A step-by-step guide to finding and learning a new skill in college
The concept of college education, in general, is learning, and more specific to college education is the liberty to learn as much of anything that really excites you (even at the expense of seemly important things).
One small fault college students extensively make is sticking to learn only what their major degree states and though there is no rule that says this is wrong, perhaps it’s not, it’s agreeable that college students will turn out better for themselves and their communities if they have the insight to other areas of development.
There is a handful of important skill-sets college doesn’t actively teach its students, some of which can’t be effectively taught in a lecture room (including money skills, intuition, and intuitive skills, etc.) thereby leaving you the individual to figure it out alone.
The best part about this as you’ll come to learn is — college serves as a catalyst to learning almost any new skill and here is a step-by-step guide on how to get started on learning a new skill and adding it to your personal skillset
1. Discover your area of interest(s)
No one comes to college with the idea of “whatever comes I’ll take” at least not to the extent that no one is without a course of study while they are in college. The same concept applies to learning a new skill.
Firstly you must identify the skill you’ll be willing to devote yourself to learning and the best clue can come with these questions:
“What would I possibly enjoy doing even if I didn’t actively get paid for it?” — it could be as blunt as being a TikTok celebrity and perhaps as sharp as being a solider on call of duty mobile (haha!)
The second question then is —
what would I actively enjoy doing and still earn money from?
Incredibly, you’ll discover a large discrepancy between both answers as what you’ll enjoy for no money and what you’ll prefer to do for money sometimes are distinct.
The reason to consider the aspect of money is simple. No idea or concept can be valid without money offering support, so it’s a good exercise to begin to figure it out as early as possible.
2. Make a list and pair a set of skills
It is a general occurrence that we usually don’t have a specific area of interest, many times we want to do a million things all together at once as if it were possible. And so the next thing to do will be to grab a notepad and make a list of interests you have and pair two or three skills you know would make you better than average in that area of interest.
Let’s take a Youtuber for example; creating great quality videos is a prime requirement, to begin with, so learning skills such as video directing, video editing are skills to pair with that area of interest.
Another example will be a TikTok celebrity, the skills to pair along with these will be social media management, content creation, community management, etc.
3. Invest time
At this point, you’ll possibly have a handful list of interests alongside skills that match. Now is the evident part of the exercise — invest time!
Investment as anyone with enough exposure can tell is the best strategy to building wealth, but with the reality of being a broke college student, the most important asset we’ve got outside money is time!
Invest a decent amount of time in learning skills paired with interests that deeply resonates with you, but make sure you do so in moderation and not flunk the most seemingly important part of the college which is academics.
Work well enough to get and maintain good grades, but also be willing to invest time in learning the skills you’ve set your interests to learning.
4. Use free resources
A common question that would pop up is where do you begin to learn the skills you need? The best resource for learning anything new in our century is the Internet.
Use the internet to find free resources that offer you insight into your area of interest, with time you’ll be able to discern what’s great quality and what isn’t.
And what if your skill can’t exactly be learned through videos and articles on the internet but require practical skills like baking a cake, for example; one way I’ve used in the past (not like I can bake a cake) is to offer to work for free at a bakery or wherever cakes are made.
Remember it’s time you are investing and offering to work for free allows you to get in with people who can offer you a lot of insight into your area of interest.
5. Document your journey
This perhaps would not be entirely necessary to most people, but there is something extraordinary with documenting your journey, either through text, audio, or visual. It helps you stay consistent and consistency is the greatest thing you’ll need in anything you ever decide to devote your time to.
6. Create! Create!! Create!!!
Another way to say this is simply by saying “Just do it!” — The Nike Slogan. You certainly won’t get better at any skill, if you don’t take time to actively practice it or create with it.
Conclusion.
This coupled with everything noted in this piece should get you into a framework of finding out what skill you’ll like to equip yourself with and give you a rather simple approach on how to get started. Certainly, there are peculiarities that aren’t discussed in this article, but as soon as you begin the journey of learning, you’ll undoubtedly discover those missing pieces as you progress. Until next time. Excelsior!
