Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia

Learning new skills: What is your motivation

"I'm sure it will come in handy sometime"
There are some of us who suck up odd bits of useful knowledge every day on the basis that it just might come in handy sometime. You might call this the "Hoover Principle". This is a real motivation driven by memories of time when we didn't know how to do something that mattered. If you have ever been blind-sided by life because you were missing important skills, you are generally motivated to learn all kinds of skills that will let you handle people and emergencies better.

This does not mean digging out every last scrap of information available. It might mean just enough research to see that the data is useful and bookmarking the route to finding it again.

"It will make people notice me"
In a plastic, mass produced world, people with talent and unusual skills get noticed. If you acquire these skills, you will stand out from the faceless masses and will get job offers and other offers of a personal nature that will make life ever so much more interesting.

You will quickly find that, in addition to new opportunities, your talent creates challenges that require you to learn other skills, such as how to deal with people in a win-win manner.

"I'm tired of being treated unfairly"
This requires learning what you are doing that is setting you up for losses in life. You need to learn what makes you tick and that will miraculously help you understand others better. There is much more, of course, but understanding yourself and adopting a philosophy of exchanging fairly with others will go a long way toward giving you the ability to deal effectively with whatever life brings you.

"I need more income to support myself and my family"
Many people have found that they were able to generate additional income in hard times by using their skills and expanding them. Sometimes barter is involved or part cash and part barter. This is usually part time work, but can evolve into full time work if your service is exactly what is needed by others.

Even in hard times, people need their children and pets looked after or want music, dance, fencing, or kickboxing lessons for themselves or their children. Similarly, people still want to learn to draw or to sing or how to drive a car or need their homes fixed or repainted. If you ask around, you may be surprised at how much help is needed by others. Some of it will be work that you can do or learn to do.

Small business always need occasional help with organizing, filing, and clerical work which usually involves spreadsheets and development of forms. They also need help with graphic design.

All of these skills can be learned or improved, if already known at some level.

"It would be interesting do "
There is nothing wrong with this motivation, but the normal pressures of daily existence may be far more important and you will find that learning Spanish or welding or even First Aid classes will not be attended after the first few meetings.

These activities and classes may be very useful, but your motivation must rank high on your list of priorities in order to continue with them.

The bottom line:
Your motivation will determine what new skills you acquire. You will notice that I did not include, "I need this skill for my job" or "My boss, wife, significant other would like me to have this skill". If your motivation is determined by others as opposed to the real needs of others, you will find it difficult to follow through on acquiring those skills.

There is more that can be written on learning new skills and the challenges that result from this.

Feel free to send in your questions and recommendations.

Learning new skills - bite-sized steps are vital

Why bite-sized steps are vital
Have you tried to learn something only to end in confusion and then quit in disgust?

You have fallen into the trap of skipping over words you did not understand and have not made the data your own by using it in examples before going on.

This confusion is the major cause of why children or adults cannot learn. It is caused by going by too many words or symbols that were not understood and by inhaling information faster than it can be put to use and understood.

Misunderstood words can be a career killer
Let me give you a real example from my own life. I did very well in high school as I was able learn at my own speed by reading. When I got to college, I would go unconscious in certain lectures because these instructors used new terms every day without explaining what they meant. I looked much like these students.

Most instructors would not explain what the terms meant even when asked by students. They told us that was what the reading assignment was for. It took a long time before I realized that the reading assignments were where the learning should take place and that the lectures were for filling in the gaps.

The problem is that once you have gone by any word and do not understand it, the material immediately after that word is a blank in your mind. If the word is an important word like the name of a subject, you can fail the subject entirely, because the subject just does not make sense!

I failed a subject in college, twice, because I did not know what the name meant. Even though I did the problems and attended the lectures, the material would not stick because my understanding of the subject was precariously balanced on a giant confusion of what the  subject name meant. Years later, I thoroughly cleared up that confusion and my understanding of the material has returned.

(I am not giving the subject name because I do not want to cause you pain and unconsciousness either. You probably have one of you own.)

What bite-sized step is right for you?
If you are studying a new subject and are eager to get on to the next topic, you are probably taking in the data at the right rate. The acid test is whether you can apply the information you just encountered.

If you cannot apply what you have just heard or read, you need to clear up any misunderstood words or symbols and you need to use the information in real examples or demonstrate how it is applied before going on.

If you are having difficulty with anything you are doing, whether it is a work assignment, making pottery, knitting, or designing on a computer, take a look at the exact area of difficulty and see what words are confusing. There will be some and strangely enough your difficulties will begin to disappear when you clear up the words that are not understood. It often helps if you have someone work with you to spot and clear up these confusions.

The bottom line:
New skills can be acquired when you acquire knowledge in bite-sized steps that you can easily digest.

If you cannot acquire skills that you need, you might want to consider whether you really want to learn this material. Are you just doing it to satisfy someone else?

This leads to the next topic in this series: Learning new skills - what is your motivation?

(Image credit to Daniel at cuppy-cake.blogspot.com)

Learning new skills: step one - finding help

Why learn new skills?
Would your life be more satisfying if you had more useful skills? Are there things you would like to do that you cannot do right now?

Acquiring useful skills will help you live better at any time in your life. It can be done in your spare time and  you can do much of it on your own. The first step is to find sources of information or instruction that you can afford.

Let's start with the free stuff. Look for information on how to do things you want to do.

Where to start?
If you are willing to give up some of your TV watching time, you can acquire information that will help you in ways that you might not expect.

If you are not a TV watcher, give your email and text messaging a rest and browse the Internet for information instead of "twitter". It can give you a leg up in terms of handling work or being more creative.

If you do not enjoy reading articles on the computer, consider reading trade magazines, how-to magazines, and any other kind of publication with articles on how to do things that you do not currently know how to do.

Where does it come from?
There are tens of thousands of informed people (experts) who are sharing information every day on subjects like how to shoot photos, write fiction, interview for jobs, build kayaks, handle losses, raise difficult children, deal with difficult employers, or tune motorcycles.

Some of these people write in magazines, but many thousands write articles and comments on the Internet. You can find most of the answers you are looking for by doing a search on Google or the search engine of your choice.

Often, you will find that you can write to the author of the article and get more information. Many authors are delighted when they find that you share their particular interest and are willing to point you to more resources.

OK, what's the catch?
The biggest problem you will run into is the overwhelming amount of information that is available when you type in your search terms. How do you keep from being confused and overwhelmed by all the unfamiliar terms that you see on the screen or on the written page?

That will be the subject of the next post: "Learning new skills - bite-sized steps are vital"

UPDATE: Read mattbg's comment. Vacation time and those periods between jobs are excellent opportunities to learn new skills instead of spending money trying to suppress your current problems. New skills can create new opportunities for you and you may escape your current difficulties entirely instead of merely enduring them.