The Secret To Mastery: 5 Steps For Remembering Everything You Learn

Why do most people forget 90% of what they ‘learn’ within weeks? The answer isn’t laziness or lack of intelligence—it’s how the brain is wired.”

As a Life Design Coach and preacher, one of the things that always fascinated me was watching people get fired up during sessions—crying, making vows to change, seeming transformed—only to return to their old behaviours within days. For years, I took this personally, thinking they were undermining my efforts and time.

Then I stumbled upon a TED Talk by Dr. Lara Boyd, which changed everything. 

For context: Dr. Lara Boyd is a neuroscientist and physical therapist at the University of British Columbia, where she is also a professor, Wall Scholar, and director of the Brain Behaviour Lab. She is an expert in the neurobiology of learning. Dr. Boyd has recruited and trained over 40 graduate students and has published more than 180 scientific papers. Her research is centred on understanding how behaviour shapes learning, unlearning, and relearning.

In this piece, I will be sharing some core ideas I picked from the talk as well as other materials I have studied, and how I believe it can help you learn or master anything, and effect lasting change.

The Illusion of Learning: Why Most Learning Doesn’t Stick

Think about the last time you sat in a training session or watched an online course. You followed along perfectly, nodded at all the right moments, and even took notes. You felt like you were learning. But a week later, when you needed to use that information? Blank.

This isn’t entirely your fault, per se; it’s how your brain works by design. Your brain stores information in either temporary or permanent memory, and it’s difficult to tell which a piece of information has been stored until it’s time to recall. 

Sadly, most of what we think we’ve learned, we haven’t really learned at all – as it lies in the volatile short-term memory – creating what I call the “illusion of learning.”

To overcome this problem and ensure information reaches permanent memory, you need to understand the mechanism behind remembering and forgetting.

What Really Goes on In Your Head When You Try To Learn

When you are trying to learn something new, there are two main processes the brain uses to accomplish that task. The first is called…

Rapid Chemical Signalling

When your brain encounters new information, it first responds with rapid chemical signalling –that is, neurotransmitters start firing between existing neural connections. This happens almost instantly, allowing you to understand and even repeat information immediately.

Imagine your brain has many roads (called neural “pathways” or “connections”) that connect different neighbourhoods. When you need to think or react to something, there are chemical messengers (called neurotransmitters) that grab the information and sprint along these roads from one brain cell to another, carrying the message really, really fast to where it is needed, so that you remember things fast.

This chemical activity feels like learning, but it’s only a temporary process. Much like a computer’s RAM, the information is lost after it’s been used. The neurotransmitters simply clear this information to make room for new data.

I still vividly remember the miracle my brain pulled off repeatedly in primary school whenever I was faced with the threat of being flogged, because I didn’t know how to recite the multiplication table. In those terrifying minutes before the math teacher called on me, my brain went into overdrive, and by just glancing over the timetable a few times, I memorised it up to the “7 times table”, and could recite it so flawlessly that the teacher nodded in approval. 

But after school, it was all forgotten again. What happened was that the brain had used its emergency chemical system to help me survive the moment, but it never intended to keep that information long-term.

You most likely have had similar experiences. You cram entire textbooks and your notes a night before your exams – you memorise formulas, dates, or facts and even recall them perfectly the next day. But when asked about those same facts a month later, you’d be completely blank.

Brief effort to memorise information triggers rapid chemical signalling, which forms short-term memory, which can be very useful for overcoming immediate challenges.

The second way the brain handles information is by…

Neural Pathway Restructuring

Here, the brain decides a piece of information is important enough to literally restructure itself to make it easier to recall and perform. The brain creates new neural pathways—actual physical connections between brain cells—to house the information permanently. 

However, convincing your brain that a piece of information is worth that amount of effort and resource requires sustained, repeated practice with active engagement.

Think about learning to ride a bicycle, type on a keyboard, or play a musical instrument. You didn’t master these in a day. Rather, you had to practice them intensively and repeatedly over time. That sustained effort is what convinced your brain to think, “Okay, they keep trying to do this thing. It must be important for life, not just today. So I’d better build some dedicated infrastructure for it.”.

More interesting is that the more we access this information stored in the long-term memory or these newly built neural pathways, the more the brain adds to them, making them more robust and established. This explains why you never forget to walk, speak, or play your favourite instrument; why dogs learns cool tricks, and children never forget their names, once mastered.

What This Means for Real Learning: The Neuroscience of Learning

The harder your brain has to work to learn something, the more permanent that learning becomes.

Research consistently shows that increased difficulty during practice actually leads to stronger neural pathway formation and better long-term retention. ¹

When I was learning piano, this pattern was unmistakable. A new piece of sheet music would seem impossible at first glance. After an hour of practice, I’d think I had it figured out. But when I returned the next day, it felt like starting over.

But as I pushed through this phase, and continue practising daily, something remarkable begins to happen. The music begins to look familiar. And, with time, playing it becomes automatic. My fingers seem to remember the key for each note. And, even years later, by simply placing my fingers on a keyboard, muscle memory brings back pieces I thought I’d forgotten.

Committing ideas to the permanent memory takes much more time than we usually allow.

Many students quit when learning becomes difficult, frustrated by an apparent lack of progress, and they give up. They don’t allow their brains time to decide if the skill is important or to complete building neural structures. Committing ideas to permanent memory takes much more time than we typically allow.

The popular “10,000 hours to expertise” rule is an oversimplification (recent research shows that deliberate practice quality matters more than raw hours).²² However, the core insight remains true: meaningful skill development requires sustained effort over weeks, months, or years, not hours or days.

Different skills require different timelines, and this varies from person to person. The same activity might take me longer to master than it takes you, and within my own learning, some skills come faster than others. 

The key is consistency and patience, not speed.

Your brain needs physical engagement to build lasting neural pathways (aka permanent memories).

This is why taking notes is often better than listening, discussing concepts is often better than just reading them, and practising skills beats just watching demonstrations.

When I started learning graphic design, I made the mistake of spending hours watching YouTube tutorials, thinking I was absorbing everything. However, when I opened my laptop to create something, all I had were “disjointed flashes of memory.” I was experiencing chemical signalling—temporary understanding—without the physical practice needed for neural restructuring.

How to Learn Anything, and Have It Actually Stick To Your Long-Term Memory.

To really learn, you must:  

Embrace the Struggle Phase

When learning feels difficult, celebrate. 

Your brain is working hard, and that work translates to stronger, more permanent neural connections. This struggle is known as “desirable difficulties” by cognitive scientists. 

Easy learning is often shallow learning.

Don’t mistake initial confusion or difficulty for inability. That’s just your brain in the process of building new infrastructure.

Plan for Repetition (Not Just Practice)

Philippa Lally’s research showed that building automatic habits takes anywhere from 18 days to a year. (The time frame can vary significantly from person to person).³³

One session isn’t learning—it’s an introduction. Real learning happens through spaced repetition over time. Plan multiple sessions with the same material, spread across days or weeks.

This is why traditional education systems use semesters, why habits form through daily practice, and why Jesus taught for three days straight and then told people to “continue in these things.” Paul and Peter also reference how it is not tedious for them to repeat their teachings.

Make It Physical

Whenever possible, engage your body in the learning process. This doesn’t mean everything has to be athletics—it means using multiple senses and motor skills.

• Take handwritten notes while reading,
• Talk through concepts out loud,
• Draw diagrams or mind maps,
• Practice skills with your hands, not just your mind,
• Teach the concept to someone else.

Recognise False Progress

Learn to spot the “illusion of learning.” 

Just because you understand something in the moment doesn’t mean you’ve learned it. True learning reveals itself when you can recall and apply information days or weeks later, without prompts or reminders.

Test yourself regularly. Try to explain concepts without looking at your notes. Attempt to use skills without following a tutorial. This isn’t just an assessment—it’s part of the learning process itself.

Focus on Understanding, Not Coverage

It’s better to deeply learn a few things than to shallowly cover many things. Your brain builds stronger pathways when it can connect new information to existing knowledge and see patterns and relationships.

Take time to ask why things work the way they do, how concepts connect to what you already know, and when you might use this information in real situations. That’s how you permanently imprint something in your brain.

“Neurons that fire together, wire together.” – Donald Hebb, a Canadian neuropsychologist

Conclusion: To Master Learning, Master Your Brain

Bruce Lee once said,

“Do not fear a person who has practised 1,000 kicks once, but fear the person who has practised a single kick 1,000 times.”

Building expertise isn’t about finding the fastest route to competence. It’s about creating lasting change in how your brain processes and stores information. This takes patience with yourself and trust in the process.

Your brain is constantly deciding what deserves permanent storage and what can be discarded. Make your learning so consistent, engaged, and meaningful that your brain has no choice but to build those memories a permanent home.

The people who seem to “naturally” excel at learning aren’t necessarily smarter—they’re just good at working with their brain’s architecture instead of against it. Now you can too.

Reference:

1. Bjork, R. A. (1994). Memory and metamemory considerations in the training of human beings. In J. Metcalfe & A. P. Shimamura (Eds.), Metacognition: Knowing about knowing (pp. 185-205). MIT Press. Research – Bjork Learning and Forgetting Lab. ↩︎
2. Ericsson, A., Krampe, R., & Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100(3), 363-406. Researcher Behind ‘10,000-Hour Rule’ Says Deliberate Practice Matters More Than Raw Hours. ↩︎
3. Lally, P., Van Jaarsveld, C. H., Potts, H. W., & Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998-1009. How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world – Lally – 2010 – European Journal of Social Psychology – Wiley Online Library ↩︎