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5 Tips to Teach Yourself a New Creative Skill

5 Tips to Teach Yourself a New Creative Skill

I'm sure at some point we have all seen something, maybe a shot on Dribbble, or a photograph on a billboard, and thought "Wow, I want to do something like that", but for whatever reason, a lot of the time, that gut instinct we have to teach ourselves a new creative skill is never acted upon. For example, a designer might read a captivating novel, and all of a sudden become full of inspiration and have aspirations of writing something of their own that could be that awesome. Or maybe you have your have your own personal aspirations of creating something to sell and make your millions, but for some reason, it never works out, usually due to either not knowing where to start or feeling like you would never have the time, or that it is out of your league. In this article, I will drawn on some of my own and other’s experiences with learning new skills, and hopefully help you feel a little more positive about broadening your own skill set. I'm sure I don't need to convince anyone of why learning new skills is cool, but suffice to say, at the very least it's something to add to your resume and give yourself a feeling a self accomplishment (which is always a good feeling to have).

1. Establish Existing Skills

If you already know what new skill you’d like to learn then that will give you a huge head start, but if you aren't sure what you'd like to do yet then quite often, the best place to start is to do some brainstorming, and assess what it is you already do well, identify your current strengths. So, for example if you are currently a graphic designer, you may have some of these skills under your belt:
  • Typography
  • Color theory
  • Layout
  • Design software
  • Understanding of the print industry
  • Communication skills
  • Photography
  • Attention to detail
If you can’t think of much for yourself, then consult your resumé, as that is where you probably place yourself in the most favorable light. With a list of existing skills in mind, you can gain some perspective, and can then cross reference that list against other lists that share similar aspects. This will help you to gauge how steep the learning curve of certain skills might be for you.

2. Decide What to Learn

On paper or in your head, consider what are the things you’d really like to get into. I personally come from a very web-based design background, with a little early experience of graphic and product design. A few of the things I wanted to start doing when I got out of university other than my main area of web design, were icon design, HTML/CSS and user interface design. My personal list of skills at the time would have included:
  • Typography
  • Layout
  • Design software
  • Web usability
  • Attention to detail/pixels
Straight away, already knowing design software was an obvious advantage to icon and user interface design. Web usability was at least a little background knowledge for HTML/CSS, and attention to detail/pixels is ideal for icon design. So almost instantly, taking on these tasks seemed a lot less daunting, and instead of feeling like I’d need to learn something completely new from scratch, I felt like I had an advantage over a lot of people. Usually, creative professionals find that the things they want to do, tie in to their main area of expertise somehow, or are complimentary to their main interest. Consider what you want to do and compare the “requirements” against the skills you already have.

3. Do It For Fun

The most important thing is to try to never lose sight of why you’ve decided to do what you’re doing. If possible, when you are executing your plan, you should see each step as an enjoyable task that you look forward to doing. It shouldn’t interfere with your work and family life, or stress you out. If it’s more fun you’ll get better at it much quicker, and want to practice it more. I like to compare this theory to video games, because I think that nine times out of ten, the games that we are the best at are also the games that we enjoy playing the most. It’s simple really, the more you enjoy and play a game the more awesome at it you become. Not including games that are just generally easy. The same theory can be applied to most things in life.

4. Achievable Goals

Managing stress is a difficult thing to do, but the main cause of stress is getting overwhelmed by your tasks. If you set impossible deadlines and expect too much, too quickly, you will be setting yourself up to fail. Focus on smaller tasks first, and take it one step at a time. This is especially important because when you teach yourself, you are in control of your learning. For example, imagine if you enrolled on a course to learn architecture and your tutor gave you your first task, to design the Golden Gate Bridge, or Sydney Opera House from scratch? Okay, that analogy is a little exaggerated, but you get the idea, it would never happen, and if it did, you would be instantly overwhelmed, and probably drop out that day. Unless you’re an incredibly ambitious individual. Of course, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have high aspirations, but if your end goal is to create something incredible, or become amongst the best in your field, then you need to set intermediate goals on the way. Remember the grander picture, but don’t just jump straight in, take small steps towards achieving your goal. I have a friend who wanted to start developing software, but he had never touched a line of programming code in his life, he did have have a basic grasp of HTML & CSS but not much else that was transferable to software coding. And after countlessly reigniting his passion for becoming a developer, and subsequently giving up, he decided to take intermediate steps to his goal. The problem was that he was always jumping head-first into the text editor each time, with a few online tutorials and just “giving it a shot”, so instead he began working on his HTML/CSS skills first, and started to integrate Javascript and PHP into his skillset, his “intermediate goal” was to create a web application first, which after many online tutorials, he actually managed, very successfully. It was basic stuff at first, but he loved every second of it, and progressively improved until he was capable of making complex, rich online applications. He has recently started learning Objective-C programming language now, and is finding it much easier than he did previously, although PHP and Obj-C are very different languages, he understands the principles more, and appreciates that the learning curve is high and he needs to move up it gradually.

5. Do it now

Now is a good a time as any to start! There will always be reasons to put things off for a bit, but if you do take it easy, go step by step and enjoy it then there isn’t any reason why it should perceived as something that you’re too busy to do. Try to see your decision to learn something new as an excellent chance to de-stress yourself, and take your mind off work at the end of the day, or whenever you get free time. Start by finding a relevant book or set of online tutorials and work your way through them, one stage at a time. I personally enjoy reading through tutorials as you always have something at the end to show for your time and effort. Don’t be afraid to get practical either, if you’re reading a book or tutorial and think “Okay cool, I could do that” then go do it! prove it to yourself.

To Sum Up

Just take it easy, break it down into stages and start as soon a possible, with a bit of self determination and motivation you will find it a breeze and enjoyable to expand on your skill set. Don’t forget to reward yourself when you hit a goal and keep yourself motivated!

Your Thoughts?

Let us know if you have any tips for learning a new creative skill? or maybe you’re already currently trying to learn something new? or if you want to learn a new skill, but don’t know where to start and seem to always hit dead ends? Thanks for reading, and we really hope that you feel inspired to do a bit of home-schooling!

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