Source: wikiHow
Co-authored by wikiHow Staff |13 References
A large part of achieving both personal and professional success is learning new skills. All skills take time to learn, but you can simplify the process by setting goals and breaking the skill up into smaller steps. Practice every day and hold yourself accountable so you’ll be able to add that new skill to your repertoire in no time.
- 1 Think about skills that would benefit you. You may feel more motivated to learn a new skill if you pick something you think will benefit you in your work or daily life. Ask yourself if there are any skills that would help you get ahead at work, help you at school, or give you an advantage in your everyday life.[1]
- Skills that many people find useful for their education and career include learning a new language, programming, photography, writing, public speaking, data analysis, and cooking.
- 2 List skills you would enjoy learning. Make a list of 5-10 skills that you think you’d enjoy learning. These don’t have to benefit your job or schoolwork directly, although they can. Just think about things you’ve found interesting or that you’ve always wanted to learn how to do.[2]
- For example, have you always wanted to make your own scarf? If you have, then knitting or crocheting may be an enjoyable activity. Or, perhaps you want to learn how to play a new sport or take up a hobby like doing card tricks.
- 3 Calculate how much time you can devote to learning. Think about how much time you can devote on a daily or weekly basis to learning your new skill. If you don’t have a lot of extra time, a lower-commitment skill like learning to drive a manual car might be a good skill.
If you have more time, a skill that takes a lot of practice, such as learning how to play an instrument, might be right for you.[3]
- Pick a skill that you actually have time for right now. Picking a difficult skill and hoping you can learn it when you don’t have much time to practice is more likely to lead to you abandoning the skill.
- 4 Focus on a single skill at a time. Pay attention to learning one skill at a time rather than trying to master multiple skills at once. If you divide your attention, it will take longer for you to master your desired skill.[4]
- This doesn’t mean you can’t learn lots of new skills. Just take the time to thoroughly learn the basics of one new skill before you move onto the next one.
- 1 Set a realistic goal. Your goal doesn’t need to represent your endpoint with the skill. It should, however, encourage you to grow and push yourself as you learn your new skill. If, for example, you want to learn web design, your goal may be to build yourself an online portfolio that you design from scratch.[5]
- Don’t make your goal too lofty to start. If you want to learn to cook, don’t start with the initial goal of a 3-course meal. Instead, focus on learning how to make 1 dish really well. After you learn basic skills, you can learn more recipes and build up toward that meal.
- 2 Break your goal down into steps. Even reasonable goals can feel overwhelming if you don’t know where to start. Start by breaking your goal down into small steps. The exact number of steps you’ll need will depend on your goal.[6]
- Think about your steps like lessons. Each step should be small enough that you can achieve it in 1-2 lessons, but not so small that it’s not enough for a lesson unto itself. Remember, each step builds toward your goal. They may feel small now, but they’ll accumulate.
- For example, if you’re learning photography, a good step would be learning how to adjust the settings on your camera. This can usually be learned easily, but it’s a bigger task than just learning to turn the flash on and off, which can usually be done in just…
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