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You Are Never Too Old To Learn New Skills – 13/11/2017

Sitting at our local pool watching my daughters receive their swimming lessons has made me think about how it doesn’t matter how old we are, we can always learn new skills. My two weren’t put into lessons at an early age so in comparison to a lot of children, they are behind on their swimming skills set. Do they look at it and feel embarrassed? Do they look at us and think we should have done it differently? Nope, they are just in that pool cracking on and enjoying learning something new and revelling in the excitement of achieving new goals.

How come as adults then we think about it differently? We could learn a thing or 2 from children.

Having been through schooling, college and University, many of us are “done” with learning. The thought of another text book or essay makes us want to scream and we are content that we have learnt everything we now need to. Except we haven’t…. the world has changed in just the last year, let alone since we left school at 16….

New skills and processes are often viewed as a chore and sometimes even a worry. I know how I feel when I have to do something that is alien to me, something that is new and scary. Do I look at it intially as building on an existing skill set? Do I see it as an achievement that I can mark as me having done it on my own? No, I look at it like it’s super scary and why did I agree to it or think it was a good idea?!

It doesn’t matter what the skill is. Learning to stand up and present, gaining a new qualification or even just making a sales call is all the same as children having swimming lessons…….it takes hard work to learn how to do it, it takes facing your fears and it takes time BUT it sets you up for the future. The first few times are scary and you might think that it was a bad idea but as time goes on, the nerves settle and the achievements make it all worthwhile.

What makes it even better is to have someone working with you that can teach you those skills. A good swimming teacher is worth their weight in gold to your child, a good teacher in your business is worth their weight in gold to you. Whether that is a lecturer, a business coach or even a friend who has experience to pass on…….having someone to work with makes you go further than you can on your own!

So whilst my one daughter is learning to trust putting her head under water and the other is learning that you CAN float on your back, I am thinking about what skill I need to learn too as there are many more I need to achieve.