Be a Taskmaster, not a Task Disaster

When I was an adolescent, I used to enjoy reading Marvel comic books. My favorite villain was the Taskmaster. The Taskmaster had the ability to learn and duplicate someone's fighting skills by observing it only once.

But is it really possible to learn things by merely observing someone's performance?

According to researcher Albert Bandura, it is and he coined this phenomenon observational learning. Albert Bandura and other researchers have done numerous studies on observational learning, and found this phenomenon to be valid.

Observational learning can especially be important in learning tasks where it is not practical to physically practice them.

For example, it is not practical to physically practice public speaking. It is very difficult to get a group of people together and have them listen to your speeches over and over again. I think that the lack and impossibility of practice is why most people are bad at public speaking.

So if you find yourself in college or are at a workplace where you are required to do public speaking, don't despair. You can simply do an internet search on great public speeches and watch these speeches over and over again until you can do it.

To an extent, you have the ability of the Taskmaster. You can learn anything, including public speaking, merely by watching someone perform it.

Be a Taskmaster, not a task disaster!