Self-Learning (Step 1)

Well, I was thinking that maybe what I can do best than most is self-learning. I’ve learned how to code, to drive, to ride a bike, to swim, I learned English, I’m actually learning Russian, Italian, German, Portuguese, Greek and French, I also learned to meditate, Yoga…you get the idea. What I quite simply don’t know is just how to do it, so maybe I’ll just learn to explain it also. I guess the main thing you need to start learning on your own is something that drives you enough to get past all the innuendo of having to actually learn something without someone else telling you to.

There’s no actual reward, no one is gonna grade you nor give you nothing. It’s just you and you alone. If you want it then you’ll learn. If you don’t…well there is no magic formula for ingesting new knowledge. It’s just hard work. And this is precisely why you need to have, as a very first step, something that drives you enough because learning something that you don’t like it’s almost like trying to fly without wings. You just can’t!!

And learning is actually not that uncommon on a daily basis, the problem is that we’ve been educated to learn only to score a test or to get a degree, we have forgotten how to learn just for the heck of it. Remember when you learned to ride a bike? You kept falling down and hurting yourself but the feeling you get when speeding up and having no one to hold you is quite simply indescribable. It doesn’t matter if you want to cook for your loved one or jump higher to reach the top shelf cookies, you need to have motivation.

So if this is going to be like a How-To, then I’ll guess the main first thing you need is to define «what is it that I want to learn?» and one easy approach is to just start doing it. Make yourself work doing that thing you want to learn and treat it as such, don’t treat it as a hobby. Get into an «office» (like a coffee shop or something) and start learning. Search for books, recipes, examples, video tutorials, someone on the internet surely has made some guides into how you’ll be able to learn. If you can manage to do that for at least half an hour long without getting distracted with nothing else, with nothing to do but thinking or researching that thing, then that’s something you love. If not, then move on.

I use Duolingo for learning languages. It’s funny that it has, like an «instructor» mode in which you get a certain amount as a daily goal so you can keep track of how many exercises you make. The intense goal is 50xp a day. I often do 250xp and I usually leave it there because some days I have the time and some days I don’t, and I hate having good days and bad days so I try to have it all even. I know it’s something I like because it’s very fun for me to learn new languages, it’s exciting and I often can’t wait to show someone what I’ve learned and I’ve frequently found myself picturing as a paid translator for the languages I’m learning.

If you have no idea what you may like, then I suggest asking your friends!! They often know our own likes better than we do, or maybe just try different things until one stick, it’s also pretty awesome to have at least tried things so you can talk about it with different people. You may also let me know in this poll what are you trying to learn, we can learn it together!!