0-3: Requirements

In the other TTI courses, this section is called "Prerequisites." But this course has none; this is your starting point. No prior study is necessary to begin your learning journey.

But there are two non-negotiable requirements for success on your learning journey. Here they are.

Time

It's the rarest, most precious resource you have, and I'm sorry to say you have to spend a good amount of it on learning if you want to be successful. When we were kids, this time was apportioned for us in school. Setting time aside for learning is vastly more difficult for adults. No matter how you look at it, you'll be making the conscious decision that your learning goals are more important than something else in your life—at least for a little while.

That's a hard choice to make, especially when your time doesn't just belong to you. Partners, children, work, other interests...the list is as long as your time is short. But there's no way around it: to learn well takes focused, dedicated time, and a lot of it. How much? That depends on you and the topic, but I would venture to say you need no fewer than three one-hour chunks of uninterrupted time every week to really dig into a new area of study. More is better, but let's set the floor there.

Keeping this time dedicated to learning will be a constant struggle. That's why our second requirement is so crucial.

Commitment

Doing the same thing over and over again for a while doesn't, on its face, sound like a big deal. Truth is, it's the only way to really achieve anything. I'm a long-time student of traditional Chinese martial arts. It turns out that gong fu ("Kung Fu") does not mean "martial arts." It means, roughly translated, "great skill gained through hard work." Consistent effort over time is transformative.

So to succeed with the resources provided in this course, you need to commit to putting in the work—day, after day, week after week. This is self-directed learning. Only you can truly hold yourself accountable.

That's not to say you're entirely on your own'! As we'll discuss in the next section, undertaking a self-guided learning journey should not be a lonely adventure.

With our requirements out of the way, let's begin to explore what a self-guided learning looks like in practice.