(b) Creative Ideas for Learning New Skills

Many of us are very busy doing the tasks that are required by our jobs, our family, our studies and so forth. Sometimes, all this action leaves us very little time for learning new skills, or for developing and mastering skills that we already have.

In this issue I offer you a few ideas for strengthening the attention you pay to developing your own skills. Some of these ideas might mean taking on extra efforts and tasks, while other ideas serve for turning your attention to yourself. In my opinion, this is a worthwhile investment, and it should return new opportunities for growth, success, an intelectual and emotional challenge, and the pure joy of learning something new. As usual with the creative ideas I present here, the ideas are not the ordinary way you would normally go about learning new skills.

Here are the creative ideas for ways to learn new skills:

1. "Monthly Partner": This idea focuses on the ability to learn from the actions and knowledge of other people. Set one full day each month in your calender to learning from others. On each of these days arrange to join a different person, and to learn from their experience and activities.
   
   Candidates for this activity may include an academic friend, a fellow business-associate, a family relative, a child or youth, and so on. You need to learn how to ask someone to dedicate a full day for this purpose of yours - try simply telling them that you have this monthly program for learning from others and that you would appreciate it if they could be the next person on your program. Most people would be glad to assist and teach you what they know.
   
   Also - seriously consider keeping a sort of diary to record your experiences and the things you have learned from each of these days.
   
   
2. "Deeper Investigation": There are many things you do in your everyday activities. Some of these things you might be taking for granted and going about them with less attention. In this idea I suggest that you dedicate a full day to an otherwise "unimportant" or trivial activity that you do. This activity might be a quick read through a newspaper, a drive to the local mall, crossing the park on your way to work or a routine task at your office desk. It may also include the activities in your job that you are less skilled in.
   
   Once you've chosen such an activity - prepare to deepen your skills, knowledge and benefits of it, during a full day (or at leaset a few hours). For instance - to deeply investigate the park you normally quickly pass through, find an animal or plants guide and study the flora and fauna of the park, or - investigate it by reading about the history of the park, or perhaps take papers and colors and paint things in the park. Another example - if one of your less common or even boring activities on the job is to count the warehouse stock once in every few weeks, you may choose to deepen your understanding and knowledge on different stock-management and warehouse approaches, etc.
   
   
3. "Learning through Giving": An interesting way to learn and develop a whole new set of skill is by doing charity work. Volenteer to conribute to an organization with values and activities that you find appropriate. Your voluntary work may give you a chance to do things you have never done before - work with children, convince others to support a good cause, write and publish texts and advertisments, plan and follow projects through, etc. Obviously, this sort of unconventional learning route also has the extra benefit and satisfaction of making life better for people who need it more than you.
   
   
4. "Reversing Habits": This idea involves purpusely doing the opposite of what and how you would usually do things. Although you may argue that your way of doing things is one that you reached through years of experience and learning, sometimes it also causes you to be "stuck" in patterns of uneffective routine. By intentionally breaking these habits, you may be able to make important shifts towards new ways of thinking and action. Here are some examples:
   
   a. Meeting Management: if you ususally open the meeting with your a few minutes of laying down your own agenda and thoughts and continue to lead it with your goals in mind, try to speak as little as possible in one of the upcoming meetings you called. Let others speak and say everything they have to say about the subject, and concentrate on jotting down the best ideas that your hear.
   
   b. Communication: if a big part of your office communication is through phone or email - even to people in the same building, try a few days of direct, face-to-face communication instead. Walk around and see where the people you talk to sit, what they look like, what personal items they keep in their workspace, etc.
   
   c. Concentration: if you find that surrounding noise ususally disturbs you concentration in your work, try to work with intentional "noise" disturbances - such as music in the background. You might find that some kinds of sounds actually help you work better, or that it makes you think of new ways to overcome disturbances.