Skill Recycling — The Real Reason Why Learning More Skills Greatly Benefits You
The long-lost benefit of learning a variety of skills
“Erik, have you noticed that when you learned to dance Salsa and practiced Yoga, it also improved your abilities to play Ultimate Frisbee professionally?” I asked a member of my SkillUp Mastermind.
He didn’t have to think twice about his answer. Erik Hamre is an expert learner who has been learning new skills for years — 100 hours at a time. He replied:
“Certainly. I frequently use parts of what I learn to learn other skills. Yoga and Salsa dancing opened up movements I could never do before. It made me more flexible and increased my range of motions when playing Ultimate.”
He went on to explain something I didn’t know about the famous Kobe Bryant:
“Did you know that Kobe Bryant learned to tap-dance to help him solidify his lower muscles?” he said.
“I didn’t”, I said. “But thinking about it, it makes so much sense. He applied one of the long-lost benefits of learning a variety of skills: Skill Recycling,” I continued.
When people ask me for a reason to even dabble into a new skill, this is a perfect reason. When you learn a new skill, you’re in fact learning a whole set…
