The key to learning new skills

Have you ever been laughed at or felt embarrassed for trying to learn something new? Have people looked at you and thought, ‘there’s no way you’re gonna get it’? Are you embarrassed to say that you don’t know how, even though you’ve been shown before?
If you have answered yes to any of those questions then you should read on. Hopefully by the end you will be inspired to learn new skills to develop yourself and possibly end up teaching others. I will look at lessons I’ve learned, finding the time to learn new skills and a little about work-life balance.

A lesson from my father

I remember watching my father write his book on the Biafran war when I was growing up.

​My father was Aide De Camp (ADC) to the head of state during the war but when Biafra lost he escaped with my mum and other family members on a cargo plane. It landed on an air strip, rolled as they jumped on and then took off again flying away under gunfire. 
The picture on the right is one of the few images I have of my dad as a young man as he lost everything in the war. 
Years later, he had a story to tell so he got a typewriter and started to write. 

​

He bowed over the contraption and typed with one finger from each hand. He could have used pen and paper but he chose to use the typewriter. He was learning as he went along. Although we would laugh at the speed of his typing he would ignore us and carry on. Soon the typing speed increased and we could no longer laugh because we lacked the skill he had. I remember it taking him a long time to finish the book (maybe because I was a child it seemed long?) but he did finish it. From this I learned that it takes resilience to learn a new skill.
​
As an adult I reflect on that time and wonder how long it would have taken him, had he learned to touch type? If I were to ask him if he’d like to spend time learning how to touch type I wonder what his response would’ve been? Would his response be the same as those of us who are given new technology today but ‘don’t have the time’ to learn how to use it fully?
 ​​

We all knew when he was working on the book because of the satisfying, clattering noise of the typewriter buttons being pressed, as well as the ding to show he reached the end of the line, the mechanical sliding of the page and moving of the ribbon to the start of a new line. Fantastic!

I would always ask if I could have a go. The answer was always ‘no!’

There were times when no one was around that I would have a go at trying to be the man in the animation at the end of the A-Team but there was never any paper.  (hidden away maybe?)

Finding time to develop yourself, is it possible?

Knowing how  to use an iPad to read text aloud to a learner is useful, locking an application so that the user cannot jump out to something else is useful, monitoring use of tech from a central location in realtime is handy, digitally marking work using audio and written feedback is great and issuing tests that are self marking is absolutely amazing. When do you get the time to learn how to do these things?

There are so many things that we can do with technology that will save us so much time, yet we opt for the slower way. This is not because we don’t want to save time but is because we like to work in flow. We don’t like disruption to our working pace by trying out something new. We often don’t have the time to try things out. As a result, people take longer doing tasks that could be done more quickly. This is like the allegory about the man who took all day to chop down a tree, but didn’t want to sharpen his axe as it would waste his time. Sharpening the axe would have caused him to get the job done in half the time. The same can be said about our work tasks. If we learn the skills for the tools we are using then we can do the job more effectively. 

What about work-life balance?

CPD in schools and business is so important to aid work efficiency and wellbeing. Why not invest time in learning a new skill to make your work life easier, to be more effective, to get more done in less time?

I understand the struggle of making time to learn new things over getting the job done. Often learning new things takes so much time and feels like more work. We already have so much work to do so when the time comes to stop working, the last thing you want to do is something that feels like more work. 

We value things that we find important. Things that will improve our practice or wellbeing. Often, it's not a case of knowing what needs to be done but rather knowing which tool to choose and where to start with it. This is a problem of identifying and learning discrete skills within applications for a specific purpose. Understanding this is what led to the creation of my YouTube channel. I wanted to make bite size clips for people to top up their knowledge of specific skills within applications in a digestible way. Once one skill is learned and applied there is a sense of achievement and progress which can lead to a hunger to learn more skills. 
I want people to be able to learn a new feature and apply it. I want people to maximise the free technology they have access to before looking to other solutions that possibly cost money. 

So what's stopping you from learning something new?

What are the hindrances to you learning something new? Do you have time on your journey to or from work? Can you download an audio book to listen to? Could you watch a learning clip while prepping a meal? Can you team up with others who are in the same position and learn together?

Are you able to spend a few minutes each week to learn a new skill? Are you able to plan time to put that skill into practice? Are you able to map out a skills development path for yourself to improve your practice? I believe you can. Just focus on small steps. One application and one feature at a time. List the new skills you have learned and before you know it, you’ll be teaching others how to use the program. 

You may have tried to develop yourself in the past but didn't have much joy, if so, I would like to encourage you to try again. Your ability is not at its peak as long as you have the capacity to learn something new. In that case, you are yet to realise your full potential. 
I am constantly learning new things and don’t feel I am any more special that you reading this blog. If I can do it, you definitely can. ​​​
​Learn something new, be resilient, set aside small amounts of time often and be the best you can be.