4 Reasons To Pick Up A New Skill Right Now
What are you curious about right now?
Or create a bucket list of want-to-learn right now if you haven’t already. It doesn’t have to be “correct”, “inspiring”, or “thought-provoking”; if you want to tame a lion, in it goes. It doesn’t matter if it’s just for fun, or meaningful, or satisfying your curiosity. It just has to appeal to you.
It does have to be legal though. =)
Now with this list, what are you most curious about, or which one can you get started immediately? If it’s been a long while since you last picked up something new, then let’s pick an easy one to build up the momentum. Then have a go at it right now!
Why? Here are 4 reasons.
It Re-energizes You
When it comes to new skills, the first thing we feel uncomfortable with is adjusting to the physical/mental muscles we’ve barely touched on before. Think back to the first time you learned to drive or ride a bicycle. The coordination and balance took a while to get used to, didn’t it?
This is what “getting out of your comfort zone” means. Or to put it in another way, we’re trying to “get into another comfort zone” as we learn.
And more often than not, this is a big part of that 20% in the Pomodoro technique.
You only need to learn 4–5 chords on the guitar to play 500 songs, which you can achieve as soon as your fingertips stop hurting.
You only need to learn how to pedal and balance to ride a bicycle, which you can achieve as soon as you stop falling off.
You only need to learn how to fall during skydiving, which you can achieve as soon as you sign up for it so that the instructor can teach you.
Once we get past this stage of extreme discomfort, the rewards reap in immediately, because actually doing it accelerates to your progress.
And this is when you feel that new surge of energy you never knew existed within you.
Of course, this feeling ends when you hit the plateau. Since we are talking about gaining a casual new skill of interest, we can either stop here and be done with it, or consider to pursue it as a deep interest from now on.
For example, it’s enough for me to solve the Rubik’s cube without referring to anything external. I don’t need to learn the blindfolded way, or do it under 1 minute.
It Improves Your Current Skills
Skills can be classified as general or specialized, as with all your current skills, and the new ones you’ll be picking up.
With general skills, they can be carried over to anything else you’re already doing (think communication, management, confidence etc).
Back to the Rubik’s cube, solving it is a matter of pattern recognition, paired with following a set of logical moves. This step-by-step problem-solving skill is a general skill, especially once you understand how the cube works.
That adrenaline-inducing skydiving trip over the weekend? A shot of confidence to yourself, plus a new story for the next gathering! (Also a good chance to get creative on your storytelling, like how you almost died 6 times).
With specialized skills such as painting, programming, music, they complement each other. Learning photography can help you frame your drawings better while learning something music-related can give you a better sense of flow, structure, or progression in your videos.
With programming, well, you can pretty much turn anything you’re interested in into an app.
Of course, some professions might have a higher chance of being relevant more than others. Being a game designer, almost all the skills I pick up can be translated into something useful, since we’re essentially building new worlds. History, architecture, economics, psychology, you name it.
It Helps You Understand Yourself More
What if you get into photography, then realize you didn’t like it?
You quit, of course. It’s just a side hobby!
But before that, ask yourself these questions:
- What piqued my interest in it in the first place?
- Of the things I’ve experienced up to this point, what did I not like and why?
- Did I set too hard a goal?
- Could I tweak my goal into a different direction, or lower my expectations to avoid the things I don’t like?
Again, you don’t need “valid” reasons. You just have to be truthful to yourself. Being a content creator (video games and music), I once tried dabbling into advertising, or more specifically, Facebook advertising on the T-Shirt designs I created myself.
While I loved making the designs, I spent lots of effort and money on Udemy courses and Facebook ads. Most of them mentioned that it takes 15–20 designs to get the marketing/design combination right for orders to start coming in, so that was my goal: Create and sell 20 designs, and stop if none of them make money.
However, I stopped at the 11th design. I realized that I’m simply not interested in selling T-Shirts. The designing part was what kept me going until #11.
All this is not for a lost cause though; at the very least, I basically ran through a marketing 101 course.
Sure, I would have learned more if I actually managed to get sales, but if I were to attempt it again, I’ll try selling something else, so this is not exactly off my bucket list; I’ve just tweaked it.
And if you love what you’re picking up, what do you like about it specifically? Maybe it could help you find another related skill to learn, such as the ukulele after learning guitar. These things are endless!
It Brings You A Wider Community
It might sound cliche to say “with the technology today”, but plenty of websites and apps also provide social groups other than knowledge and information. From YouTube to Facebook to meetup apps, there ‘s definitely a way for you to share information on said skill/topic.
With a community, you definitely learn better and faster, with mentors helping you, peers learning with you, and juniors learning from you.
“If you want to master something, teach it.” - Yogi Bhajan
I’m an introvert, but having common interests makes meeting people so much easier. No awkward questions; a comment on a band’s new album, or a sincere question about guitars could easily help break the ice with a fellow music lover.
And the best part is, you never what opportunities one thing might lead to.
Some of these friendships began as a call for recording sessions and performances. It then morphed into partnerships for freelance projects, and jamming sessions with different bands every once in a while, sometimes getting to know friends-of-friends as well.
Bonus: Learning also helps you learn easier.
Learning is a skill by itself. Knowing how to get to the heart of the situation and asking the right questions propels us into maximizing the 80/20 Rule.
With this momentum, you get to experience more facets of life at an accelerated rate.
For me, the most amazing thing about learning is uncovering something that used to be a mystery. It might take away some of the magic, but now I’ m the one making magic.
