Lately I've been feeling increasing discontent at how much I procrastinate and stick to the same hobbies which are no longer mentally or emotionally stimulating for me. This stagnation can't be healthy (and the literature on cognitive decline and poor mental health suggests this also). Additionally, learning new skills just makes you a more interesting person, with more well rounded experiences, and you'll probably be able to hold a conversation better.
So I'm starting this thread to encourage people to learn new skills and to be held accountable for it. It doesn't matter if you suck at the new skills you're attempting to learn. Just make an honest effort and keep trying until you make some progress. And tell us your successes and failures.
So to inspire some people, I suggest you learn:
- new recipes (the more complicated the better, and try to learn it by heart)
- driving
- new software
- a new language
- an instrument
- coding
- painting / drawing / photography / arts and crafts
- sport (swimming, jogging, golf, tennis, etc)
- strategy games (such as chess)
- master proper grammar / spelling
- any topic you're interested in (history, geography, astronomy, neuroscience, etc)
And anything else you can think of.
This year I did learn how to use a new software and I taught myself to do digital paintings. But I want to aim to pick up a new skill every 3 - 4 months (or if not a new skill, then simply try to master an old one, at a higher level, so I'm still being challenged) and I'll be using this thread to track my progress over time. I hope others will join me.