Do you have a knack for learning?

Then you have a knack for teaching

It’s pretty simple actually, the things you learn you can reteach to someone else. No matter what it is you can reteach it to someone who’s interested in learning about it, simple as that.

Being self-taught is something I take pride in as I have knowledge of the things I want to have knowledge in, therefore I can easily teach the same things I have learned to others who wish to know. This comes in handy in my day to day job as a reviewer for one of Envato’s marketplaces as I handle literally hundreds of files every day, in one way or another, and knowing the things I know helps me do my job. I can leave feedback where feedback is needed and I can give tips on typography and kerning, amongst other things. But all in all, no matter what I teach to the person I teach, whether it’s on the job or a friend or someone else, if they don’t want to learn they won’t listen. I know this for a fact.

Reason I know this is because I was like that in school. If I didn’t like the subject of the class I either didn’t go to it or I spaced out in my own thoughts during class. However, this didn’t get me good grades or any grades to take any type of pride in, unless you want to take pride in getting the second lowest grades in history of the school. Which I don’t I might add. But the reason for me telling you this is because it opened up other doors for me, I realized I could learn the things I wanted to learn rather than learning about things I wasn’t interested in.

Now, for the people who thinks that is a reason to skip school, it’s not, and you shouldn’t even think about it. Finish school, get a degree & get a well paid job that you love. If you want to work at McDonald’s, do it. If you want to be a lawyer, be one. Simple as that, but make sure to get the proper education first.

There are downsides to it, I can’t show any grades or educations if I was to apply for a job, I never got a degree in anything like science or any other subject for that matter. I might be a designer, but the things I know I have learned myself either through trial and error or via tutorials.

Which brings me back to my first point, the subtitle for this post. If you have learned something through, for example, a tutorial, you can simply write a tutorial on your own and teach what you have learned and know to others. This is something not everyone seem to think of, either they don’t have the confidence in either writing or recording a tutorial or they don’t know what the subject should be. Obviously there are more reasons but I think that the majority lack the confidence. Simply put, they don’t think they are good enough yet.

If you don’t believe you have the skills for it it doesn’t mean you don’t. Others might still find what you know interesting or they might think that you really have a knack for teaching things in a simple way. There’s no need for a tutorial to be complex and the topic don’t have to be extremely hyper awesome. What is important is that you try it out, at least once, if you don’t get it published on a major site, place it on your own blog or even here on Medium. If people find it useful and they learned something from it they will tell you so either via a comment or by recreating what you just did to increase their own skills.

There are tons of tutorial sites out there so get started already! Write a tutorial on something you know. You know how to photograph? Then write a tutorial on the basics about that. Or maybe you know a lot about the camera you’re using or any other equipment? Write about that.

Whatever topic you choose or run with, keep in mind that an article can be a tutorial as well so you don’t have to limit yourself or your knowledge on doing tutorial type posts. Write an article and explain the things you want to explain as simple as possible. This way you reach people who’s just starting out and they will thank you for it in the long run.

On a final note. I want to add that you should never write a tutorial or article about something you don’t know. Leave that to the newspapers and other gossip websites or papers, they do this already. If you don’t know the subject well enough to do a tutorial but you really want to, then do your research first and ask for feedback by your peers. This way you can make sure that you emphasize the things you want to emphasize and that you get your facts straight.

Thank you for reading! Now be awesome and hit that recommend button and share this post with everyone you know ☺

Hit me up on Twitter if you feel like it, you can find me @larssonpatrik.

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