The 4 Steps to Learn Anything Fast

Learning something new can feel impossible, especially when the world keeps changing faster than we can adapt. I know this feeling intimately because my journey began with a diagnosis that told me everything I would never do. When I was four years old, I was told I would never play soccer, never become a runner, and certainly never run a marathon. Asthma was supposed to define my limits. Yet decades later, I not only ran a marathon, I ran a 100k ultra marathon and won it. That victory reshaped my understanding of learning, progress, and human potential.

What I discovered through that transformation is that most people are not struggling to learn because they lack intelligence or desire. They are struggling because they lack the right process. There is a simple and powerful four-step framework that allows anyone to learn faster, integrate new skills more efficiently, and break through plateaus that may have felt immovable for years. These steps originally came from Tony Robbins, though I tested them, refined them, and lived them mile after mile. Today, I use this process not only in my athletic training but also in my business, my personal development, and the way I teach learners across the world.

In this post (and in the YouTube video linked here and podcast episode linked here), I share the 4 steps to learn anything fast, and how they shaped both my life and the lives of the people I coach. Whether you are an educator, a corporate leader, a creator or someone who is simply ready to grow, these steps can change the way you learn forever.

Why most people struggle to learn anything new

When I speak with leaders, athletes and learners, one theme comes up again and again. People assume learning is about knowledge. They believe that the more information they collect, the faster they will improve. But information alone does not create transformation. Early in my running journey, I had all the information in the world about training, gear, nutrition, pacing and race strategy. I consumed articles, listened to podcasts and watched every race documentary I could find. None of that made me a better runner.

The truth is that most people struggle to learn because they stay in the realm of theory. Knowledge can inspire you, but it cannot build results. Results come from action, and not just any action, but the right action taken with consistency. If information alone created mastery, librarians would be Olympians and YouTube would be the birthplace of world champions. We struggle to learn because we stop at the surface. We gather knowledge, but we do not embody the identity, behaviors and patterns that allow that knowledge to become skill.

There are also deeper psychological barriers that slow our progress. Many of us take action, but the wrong kind of action. I trained for years as a runner but was unknowingly reinforcing habits that prevented me from becoming elite. I pushed too hard on the wrong days, rested too little and lacked the structured progression that elite athletes master. I was working hard, but not intelligently, and that is one of the great traps of learning. You can move fast on the wrong path and still end up nowhere.

Finally, most people give up too early. Learning anything meaningful requires momentum and that momentum does not appear in the first few days or even the first few months. When I decided to become an ultra runner, I had already spent years building a base. After hiring a coach, I still needed six more months of training before I saw the kind of results that would change my life. Learning demands patience. Mastery demands perseverance.

Step 1: Embody the beliefs of a master

The first step to learn anything fast is to shift your identity. Before you learn a skill, you must decide who you are becoming. This is the essence of the phrase be, do, have. You start by being the person who is capable of the result. Then you do the things that person would do. Only then do you have the outcome you desire.

When I hired my running coach, the workouts were not the most transformative part of the process. The real shift happened when I started to think like her. She had run some of the hardest one hundred mile races in the world and moved with a level of confidence and clarity I had never experienced. I studied not only her strategies but her mindset. I looked at how she approached adversity, how she viewed discomfort and how she managed fear on the trail. When I started adopting her beliefs, everything else followed.

If you are teaching learners, this step is essential. You cannot expect someone to execute a new skill if they still see themselves as unqualified or incapable. Before you show them the how, you must show them the who. Give them the beliefs required to perform at their best. When they embody the mindset of a master, their actions shift naturally.

Step 2: Create the physiological state of a master

Learning is not just a mental game. It is a physical one. The way you breathe, sleep, move and recover shapes the quality of your focus and endurance. Elite performers understand this deeply. When I was training for my one hundred kilometer race, I studied athletes like Tom Brady, Cristiano Ronaldo and LeBron James. None of them rely solely on talent. They build routines that create high physiological readiness.

I increased my sleep. I reduced alcohol. I prioritized recovery, hydration and nutrition. I built a morning routine that reset my mental state and helped me shift out of scarcity and into abundance. I discovered something profound. When your physiology supports your goals, your learning accelerates. When your body is exhausted, stressed or depleted, even simple tasks become harder.

Business leaders often overlook this step, yet it is one of the most important. If you want your team to learn faster, help them create the physical environment of success. Encourage healthy habits, meaningful rest and daily movement. Physiological alignment amplifies every cognitive skill.

Step 3: Think in the same sequence as masters

Every master has a pattern of execution and that pattern matters as much as the action itself. When you perform steps out of sequence, you lose efficiency, energy and momentum. My one hundred kilometer race is the perfect example. During the final lap, my coach insisted that we stop to refuel. I wanted to keep going. I believed that slowing down would cost me the race. She knew the opposite was true.

We executed a specific sequence. First nutrition, then rest, then a strategic pace plan, and only then the final push. When we eventually passed the first place runner, we did so at the precise moment that would break his momentum. Sequence wins races. Sequence also wins in learning.

If you want to learn quickly, study not only what masters do but when they do it. The timing is part of the technique. The order is part of the intelligence. Mapping the sequence allows you to model excellence rather than guess your way toward it.

Step 4: Do the thing

The final step sounds simple, yet it is the step most people skip. You must do the thing. You must execute consistently, even when the results feel far away. Beliefs create your identity. Physiology creates your readiness. Sequencing creates your strategy. But action creates the outcome.

When I think back to the race I won, nothing would have happened without the final step. I had to run the miles, climb the hills, fuel my body and hold my pace when my legs were screaming. You cannot think your way into mastery. You must live it.

For learners, this step is equally vital. Action creates retention. Action creates confidence. Action builds experience that no textbook can replace.

Putting the four steps into practice

These four steps can transform the way you learn and the way you teach. They have helped me build my company, coach leaders across the world and design learning experiences that generate real return on investment. When your learners believe, when they build the physiology of readiness, when they understand the sequence and when they take action, they achieve meaningful results.

If you want help applying these steps to your own learning programs, I invite you to join my free masterclass. In it, I walk you through the biggest mistakes organizations make when creating learning and how to design programs that generate measurable impact for both your business and your learners.

Learning does not have to take years. With the right approach, it can happen faster than you ever imagined. These four steps changed my life. I know they can change the lives of the people you serve as well.