What to Remember When You’re Learning Something New

Many people say that learning should be a life-long pursuit. Your formal education could end as soon as you graduate from high school or university, but you should continue learning as you go through life. It could be attending workshops to enhance your skills and make yourself more valuable at work, or it could be a hobby that you’ve always been interested in. Whatever the reason, continuously learning sharpens your intellect and keeps you relevant.

Naturally, some skills would take more time to learn than others. It would also depend on your ability when you started learning-being a complete beginner would mean you’d have a higher learning curve than one who has already had some experience. Still, there are things you need to keep in mind, regardless of your skill level.

Be Prepared to Put in the Hours

Whether you’re a newbie or not, if you’re learning a new skill, you need to be prepared to allot a significant amount of time in your education. That is especially true if you’re learning to play a musical instrument. The longer you practice on it, the faster you’ll learn. If it’s a soft skill, like writing, commit to writing a journal every night. You’ll find that the practice of simply writing down your thoughts at the end of the day could start motivating you to take on more writing tasks.

Break Your Education Down Into Parts

It’s tempting to just jump right into learning when you’re excited. Some people would also say that they’d instead start doing something, then learn from their mistakes as they go along. That could work, but sometimes it could backfire on you, particularly if you’re trying to learn something new.

For example, you want to learn to make beautiful wood art pieces, so you purchase a high-resolution laser-cutting machine. You might have a one-of-a-kind design in mind, but if you don’t take the time to learn how to use the tool correctly, you might end up getting frustrated and giving up on your ideas.

That won’t happen if you break down the learning process into digestible sections. In this case, learn the theory and the proper usage first, before moving on to its practical uses.

Learn with Others

Remember how fun learning is in school when you have your classmates? Not only do you have other people to share notes with, but you also have a peer group you could have fun with. The same could still be true if you’re mastering a skill outside of the classroom. Take knitting, for instance. There are many how-to videos on YouTube that you could watch and learn along with, but signing up for a class at your local craft store would be more interactive and fun.

When you learn with a group of your peers, instead of mastering a skill on your own, you have additional resources. You have someone teaching the class (your subject matter expert), and you have your classmates whose different life experiences could be beneficial to your learning.

It’s never too late to learn anything-whether it’s a new skill or a new way of thinking. The key things to remember are to keep an open mind and don’t be afraid to fail. As you continue learning your skills, those failures will turn to successes.

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