These last few years have been a period of expanding my horizon, shoring up my deficiencies and adding muscle to what I already have. Hard to say what the overriding motivation has been but the results have been most satisfying.
I’ve had to learn and add new skills to what I could do and learn about things that I never thought I would need to tackle in the past. The most surprising thing has been that it hasn’t been as hard as I once thought it would be.
For a long time I would not try new things or would not delve deeper into skills and abilities that I already had. I had grown complacent and content with what I knew. But one day I looked around and came to the realization that what I knew or what I could do was no longer enough.
People around me, not just younger people but people my own age were passing me by and surpassing me.
“You paint? when did that happen?”
“you can weld?”
“You know everything about home-refinancing?”
“You can program in Java?”
People around me had a plethora of skills that I never realized that they had and here I was thinking that I knew so much. Now I’m not saying I’m going to go out and do all these things and master them. I am however slowly adding to my capabilities and learning more and more.
One reason is that I want to be more self-sufficient and know more about life in general. Doing things helps me learn about things. Jumping right in and trying things is a great way to learn. Another reason is that it keeps me busy and keeps my mind fresh. Slipping into ruts where you do the same thing year after year is dangerous.
Sure you should have some patterns in your life but don’t get stuck into a fossilized mindset. Stretch out and try.
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