Learning a new skill

We human beings have had the curiosity to learn something new from the start. Some of us showed real excellence coming out of them without any special training and also, they loved what they did. For example the potters showed excellence in creating clay pots in various designs that are interestingly beautiful. This is what we in the present call as a “skill”. A skill is an ability of someone to do something very proficiently. All of us have some skill that we also like to do when we are free. We are appreciated by others because of those skills and proficiency that we show towards our work. So without further ado, let’s understand about developing a new skill.

As discussed before, someone’s skill is his/her ability to do something very proficiently and the doer likes to do that thing. It is this skill that creates fascination to some person and this skill is what others appreciate. We appreciate someone because of his/her skill. People have different skills like drawing, writing, communication skills and other different skills. It is these skills that makes someone special. Every person has unique skills, and they can be good at multiple skills. So, we must actually try to develop these skills so that we can succeed. For example, on YouTube, you might watch many YouTubers who have a unique talent of entertaining their viewers. Similarly, there are many authors that teach a lot of things with just the mere words that they write. These skills are like fire. If used properly, then they can keep you and others warm and comfortable; but if not used properly, then they can end up burning you. There are many people that have very good intellectual skills. But, some of them use them for bad purposes, like the mafias of the terrorists—they minds are very sharp, and they can do things that are beyond a normal person’s expectation. However, this intellectual skill of theirs ends up harming others seriously. But, scientists use their intellectual skill to do something good for the society like discovering and inventing new things that can help other people.

The question might arrive that why shall we develop these skills in the first place? The answer is that today’s world requires educated—not literate people. Now you can ask what the difference between education and literacy is. The main difference is that a literate person has studied, but an educated person has learned. The main difference between learning and studies is that a person who has learned something has totally grabbed the essence of that thing and can explain and teach it to anyone else. However, a person that has just studied only remembers it for a short-term purpose—passing the examination. A skilful person learns more and more things and expands his/her knowledge. The world today demands people who are skilful and creative, not those people who just merely remember the things that the textbook teaches them.

Today the world wants those people who have multiple skills, i.e., people who are one but can do the work of five people. So, working on just one skill won’t solve the problem for your life or career in the future. Instead, notice your interests and skills and find out at least 2-3 of them. In one of the previous articles, we discussed the example of a wall. Let’s use the same example to understand here further. You are given two walls to climb, but there is something different in both the walls. One of them has just one rock that is projected/protruded out of the wall for you to climb up and the other wall has multiple rocks that are projected/protruded out. Hence, we can easily conclude that the second wall would be easier to climb since more rocks aid in getting higher up and they also provide a better grip to the wall. It is a similar case here.

Let’s suppose that the wall is success and the rocks protruded out are the skills that we possess. There is one thing that differentiates this wall of success with a normal wall. This wall of success keeps on getting taller. And so, in the older days it was easy to climb this wall with just one piece of rock projected out because this wall’s height was enough to be crossed easily with just one rock. But today, this wall of success is taller and would become even taller in the future. So, it becomes extremely necessary to develop multiple skills as multiple skills are the equivalent of multiple rocks and these multiple skills make it easier to climb the wall of success.

So, today we need to utilize our time not only to develop one skill, but many skills as they produce better chances for success. But, when some people climb this wall of success eventually, they don’t bother about others and they don’t help them to succeed by lending them their hand so that others can climb in an easier manner. This behaviour should be avoided and the successful people should lend a hand so that the people who are still climbing this wall can climb the wall in the easier manner. Hence we should not only develop multiple skills and achieve success with our constant discipline and determination, but once we succeed we should also lend our helping hand to others so that they can succeed as well.

Multiple skills help us in getting better chances for success. So, let’s understand that how these multiple skills are helpful towards our career in the present world. Let’s understand it with an example so that it becomes clear. Leonardo Da Vinci, the famous painter, scientist and inventor of Italy, had multiple skills that made him achieve this title of excellence, as whenever someone thinks of the Mona Lisa, before the original painting the painter comes in the mind. Leonardo Da Vinci and many other people in the past have shown that the person with multiple skills can develop better chances for success. But these people are from the past. There are thousands of other people who have multiple skills and they use them for their and others’ benefit. Multiple skills, as discussed before, create more rocks that make it easier to climb the wall of success. So, if you see that you are good in more than one thing, work on it until you take all of your skill with you to inculcate the knowledge. Always try to find more skills.

Developing a skill is a tough task to do. By tough I mean that it is very hard to inculcate this—but not practically impossible. Most people want to achieve this success in a shorter time. Here are my tips that they can use in order to do this:

• Be practical, not theoretical. Your practicality will make sure that you learn and develop the new skill. This practicality is what creates knowledge and this knowledge creates experience.
• Do not go in search of reward when trying to learn something new; try to search for experience because it creates knowledge within you.
• Try to give more of your time and concentration towards that skill. Also, try to inculcate the values of consistency, discipline and determination
• Try to notice that most subtle things in that skill. This search for subtleness will make sure that you never miss something. 

Now that we have seen what, why and how can we develop a skill, let’s also understand that how we can retain this skill for a really long time to help others in the future. Revision is the best option. Keep revising whatever you are learning so that you can retain that skill that you are learning for a really long time. Revise—not only in academics, but also in other fields.

For example, if you are a musician, then keep revising what you have learnt so far so that you don’t miss a single thing and you discover more and more about the music. Your doubts will automatically be cleared. Remember that first we investigate, then we inculcate and revise, and share it with others. This is the algorithm of learning. Anything that you want to learn, if you use these three things, then you can learn something extremely easily and remember it for a long time.

So far, we have discussed that people usually don’t appreciate others for their talent and skilfulness. This kind of behaviour can’t be considered helpful for the society. When we achieve something and we see that the other person hasn’t achieved it, then we make fun of that person and sometimes even ridicule that person. But when that person achieves something that is good, then instead of appreciating his talent we depreciate it and do not want to talk about it. This happens because people think that achievement is like winning something, which is partly true, partly false. An achievement is a win, but for only that person who has achieved that thing; there is nothing like defeating the other person in some manner. Someone’s win or lose has to be dealt by that person, not us, so why not consider appreciating that person so that he is determined himself/herself to do even better? Appreciating someone can make a huge difference in his work. So, not only consider appreciating that person for his good work, but also help him/her by providing him/her with proper guidance, if possible.

So this is how we can help our society by developing ours as well as others’ skills. These skills and talents play a big role in someone’s life and these things help them thrive and remain happy. Also we learned about how appreciating someone can make a huge difference in his performance and aid him in doing better than he did last time.