Posts Tagged ‘Personal Development’

Like most people my interests tend to shift over time. I get really interested in something, focus on it 100%, and slowly my interest gets pulled to newer and more exciting things. I think this is a pretty natural part of living. Most of us are trying to find excitement in our lives and learning new things definitely keeps things fresh. Something starts out exciting, we get used to it, and many times end up losing interest all together.

This also happens with skills and knowledge. When you first learn something new it is exciting and you are doing it a lot. This can be something as simple as a certain way you clean or organize or a the way you go about doing you work. It might have been that the skill was something very helpful to you and a large time saver, yet over time you stopped. It may not have been intentional, but at some point that skill/knowledge lost it’s newness or appeal and you stopped doing it. In fact, unless you are reminded what it was, you probably can’t even think of it.

Every once in a while you have to relearn. Or better yet, you have to KEEP learning. However, in order to keep learning, you do need to occasionally review what you already know.

I find that reading is a great way to keep my skills advancing, but there are also additional things you can do to help. Putting things on schedules so you are reminded to keep doing them, writing down the important things you learn and reviewing them later, and of course asking for advice from others. It seems that there is always someone who has tried something I am interested in, and that person’s advice is always so valuable. Even if I don’t use their idea or information directly I can still use it to help create my own ideas.

Recently I decided I wanted to brush up on my Japanese skills. I live in Japan, so speaking isn’t really an issue, but I decided I wanted to start studying again to improve my grammar and vocabulary. As I started considering how I wanted to go about studying and exactly what my goals were, I came across a number of sites and techniques I had basically forgot about.

Now I can take that old knowledge and combine it with anything new I might have learned since then to create an even more efficient and effective study method.

I am also re-reading “The 4 Hour Work Week” to relearn a lot of the tricks and time savers in that book. If nothing else, it is a great book to get motivated.

We onyl have so much time each day, so you should try as much as possible to spend it doing things that you like. Ideally you should spend it doing things that both improve your skills or you as a person and doing something that you like. For most people, this seems to give a greater sense of satisfaction than just sitting in front of the TV.

Trying lots of new things is a great idea and will help you find what you really like. The ones that you stay with and get good at will give you the most benefit. 

However, there are also times when we should give things up.

For example, let’s say that you decide to try and learn the piano. You purchase a book, take some lessons, and learn to play a little. However, after time goes by, you find yourself playing less and less. It’s not that you don’t like to play, but it isn’t important enough or enjoyable enough to make a priority. Unfortunately, the entire time it will be on the back of your mind that you should be playing more. As long as you keep it in your mind that you will “practice tomorrow”, that guilt will keep nagging at you. Deciding to just quit can help relieve some of that stress.

So when should you not quit?

When you enjoy it too much. You don’t care how good you get, but you sit down and play everyday anyways. Doing something because you love it is always better than doing something because you think you have to.