This is a fantastic post.

The current educational system does not explicitly teach people HOW TO LEARN.
I graduated from a prestigious university with a Bachelor's in Physics. But academic information was not my biggest gain from university. My biggest gain from attending university was learning HOW to learn. (And years of Martial Arts and personal development have refined this knowledge and practice even more.)

People are patterns. You can virtually forecast someone's destiny by looking at their habits: what do they habitually do? what do they habitually not do?

Most people are ASLEEP! They are not aware that their patterns and habits can be reprogrammed. They are not even aware that their current patterns and habits have already been programmed. The question is, who or what installed the current programming? Reprogramming habits will inevitably change one's results and destiny towards the direction of their new programming.

You give so many gold nuggets here:

Having a clear focus is key. It makes the time and effort so much more profitable in terms of results.

Knowing WHY you want to learn or master a new skill makes it easier to decide what to focus on, and it helps you push through resistance.

Mastering the fundamentals is profound. Mastery blooms from ongoing experience developing the fundamentals.

Gamification is brilliant. Look up the Cone of Learning. It shows the various ways of learning, and which ones are most effective. The top two most effective ways of learning according to the Cone of Learning model are:

1. Doing the real thing.
2. Doing a simulation of the real thing (ie: practice or scrimmage in sports, sparring in martial arts, and games that simulate real scenarios)

Consistency makes or breaks the learning process. Consistency allows learning to compound, expand, and deepen. Inconsistency yields much slower progress.

Rewarding yourself is a genius mind hack. Also genius for reinforcing the desire to practice consistently and fuels the joy of learning.

Tracking progress in a journal or with numbers is a great way to boost the learning and provide insights to the learning process from a bird's eye view.
This makes it easier to tweak and adjust your practice to make it even better.

Again, wonderful post, @decimus.
Add one more to your following.