Since most people have more free time on their hands during this pandemic, it’s a good time to invest in your personal growth by learning new skills. Making yourself open to learning valuable things will improve your confidence and pave the way for new opportunities in the future.
This global disruption will make you feel anxious or stressed, which is normal. However, it shouldn’t stop you from being productive. Learning a new skill and expanding your knowledge will actually help ease your anxiety. Follow these tips for learning new skills:
Take Valuable Classes
Take classes about things you’re interested in like cooking, music, photography, and more. This is a way to continuously learn something new while preventing boredom and staying mentally sharp. For instance, playing the drums helps reduce stress levels and makes you smarter, so start taking basic drum lessons to add to your list of skills and improve your health.
Learning new skills also helps you get new and exciting opportunities. When you learn how to play an instrument, you can make additional income out of it by teaching others or performing live. When you learn a new language, you’ll have opportunities to work overseas. Any valuable skill you acquire can open new doors that will make you more knowledgeable and adaptable.
Read More Books
Reading helps make your brain active, processes information more often, and makes you come up with new ideas quickly. It can also lead to improved mental health and a distinct boost in confidence that will carry over to your personal and social life.
When you read a wide variety of books, it expands your knowledge and it continues to grow exponentially. It’s easier to learn things and solve problems when you have a strong knowledge base that allows you to take a deep dive on a particular topic. When you’re familiar with various facts and information, you’ll be able to navigate a conversation easily and confidently.
Reading is a good exercise for your brain as it needs to be constantly active to stay healthy. Keep your mind sharp as you age by making it a habit to read as frequent reading can help reduce the mental decline rate by 32%.
To help you read more, make it a part of your everyday routine. You can wake up a little earlier so you can read before or while taking your breakfast, spend your breaks with a book instead of browsing through your social media, or allocate a half hour before bed to reading.
You can also double task – read while you’re cooking, working out, or walking. As you make it a part of your daily schedule, reading will become a fixed habit.
Ask Questions
You’ll learn a lot of things by asking the right people with the right questions. By connecting with people who have had their fair share of life experiences, you get to learn new things and eventually apply what you’ve learned in your own life.
This becomes an opportunity for personalized learning that is strengthened by the connection between you and the people around you.
Find a Mentor
Start by looking for a friend or family who is an expert in the skill that you want to learn. You can also try to search in a larger community for a professional who can guide you. Once you develop a stable mentor relationship, you’ll have the confidence to navigate around your chosen field, and also ask for feedback.
If you seek help in career development, remember that your mentor doesn’t have to be a top executive. Finding someone who is a few years ahead of you is actually more practical as they can offer you more relevant advice, compared to someone more than 20 years your senior, who may be less familiar with the realities that you encounter.
Teach What You Learn
Learning a new skill by teaching it to someone else can help you effectively learn in the process. This is because when you thoroughly examine a subject, you get to break it down into simpler parts that make the whole thing understandable for you.
Continuous learning can help you be a more productive and well-rounded person. When you have vast knowledge, you’ll be able to create a common ground that can help you relate with others. It can also give you a sense of accomplishment that boosts your confidence and makes you prepared to face any challenges. Nowadays, knowledge is fully accessible, so make use of every opportunity because there shouldn’t be a reason for you to stop learning.
