletes control arousal (through centering
breaths), create a precise and effec ve focus (through the performance statement and personal highlight
reel), and improve self-image (through the iden ty statement)." – Jason Selk
Mastery Playbook:
The 4 Week Game Plan
The Mastery Playbook: The 4 Week Game Plan
Week 1: Strengthen your “growth mindset”

At the end of Week 1, you will feel like you can learn any skill with enough me and effort (and a fear of
looking “stupid” won’t hold you back).
Three ways you can change your brain

Over the past 40 years scien sts have shown that we can change our brains and grow our cogni ve
abili es in three fundamental ways:
Expand sec ons of the brain

Several years ago, before taxi drivers used GPS, brain researchers took brain
imaging scans of experienced London taxi drivers. Researchers (Maguire, 2011)
no ced that the more mes a London taxi driver spent driving a taxi in London,
the larger the brain region associated with spa al awareness and memory (the
hippocampus) was.
Speed up brain circuits

Not all brain regions can physically expand, therefore, certain brain regions
become more efficient. This is achieved through a process called 'myelina on.' As
I briefly touched on in my 'Deep Work' book summary, when you focus intensely
on a single subject, you start forming white sheathes on your brain cells called
myelin. This myelin is like the insula on on the copper wires inside your home. A brain circuit with
myelin can transmit informa on ten mes faster than a brain circuit without myelin.
Re-wire the brain

One peer-reviewed study (Taub, 1995) showed that when a person prac ces the
guitar for thousands of hours, they ac vate more of their brain than novice
players. When novice guitar players play the guitar, they just ac vate the region in
their brain associated with the finger on the le hand that touches the chords.
However, when experienced guitar players play the guitar, they ac vate brain regions associated with the
fingers and palm of the le hand. It's like re-wiring a house so that a light switch turns on mul ple lamps.
“I can’t do this…YET”
Once you know the truth about your ability to learn and grow, it no longer makes sense to think, “I can’t
do this…” or “I’m not good at this subject…” (implying that your abili es are fixed). It’s more accurate to
say, “I can’t do this YET.” Or “I’m not good at this subject YET.”
When you think, “I can’t do this YET,” you develop a growth mindset and believe you can improve with
effort. With a growth mindset, you are more likely to try things, make mistakes, and risk looking stupid to
get be er (because you know that looking “stupid” will be temporary).
When Psychologist Carol Dweck gave a group of growth mindset students a choice between an easy task
and a challenging task, 90% chose the challenging task. Nearly all the students who believed their
abili es were fixed and feared looking “stupid” picked the easy task.
How to cul vate a growth mindset

When you wake up each day this week, complete two tasks (15 minutes total):
1. Spend five minutes genera ng answers to the ques on: What was I ini ally bad at and got
much be er with me and effort? For example, consider a sport, so ware program, musical
instrument, video game, foreign language, exercise, school subject, or recipe you once struggled
to do but find easy now. Put your answers in a “Bad-Now-Be er” journal (a note on your phone
or a physical notebook).
2. Spend the next 10 minutes prac cing a skill outside your comfort zone. For example, if you think
you’re “bad” at drawing, buy a drawing book and produce three drawings this week. When you
struggle and feel like giving up, repeat the affirma on: “Struggling makes me smarter.”
Remember that cogni ve effort expands sec ons of the brain, speeds up brain circuits, and re-
wires your brain.
Week 1 Game Plan:
Each day this week, wake up and spend 5 minutes wri ng in your “Bad-Now-Be er” journal.
Then, prac ce something you’re “bad” at and repeat the following affirma on when you get
frustrated: “Struggling makes me smarter.”
Week 2: Create your accelerated learning plan

At the end of Week 2, you will have a learning road map for the skill you want to learn.
Based on the DiSSS Framework detail in “The 5 Best Frameworks” (Framework #1, page 4).
Day 1: Collect
Complete at least three of the following four steps:
 Find and purchase the three best books on the skill you want to learn.
 Reach out to three people who can guide you on your learning journey.
 Create a YouTube playlist of people performing the skill like you want to perform it.
 Collect great works from people who have mastered the skill.
Day 2: Define
Clearly state what you want to be able to do – the minimum level of competence you want to a ain. For
example, do you merely want to understand what people are saying in a foreign language, or do you
want to hold a 10-minute conversa on without making mistakes?
Day 3-4: Deconstruct

Break down the skill you want to learn into more manageable parts. For example, if you’re learning a
new language, break down the language into seven areas: nouns, adjec ves, verbs, adverbs, pronouns,
preposi ons, sentence structure rules. Iden fying and understanding the high-frequency items and
special rules for each component (ex: most nouns in Spanish are either masculine or feminine) will
accelerate the learning process.
Here are three ways to deconstruct a skill:
 Skim three to five books on the skill you’re learning from different authors to iden fy common
keywords and structures.
 Interview 3-5 experts or teachers and ask them to break down the skill for you.
 Reverse outline a performance: Great creators go from outline to finished product. Your job is to
work your way back from a finished product to an outline. By working backward, you can cra a
prac ce blueprint. When you hear a great speech, watch a great video, or listen to a great
interview, imagine an outline the creator could have used. For example, if you're listening to the
most popular TED Talk of all me, “Do schools kill crea vity?” by Sir Ken Robinson, iden fy the
structure: Introduc on (13%), Thesis (2%), Anecdotes to support the thesis (21%), Explain status
quo (25%), Discuss current challenge (5%), Poten al solu on (10%), Close with an inspira onal
story (25%). Then, collect metrics:
o Number of mes the thesis was repeated: 3
o Number of ques ons posed: 25
o Percentage of script devoted to stories: 35%, persuasive
arguments: 52%, suppor ng data and facts: 1%.
Day 5: Select
Select the vital 20% of material or sub-skills that you will learn to be 80% of the way to your learning
goal. For example, if your goal is to be conversa onally fluent on a trip, think of the high-frequency
words in that language you could learn to achieve 80% fluency. In golf, there are 3-5 drills that you could
work on to develop a solid swing and make contact quickly.
Find people who are great at the skill you want to learn and ask:
 “If I needed to perform in this skill with only 20% of the ideal training me, what would you have
me focus on?”
 “What do most novices do that you consider to be the biggest waste of me?”
If you cannot find a teacher or expert to answer these ques ons, start with the most used sub-skills or
components (ex: most frequently used words when ordering at a restaurant in a foreign country).
Day 6: Sequence
Start prac cing and learning the sub-skill that generates quick wins and has a wide margin of error (you
get good results without perfect execu on). For instance, don't start with advanced openings when
learning how to play chess. Instead, learn simple yet powerful tac cs, like forks and pins. This will help
you understand the game be er and improve your play quickly. When learning how to play the guitar,
don’t start by trying to play your favorite song that contains dozens of complex chords. Instead, start by
learning a four-chord pop song you like. Determine the sub-skills you will learn next by answering two
ques ons:
 Which high‐frequency sub‐skill can I prac ce next to achieve the greatest sense of competency
(feel “good” quickly)?
 Which high‐frequency sub‐skill offers the greatest margin of error (mistakes are not overly
punishing)?
Day 7: Raise the Stakes

Commit to a performance or compe on in the next thirty days to increase the intensity of your prac ce
sessions. For example, if you’re learning to cook, schedule weekly dinner par es that require you to put
your skills on display. If you’re learning the guitar, tell a friend that you’ll play them a song on the guitar
in exactly three months and promise them $100 if you don’t follow through.
Week 2 Game Plan:
Create an accelerated learning road map:
 Day 1: Collect resources and examples.

 Day 2: Define your target competency.
 Day 3 & 4: Deconstruct the skill into smaller components/sub-skills.
 Day 5: Select the sub-skills that will yield the biggest results (the cri cal 20% that leads
to 80% competency).
 Day 6: Sequence your learning so that you start with the sub-skills that generate quick
wins and have a high margin of error.
 Day 7: Raise the stakes by commi ng to a performance and pu ng money on the line.
Week 3: Implement the six accelerated learning methods

At the end of Week 3, you get a feel for each of the six accelerated learning methods detailed in the Top
5 Frameworks (Framework #4).
Day 1: Predict
Before reading or watching something you want to remember, write down what you expect to
encounter.
For example, I recently picked up a marke ng book by Seth Godin. Before I started reading Seth’s book, I
took out a blank piece of paper and generated ten important ideas I expected to see in Seth’s book
based on the sub tle, what I’ve learned from Seth in the past, and what I know about marke ng.
Suppose you’re about to watch a YouTube video tled ‘Five strategies for be er sleep.’ Enhance your
learning by taking one minute to write down what you think the five strategies will be. During the video,
compare your list to the list in the video. When you see an idea you didn’t think of, you’ll be more likely
to remember and implement that idea.
You generate dopamine and enhance your learning by predic ng what you’ll encounter in every book
you read and video you watch.
Day 2: Self-quiz
To supercharge your learning, periodically stop what you’re learning, close your eyes, and ask: "What
was the most important thing I just read/watched?" Forcing yourself to recall and retrieve informa on
from your short-term memory moves it to your long-term memory before it is forgo en.
“A emp ng to recall the material you are trying to learn—retrieval prac ce—is far more effec ve than
simply rereading the material.” - Barbara Oakley
Another great way to leverage the power of “self-quizzing” is to take notes of what you’re learning on a
single loose-leaf paper. When the page is full, turn it over so you can’t see what you wrote. Then, take a
5-minute break, and when you come back, recreate your notes from memory on a new sheet of paper.
Day 3: Create mnemonics

Take the first le ers of each key concept you’ve learned and put them into a word generator app (I use
the free iOS app ‘WordFinder’). If you have trouble coming up with a
word or a memorable series of le ers, use synonyms for different
concepts. Large Language Models, like ChatGPT, are good tools for
crea ng Mnemonics.
Create visual mnemonics by crea ng highly detailed, “out-there” mental

images for what you’re learning. For example, if you’re trying to
memorize the Spanish word "caber" (“to fit” in English), you could
visualize a taxi cab driver trying to fit a bear inside his car.
Day 4: Teach (The Feynman Technique)

To deepen your understanding of any concept, prac ce the four-step Feynman Technique:
1. Take out a blank piece of paper and write down the concept at the top of the page.
2. Write out a simple explana on of the concept in your own words (pretend you’re teaching the
concept to a 5th grader on a whiteboard).
3. When you no ce a gap in your understanding, go back to the source material - book, website,
teacher, or other reference material to close that gap.
4. Repeat steps two and three un l you can clearly explain the concept.
Force yourself to come up with at least one analogy to explain what you’ve learned. For example,
medita ng is like si ng on a riverbank and watching the flow of thoughts go by. Analogies ground what
you’re learning in something you know, which makes a new concept easier to remember and apply. If
you can’t think of a good analogy, ask a Large Language Model, like ChatGPT to come up with five
analogies for the concept you’re learning.
“If you’re trying to learn (and explain) an abstrac on, like the principle of angular momentum, it’s
easier when you ground it in something concrete that you already know, like the way a figure skater’s
rota on speeds up as she draws her arms to her chest.” – Make It S ck
Day 5: Interleave
Cycle between three or more sub-skills during a single prac ce session. For example:
 Instead of prac cing one gree ng over and over, prac ce five similar but different gree ngs in
the language you’re learning.
 Instead of hi ng one pitch over and over, prac ce hi ng three different pitches in a random
order.
 Instead of hi ng one golf shot over and over on the range, cycle between three different clubs
(driver, iron, wedge) and three shot shapes (fade, draw, straight) in random order.
Interleaving forces you to discern and decipher between several similar but different skills/concepts.
When you struggle to spot the difference between similar skills, you work harder, and improve brain
circuits needed to execute the skill you’re learning.
Day 6: Spaced Recall

When you finish a prac ce or study session, write down the most important things you learned and
schedule an event in your calendar the next day, seven days later, and 14 days later. When you receive
the event no fica on, recall what you learned without looking at your notes. Then, review your notes to
see what you missed.
Alterna vely, you can use an electronic note-taking system and create reminder no fica ons for your
prac ce/study session notes. I use Evernote and add a 24-hour “reminder” to prac ce/study session
notes. When the “Evernote reminder” no fica on pops up on my phone, I see the note’s tle and try to
recall all the details in the note. A er quizzing myself, I review the note to see what I got wrong and
schedule the next reminder six days later (seven days a er crea ng the note). When my day seven
reminder pops up, I quiz myself again, see what I got wrong, and schedule a final reminder seven days
later (day 14).
If you don’t use Evernote, don’t worry - you can use reminders in various notetaking applica ons.
Week 3 Game Plan:
Experiment with the six accelerated learning methods this week:
 Day 1: Predict (guess what you're going to learn).

 Day 2: Self-quiz throughout your prac ce/study session.
 Day 3: Create mnemonics for key concepts.
 Day 4: Teach what you’ve learned using the Feynman Technique.
 Day 5: Interleave by randomly prac cing two or three similar sub-skills.
 Day 6: Space out your self-quizzes one day, seven days, and 14 days a er learning.
 Day 7: Incorporate all six accelerated learning methods into your prac ce or study
session.
Week 4: Fall in love with prac ce

At the end of Week 4, you will love prac cing.
When you love to prac ce, you always make me to prac ce. Missing an opportunity to prac ce is like
missing a meal. In the words of a master painter in the book who paints in her studio four hours a day,
five days a week, "It's the rou ne itself that feeds me. If I didn't do it, I'd be betraying the essen al
me."
Day 1: Sync
Allow yourself to ONLY enjoy your favorite musical ar st or beverage WHILE you prac ce. Syncing your
favorite songs or drinks to your prac ce will create a posi ve associa on with prac ce.
For example, I only listen to one of my favorite bands, Audioslave, while I prac ce hi ng golf balls in my
garage. I only enjoy my favorite tea when I sit down to play the guitar.
Day 2: Start easy

Start your prac ce (and every prac ce session going forward) with a warmup drill that makes you feel
competent and confident. For example, I start every golf prac ce session with 10-yard chip shots. When I
hit 10-yard chip shots, it’s easy to make good contact and hit my target.
When possible, make the star ng drill a fundamental mo on. For example, begin each guitar prac ce
session with simple strumming pa erns using basic chords like G, C, and D. This helps establish rhythm
and hand coordina on, making it easier to transi on into more complex pieces.
Day 3: Slow down

On day 3, perform your ini al movement in slow mo on. Prac cing in slow mo on makes you more
aware of every movement and helps you fall into a flow state (and turn prac ce into a medita ve act).
Meadowmount School of Music in New York is a talent hotbed for musicians. But if you walked by a
Meadowmount prac ce session you may not think so. Orchestra prac ce sessions at Meadowmount
sound like the musicians have been drugged. Every instrument is played at a painfully slow speed and
the music sounds like a series of whale sounds. Meadowmount teachers will o en spend three hours
covering a single sheet of music. But the painfully slow pace speeds up learning. At the end of prac ce
sessions at Meadowmount, the students can play their pieces almost perfectly.
Why?
When you slow down, you’re able to no ce the ny errors and correct them. This allows you to isolate
and repair the brain circuits associated with the skill you’re prac cing and train those circuits to fire
faster when you need to perform.
Brazilian football players learn a new football move by moving their feet over the ball in slow mo on.
World-class singers stop when they get a note wrong and start singing at half-speed. Tom Mar nez, Tom
Brady’s personal off-season quarterback coach, says, “It's not how fast you can do it. It's how slow you
can do it correctly.” Therefore, when you prac ce, prac ce at half-speed to see how all the sub-skills
interconnect.
Day 4: Emulate
On day 4, before prac ce, think of someone who has mastered the skill you’re prac cing or watch a
YouTube video of someone giving a masterful performance. Then close your eyes and imagine trading
places with them and execu ng a skill flawlessly.
When you pretend to be someone else during prac ce, you prac ce with confidence. Embodying a
master also reminds you of what you are working toward and increases your mo va on to prac ce.
Day 5: Play
On day 5, make your prac ce session a series of games.
Early in his career, basketball star Steph Curry worked with a trainer named Brandon Payne, whose
mo o was: “There is no boring in our workouts.” Payne turned drills into games and always gave Curry a
score to beat. Payne created games like Extreme Twenty‐One, in which Curry had one minute to score
twenty-one points with three-pointers, jump shots, and layups, but a er each shot, he had to sprint to
the middle of the court and back. The intensity simulated a real game, and his score in one prac ce
became the metric to beat in the following prac ce.
Turn prac ce drills into games (like Steph Curry’s coach), play against the clock, and measure your
performance so you have a score to beat next prac ce. The less prac ce feels like work but s ll pushes
you out of your comfort zone, the be er you will get.
Day 6: Exaggerate
On day 6, exaggerate one component of your prac ce to strengthen a key sub-skill.
For example:
 If you’re training to be a be er hockey player, prac ce hockey with a heavier s ck to increase

shot strength and s ck-handing ability.
 If you want to be a be er basketball player, play more 3-on-3 half court basketball games and
play on a smaller rim, so that you get more chances to handle the ball under game-like pressure
and be a more accurate shooter.
 If you want to be a be er guitar player, get a prac ce guitar with thicker strings so that you’re
forced to build finger strength rapidly.
Week 4 Game Plan:
Experiment with the six prac ce enhancers this week:
 Day 1: Sync your favorite music or beverage with your prac ce session.
 Day 2: Start with an easy, fundamental movement.
 Day 3: Slow down your prac ce drills to half-speed.
 Day 4: Emulate your favorite master as you prac ce.
 Day 5: Play games throughout your prac ce session.
 Day 6: Exaggerate components to develop key skills and strengths.
 Day 7: Incorporate all six prac ce enhancers into your prac ce session.
Mastery Playbook:
The 3 Daily Keystone Habits
The Mastery Playbook: The 3 Daily Keystone Habits
Daily Keystone Habit #1: Enter a peak learning state

Swea ng speeds up learning
“Exercise sparks the master molecule of the learning process” - John Ratey MD
When you sweat while pedaling on a spin bike, doing burpees in your bedroom,
skipping rope in your living room, or running outside, you open your internal
pharmacy and flood your brain with a powerful smart drug. This smart drug contains
brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein that builds new brain cells and
forms strong connecƟons between brain cells, so you have a greater capacity to learn.
“Researchers found that if they sprinkled BDNF onto neurons in a petri dish, the cells automaƟcally
sprouted new branches, producing the same structural growth required for learning—and causing me to
think of BDNF as Miracle-Gro for the brain…BDNF gathers in reserve pools near the synapses and is
unleashed when we get our blood pumping.” - John Ratey MD
Exercise for 20-30 minutes with a sustained heart rate of 60-70% of your maximum heart rate (or at a
pace that feels “somewhat hard”). BeƩer yet, play a sport for 20-30 minutes that combines aerobic
exercise with advanced coordinaƟon and muscle skills (pickleball, basketball, soccer, etc.).
Wonder while you workout

"All learning is state dependent." - Jim Kwik
If you pick up a book in a peak state of curiosity, wonder, and excitement, you will learn quicker. Get
yourself in a peak state of curiosity by pondering several quesƟons related to what you’re about to learn
while you workout. For example: What great insight will I get from this book? How will this insight
forever change my life?
Keystone Habit Plan #1:
Trigger: Thirty minutes before a learning session….
Rou ne: Increase your heart rate by doing an aerobic exercise for 20-30 minutes at a pace that
feels “somewhat hard.” As you work out, wonder what great insights you’re about to learn and
how you might use it.
Daily Keystone Habit #2: SEE it and Place it

“Memory is not a thing that happens to you; you create your memories…The greatest secret of a
powerful memory is to bring informa on to life with your endless imagina on” - Kevin Horsley, author
of Unlimited Memory
Author Kevin Horsley always assumed he had a bad memory. Horsley trained himself to remember the
first 10,000 digits of pi, get 5th place in the World Memory Championships, and earn the Ɵtle
‘InternaƟonal Grandmaster of Memory’ by leveraging two memory methods. Use the following two
methods to remember the name of every person you meet and every presentaƟon you must deliver.
Sense
Use your imaginaƟon to create a rich sensory experience in your mind. To remember the last name of
author Kevin Horsley by visualizing a horse. Then imagine touching it, smelling it, hearing it, and tasƟng
it… Okay, tasƟng a horse is a bit gross, but it's memorable!
Exaggerate
Make the horse pink and make it the size of a house. The goal is to be extreme, ridiculous, and funny.
Horsley says, "The more illogical the image, the more it will sƟck…There is no scienƟfic evidence to prove
that learning should be serious.”
Energize
Lastly, energize your mental image by tapping into your inner Walt Disney and turn the image into a
moƟon picture. See the horse running, jumping, or geƫng launched over a house with a cannon! As
Mark Victor Hanson said, "Your mind is the greatest home entertainment center ever created."
Use the SEE method to remember a new word by thinking of images that sound like secƟons of the
word. For example, if you’re giving a presentaƟon on the brain and you need to recall the
neurotransmiƩer Serotonin (the neurotransmiƩer which produces a feeling of happiness), you could
imagine your friend Sara (sounds like the first part of “Sero-ton-in”), with a giant musical note on her
head (reminds you of tone, the second part of “Ser-ton-in”), jumping through a field of daisies (reminds
you of happiness).
Place it
When you have a long list of items you need to remember, like five stories for an upcoming presentaƟon
or ten ingredients of a recipe, place the items on your list in the memory of a familiar environment. Our
minds are great at remembering the details of familiar environments. Close your eyes and imagine
walking through your house. Can you visualize your front door? Your kitchen? Your TV room? Your stairs?
And your bathroom?
You can leverage your memory of environments to memorize new informaƟon. If, for example, you want
to remember the five main ingredients of a chicken soup recipe (onion, garlic, carrot, chicken, egg
noodles), you can place those ingredients around your mental house:
 At the front door, you can see a giant onion with legs and arms doing jumping jacks.
 When you walk through your front door and into your kitchen, you can see the sink
overflowing with garlic cloves.
 Then, as you walk into your TV room, you can see two giant carrots making out on your
couch.
 As you walk up the stairs, you can see dozens of chickens flying at you and feathers flying
everywhere.
 Finally, when you go into the upstairs bathroom, you can imagine undressing and having a
bath in a tub full of warm egg noodles.
“Some people say, ‘I will run out of space.’ (But) if I gave you a truck full of objects to place in a shopping
mall, would you be able to do that? Of course you would. If you look for it, you will find thousands and
thousands of places just waiƟng to be used in your mind. There are no limits to this system, only limits in
your own thinking.” – Kevin Horsley
Trigger: When you want to remember something…
Rou ne: Think of what it sounds like or place it in an environment that is easy to imagine.
Then, use your imaginaƟon to create a mulƟ-sensory, exaggerated, energized experience in
your mind.
Daily Keystone Habit #3: Excite. Equate. Control.

“In our mul year study of individuals under pressure who were able to perform in the top 10 percent
of the twelve thousand people we studied, and who sta s cally received more promo ons that
advanced their careers, we found that each of them was doing the same thing as basketball star
LeBron James or New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady: allowing themselves to be affected less
by pressure than those around them.” – Hendrie Weisinger and J. P. Pawliw-Fry, authors of Performing
Under Pressure
3 ways to perform under pressure

Nerves = Excitement. When psychologist Adam Grant told students to get excited
when they felt nervous, they delivered speeches that were rated seventeen
percent more persuasive and fiŌeen percent more confident than students who
were told to calm down. In another experiment, when students were told to get
excited before a big exam, they scored twenty-two percent higher than students
who were instructed to stay calm.
The next Ɵme you feel pressure, interpret your anxiety as excitement. Tell yourself, “This is my body
geƫng excited for the upcoming challenge!”
Cri cal performances are just like casual performances. Research shows that sales
reps told to simply ‘shoot the breeze’ when presenƟng a new product make
significantly fewer mistakes than sales reps told their product presentaƟon is ‘very
important.’
The next Ɵme you feel pressure, downplay the situaƟon by equaƟng it to
something familiar, easy, and less important. For example, when you feel nervous before a big exam, tell
yourself, “It’s just like a pracƟce test.”
Focus on what you can control. In the book ‘Performing Under Pressure,’ the
authors say, “When you focus on ‘uncontrollables,’ you intensify the pressure; it
boosts your anxiety to the point of disturbing your physiology, creaƟng distracƟng
thoughts that undermine your confidence.” Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Greg
Maddux judged his performances by how many pitches leŌ his hand the way he
intended (whether the baƩer hit his pitch was irrelevant). Before delivering a speech, I fixate on my
breathing, posture, and how I’m going to deliver my opening sentence.
Before your next high-pressure performance, visualize the things you can control, and imagine those
going well. Now think about the things you can’t control. Visualize your performance going astray. Bring
your mind back into focus on what you can control and visualize yourself geƫng back on track.
Trigger: When you feel pressure before a performance…
Rou ne: Repeat the following phrases:

 "I'm excited to perform!"
 "This is just like...(think of something similar and less important)"
 "I’m only focused on what I can control."

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Top 5 Ques ons:

What am I most looking forward to learning today?

Who can I teach what I’ve learned?

How can I receive be er feedback?

What did I do well today, and how can I build on it tomorrow?

Framework #1: The DiSSS meta-learning system

How can I break this What future

Stakes (raise the stakes):

Framework #2: The “Proac ve Imperfec onist Player”

Proac ve Imperfec onist…

 Discipline to do focused, deliberate prac ce for several hours a week.

“Without enjoyment, poten al stays hidden.” – Adam Grant

Framework #3: SPICE up your prac ce

pecific performance target

eriods of intense undistracted focus

ycle between comfort and discomfort

Framework #4: The six accelerated learning methods

Predic ng (Pre-learning ques oning)

 W: Widen your opinions

Teaching (The Feynman Technique)

Interleaving (Variable prac ce)

“A baseball player who prac ces ba ng by swinging at fi een fastballs, then at

Why are these learning techniques so eﬀec ve?

Framework #5: Five step pre-performance ritual

15-second centered breath

A. Rapidly replay a scene in your mind un l it feels right.

Complete the following statement:

 “I am incredibly _________KEY STRENGTH__________ (ex: passionate, though ul, crea ve); I

Final 15-second centered breath

Week 1: Strengthen your “growth mindset”

Three ways you can change your brain

Expand sec ons of the brain

Speed up brain circuits

Re-wire the brain

How to cul vate a growth mindset

Week 1 Game Plan:

Week 2: Create your accelerated learning plan

Day 3-4: Deconstruct

Here are three ways to deconstruct a skill:

Day 7: Raise the Stakes

Week 2 Game Plan:

Create an accelerated learning road map:

 Day 1: Collect resources and examples.

Week 3: Implement the six accelerated learning methods

Day 3: Create mnemonics

Create visual mnemonics by crea ng highly detailed, “out-there” mental

Day 4: Teach (The Feynman Technique)

Day 6: Spaced Recall

Experiment with the six accelerated learning methods this week:

 Day 1: Predict (guess what you're going to learn).

Week 4: Fall in love with prac ce

Day 2: Start easy

Day 3: Slow down

 If you’re training to be a be er hockey player, prac ce hockey with a heavier s ck to increase

Week 4 Game Plan:

Experiment with the six prac ce enhancers this week:

Daily Keystone Habit #1: Enter a peak learning state

Wonder while you workout

Keystone Habit Plan #1:

 “I am incredibly _KEY STRENGTH__ (ex: passionate, though ul, crea ve); I