All attempts at mutual education are important to help us grow. It widens our vision. – Robert Kennedy
Not only did we watch a Skillshare class together but we also decided to watch a Netflix show in French with English subtitles. While I do admit, watching the show in French was quite difficult to understand, the English subtitles that followed didn’t exactly correspond to what they were actually saying. That made it much harder for us but overall it wasn’t too bad. I think it was also because they were speaking French from France so understanding it was much more difficult than anticipated.
We’ve decided we would dedicate at least one hour a day to learn coding together and watch one French show every day. Two people working towards one mutual goal will not only allow you to help keep each other on track but it will make the path a much more enjoyable one. So long as at least one of you is motivated at all times, the path treading towards your goal will make it an easier one for both of you.
Let me re-iterate; at least one of you must always be motivated. It also can’t always be the same person that’s always pushing the other unless the person being pushed works well at producing results. However it works better when this motivation is both mutually exclusive. Otherwise, the one person that will always be pushing will eventually get tired and fed up (unless they have a very strong perseverance).
To prevent this motivation from deterring, it is important that both of you work well in framing your mindset to continue to work towards your goals. Having a project in the end as an experiment to apply everything you’ve learned will help both of you to apply the theory into action. That is where the real learning begins. We both decided we would build our own mini website based on all that we will learn and see who comes out with the best site. We’ll cast some votes to make it look like a competition.
If you make learning into a fun activity for the both of you, this allow you to maintain focus and work harder at achieving your goals.
I hope this post was motivating enough to get you to learn something new today.
How You Can Get Started
1. Find a friend, a family member, a significant other or anyone you would like to start a new challenge with. It could even be more than one person, the more the merrier but do keep in mind that the more people there are in a group the harder it will be to keep everyone motivated. I would recommend starting with one or two people max. Then, once you’ve all conditioned yourselves to learn how to stay on track you may expand the group and include more people.
2. Pick an activity or the topic you would like to learn. It could be anything from learning how to cook or even something small like learning to do a handstand.
3. Establish a mutual goal. Be specific. What do you want to get out of this activity? What is it that you want to learn how to do? If it is a wide topic, focus on a sub topic. For example, if the activity you want to learn is Photoshop then your goal might be to learn how to edit a photo or learn how to manipulate photos. If it is learning how to do a handstand, then your goal could be to hold a handstand for at least 30 seconds. You get the idea.
4. Create a time line. How much time will you guys dedicate towards this activity per week? Manage your time appropriately and try to fit in some time into your busy schedule. It could be 1 hour a day, 30 min a day, 2 hours a week, etc.
How long will it take for you to complete your goal? 1 month? 2 months? Try to keep your time frame shorter than 3 months. Any longer than that, your motivation will deter and procrastination will begin to kick in. That’s the last thing you would want.
5. If possible, create an end challenge. For example, if you picked photo manipulation as your goal then your end challenge could be who could create the best output. If you chose to learn how to do a handstand your challenge could be who can hold the longest handstand. Choose a judge, cast votes to friends and family. Make it so that you can hold yourself accountable to your goals.
Studies conducted by Dr. Gail Matthews showed that people who wrote down their goals, shared it with a friend and sent weekly updates to that friend were on average 33% more successful in accomplishing their stated goals than those who merely formulated goals.
6. Check up on each other continuously and communicate your goals. Read your goals every day. Track each other’s progress. Don’t let the other person or people in your group drift from the goal.
Finally, HAVE FUN! The point of this exercise is to make learning a fun experience. Make it into a routine that you will continue doing on a regular basis. After you’ve completed one goal, rinse and repeat the process over again.
Doing this exercise continuously will make your life more exciting. You will begin to feel a real sense of fulfillment. The point of it is to never stop learning and to never stop growing. You never know, maybe you will discover that one of these activities are something you would like to do as a side hustle. After all, you never know until you try it right?
“Focus on learning and creating rather than entertainment and distraction.”
X.O.X.O.
– Fifster
