How to Learn a Skill

Almost everyone has something they want to learn, whether it's French cooking or concrete forming. Many of those people will never actually learn either of those things, for the same reason. They don't know how to get started. Or they heard classes were expensive or hard to find. That's a sad state of affairs.

Anyone can learn anything they really want to, and usually it can be done inexpensively. I'm not talking about brain surgery or skydiving- some things really do require professional instruction for the safety of everyone. Everything else follows the same process, and here it is.

Decide on a Project

Saying to yourself "gee, Vietnamese food sure is tasty. Learning which ingredients combine to make those flavours would be interesting," will not motivate you. On the other hand, deciding that this weekend you're going to make Pho is a project. It has steps to take, and an outcome. Same thing with thinking crochet is neat as compared to deciding you need crocheted dishcloths for your kitchen. Once you have a finished item you can imagine, you've made the mental shift from interest to learning even before you've actually started.

Maybe what you really want to make is extremely complicated, or overly large. In that case, you may want to do a small scale version first to master techniques you'll need.

Do Some Research

Use the net, go to the library. Find a recipe or a set of plans for something similar to what you want to do. Read forums and see what experienced people recommend. Make a list of tools and materials, and the steps you'll need to take. The recipe or plan doesn't have to exactly reflect the outcome you're after, it just has to be close.

You might be short on tools or materials. In that case, figure out where you can rent or borrow them. Most cities have a tool library these days, and Craigslist, Kijijii, or Freecycle are great sources too. Ask your friends if they know where you can find whatever you need. People love to problem solve- ask around and you'll find tons of folks who want to help you!

Watch videos on YouTube. Besides the amazing number of cute cat videos, YouTube is a vast repository of instructions for every subject imaginable.

Now that you have a general understanding of what you're going to do...

Do It!

Get dirty. Take those lists you made of the plans or recipes and walk through them. Take your time, Read the instructions along the way. In a lot of cases, you might not understand why you need to do X before doing Y. Try doing it your way first to see what happens.

As you work your way through the project, write down the steps you took and how you did it.

Fail

Yep. Fail. That's what I said. It'll happen. Things burn, wood gets cut too short, circuits don't work. Meh. Things are messy or rough or too spicy or just plain wonky. It ain't the end of the world! You now get why X comes before Y. Think about what you did, and try to figure out where you went wrong. Check the steps you wrote down as you went to see if you missed anything.

Do It Again!

Luck might be with you, and you can undo everything and start over. That's great- back tracking will let you see exactly where you went wrong. If not, well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Your analysis of the process and results from the mistake leaves you in good stead to improve things this time around. Knowing what not to do is half the battle, and a second or third attempt is usually 10 times better than a first.

Succeed!

Give yourself a high five. The end product might not be professional quality, but it's yours. Own it. Take pictures and post it to Facebook or Instagram or on one of the forums you found doing your research. Tell people it's your first try and let them congratulate you. Because they will: the world loves a beginner. Enjoy being showered with positive comments.

Pick a New Project

Had fun the first time around? Awesome! Decide on a slightly more challenging project and go to it! Discovered that what you were doing is not for you? Pass on the tools to someone who can use them, and find a new skill to try.

CAVEAT: You might have decided to learn something potentially dangerous. That's great. If you:
-worked on your own car
-did anything to do with electrical, plumbing or construction (eg, built a deck)
-modified a piece of machinery in any way

GET A PROFESSIONAL TO CHECK YOUR WORK BEFORE YOU TURN IT ON! 

[image borrowed from brandonvaugn.com]

I'm a troublemaker. I hope you are too.

I attended a team-building exercise this morning. It was nothing terribly exciting, a sort of forced march to "get to know each other better" type affair. The facilitator asked a question and we all had to take a turn answering. I got bored while we were inventorying the attendees best qualities, which resulted in me making a paper airplane. I was still following the discussion. Coworker A thinks his best quality is time management. Coworker B believes hers is having a great eye for design, etc etc. The VP, who happens to be a friend of mine and used to be a mechanical engineer looked over and nodded at my plane. Supposing he wanted to look at it closer, I flew it across the table to him. All of three feet, close to the table. Barely a distraction.

Well, the facilitator noticed. "Oh, you're a bit of a troublemaker, aren't you?"

All my coworkers laughed. It's funny because it's true. "Just demonstrating my best quality," I replied instantly.

By disposition, I don't really get a choice in the matter. I challenge systems because I think. Why are we still doing this process, when this could work better? Could we get the same results doing it another way?

In a work setting, people are often wasting a lot of time performing a task the way they've always done it, for no better reason than that's the way they've done it. Try to get them to do something new and they resist until they can see the benefits. Someone has to do it first!

Once upon a time I was at a bar with some friends. An attractive guy walked in. My companion noticed him. "Go talk to him," we all encouraged her, with the usual round of "you look gorgeous," and all that. She refused. "I can't make the first move!"

To her great embarrassment, I made my way across the room and started chatting him up. He was nice, his friends were funny. After a few minutes, I invited them to come over to our table. Introductions were made. A good time was had by all. My friend was greatly relieved to find I hadn't gone up to him and said something like "my girl thinks you're hot." (Full disclosure: that's not out of the realm of possibility for me.) They didn't get married or anything; it's not a fairytale romance. We all came out of that night with a few new friends. I call that a success.

Someone had to make the first move.

In another case, it didn't turn out quite so well. I went holiday shopping with a friend and her friend. I met up with them the night before to watch movies, play games and generally have some holiday fun. We had a great time, laughing and swapping stories about our hostess. That warm feeling faded quickly the next day. Everywhere we went, she said the same sort of thing. "This place is better than the one in Mississauga. There are so many brown people there, it smells like curry and ass." "At least the clerks at this store speak English." And on and on. By the time we made our fourth stop, I'd had enough.

She was in the middle of yet another offensive comment when I cut her off. "Are you aware of the fact that saying racist shit makes you sound stupid?"

"But this part of town-"

"Nope. No matter where you go, it's all the same people. You're an idiot."

She didn't speak to me again. Later on, my friend phoned me to ask why I'd been such a troublemaker and ruined our day.

Someone had to say something. That's what troublemakers are for.

Mischief managed.

There is No Such Thing as Downtime

I work full time. Monday to Friday from 8 am to 5 pm. I go to school 3 nights a week from 7 to 10, and all day Saturday. I exercise (almost) every day, and participate in 2 or 3 craft swaps a month. I build sets and props for a community theatre company on a regular basis. I knit or sew most of my own clothes, and what I didn't make from scratch, I've altered. Nearly everything in my diet is scratch made at home.

Let me guess. You're wondering how I manage to do all that.

It's easy. I don't believe in downtime. The way I see it is this: On any given evening, I could be sitting on my couch watching TV. That's what I'm given to understand most people do.

Except I don't understand that. I've seen every episode of the Walking Dead. I've watched and rewatched all of Sons of Anarchy. I can recite bits and pieces of the Big Bang Theory.I love TV. What I don't love is sitting still. You don't actually have to watch TV most of the time- take TBBT for example. 99% of the time they're in Sheldon and Leonard's apartment. You know what it looks like already. Heck, you know where Sheldon is sitting! You can get just as much enjoyment out of listening to TBBT as you can watching it. Why not get crafty or physical while enjoying it? Multi-tasking for the win!

If I'm in front of the TV, I'm knitting or pinning a sewing project or running in place. Heck, if we're watching a video in class, it's a good bet I'm knitting if we're not supposed to be taking notes. My craft table is right there by the TV, and it's as good a place to put the cutting board and chop veggies to freeze so I have them ready for my next cooking extravaganza. (When it comes down to it, prep is the time-consuming bit of cooking.)

I put my lunch hours into working on the sets for the theatre. I'm lucky that the warehouse we work out of is very close to my workplace to facilitate that.

I often hear people say that they just need time to zone out and recharge. That attitude is wrongheaded, in my opinion. What really does the recharging is shifting your attention to a new subject. When it comes right down to it, sitting in an office looking at a computer screen is physically no different from watching TV. It's not going to refresh you no matter how much you want it to.

Jesse James was asked how he managed to build his business in the evenings after a full day doing manual labour for a pay cheque. His answer was simple. He never sat down. He came home and went directly to his garage to work on custom projects. The couch is a trap. Saying you're just going to relax for ten minutes is a lie. Ten minutes turns into 30, turns into an hour, and the next thing you know, the day's gone.

And then the week's gone, and the month, and the year.

We know what comes after that, don't we?

Never stop moving. There's always something to do, and you can accomplish a lot of it right there in the living room with your family.

*image from thesprucetunnel.wordpress.com

The Torment of the To-Do List and Why I'm Adding One More Thing

I wrote a long post about it being only the first week of January and already feeling like a failure for various reasons, most of which are beyond my control.

I deleted it.

I've planned. I've organized. I've ticked things off my to-do list and added more. I made progress. 

Little tiny steps towards the life I want. It's only been eight days. How much could I possibly think I could achieve?

Apparently more than I'm capable of.

That's not true either. What actually happened was this: I had two weeks off over the holidays. I ran, I cooked, I created, I organized. I was busy. Then the holiday ended and it didn't occur to me that I wouldn't be able to keep up the pace on my personal projects I'd set during my time off.  It only took a few days for me to dig myself a pretty deep depression ditch. I spent most of yesterday at work beating myself up for not doing all the things that were on Wednesday's to-do list. Afterwards I dragged my sorry butt home and looked around my place.

What did I see? All the things I've accomplished in the short time since I started my journal and wrote down what I wanted to do. The hat I knitted on Sunday. The freezer full of a month's worth of healthy lunches for work. The neatly checked off squares on my new running calendar. The books I got with the library card I finally got around to acquiring. The registration confirmations for the classes I signed up for this semester. The sketches for the modifications I'm doing on my truck.

That's a lot of win! How could I not see the upswing happening?

Easy. That's not what I was looking at. I was so busy cataloging the things I didn't do (and a few I didn't even want to think about) that I didn't leave a second to enjoy the successes I've had. By engaging in forward-thinking tunnel vision I could only see the boxes I didn't get to tick off my list. This is a regular occurrence for me. I make myself miserable trying to do everything all at once.

What am I going to do about it?

Ironically, I'm adding another item to my daily to-do list. What's it going to say?

Take a daily inventory of everything you've accomplished!

If you're anything like me, you might want to make a daily appointment with yourself to really begin understanding just exactly how many cool things you do. You'll be surprised at how successful you are.


*image "borrowed" from alalaloa on deviantart