One of the most important things in life is to always keep learning. If you aren’t learning, you aren’t living as far as I’m concerned.
There are four things that I want to learn right now. They are:
- Become Fluent in Spanish
- Learn to Ballroom Dance
- Be a Good Golfer
- Learn to Play Piano
I want to learn all of these things so badly and so quickly that I’ve been trying to learn all of them at once.
I took a semester of Spanish 2 last spring, and for a time was planning to go to Costa Rica to learn Spanish.(which actually didn’t happen). I bought a Groupon for a free month of dance lessons and learned a bit in four weeks. I have a keyboard in my apartment that I play from time to time. And I’ve been playing more golf this year than I have ever played before. And guess what?
I still pretty much suck at all four of them.
I have a full time job. I run this website. I have a family, friends, and a girlfriend. And then for some reason, I think it’s a good idea to throw all of these time intensive activities on top of all that.
A few weeks ago I finally got smart and realized I am wasting not only time, but also money without making any progress.
The Spanish class was about $135. Dancing was $50 for a Groupon and would have been way more expensive to continue. Golf can be very expensive every time you play. And playing my keyboard is free, but music and/or lesson would cost money.
I finally realized I need to pick one and stick with it until I’ve reached my goal.
I Going to Kick Ass at Golf
Of the four activities I want to learn, I settled on learning golf. When I say “learn golf”, I mean that I want to be good enough that I rarely embarrass myself. That means no missing the ball completely. No hitting it 112 yards sideways. And no scores over 100.
If you’ve ever seen me golf, you know this is gonna be tough.
To get there will take practice, and golf can be a very expensive game. Luckily I am in a great position right now to get a lot of practice for a very small amount of money.
I got a membership at a pretty decent course near my house. The membership is only $35 a month and it gets me unlimited range balls (for non golfers, these are practice balls). A bucket of range balls is usually between five and eight bucks, so it pays for itself after less than a week.
And it gets better, because I can also play a round for just $9 (usually $19) if I start after 4:30.
I’ve been practicing every day for about two weeks now and I’m definitely improving. I plan to keep up this pace for at least the next 2-3 months. Hopefully by then I’ve met my goal and I’ve trained my muscles well enough that they won’t forget over the winter.
So if you’re a serial over-learner like me, you might want to pick one thing and go for it. I can tell you already it’s made me feel a lot better about myself.
Kevin McKee is an entrepreneur, IT guru, and personal finance leader. In addition to his writing, Kevin is the head of IT at Buildingstars, Co-Founder of Padmission, and organizer of Laravel STL. He is also the creator of www.contributetoopensource.com. When he’s not working, Kevin enjoys podcasting about movies and spending time with his wife and four children.
Interesting discussion, Kevin.
Here’s a question: imagine you are going to be tested on your golfing skills 2 months from now.
For the best results, would you choose:
a) 42 hours golf practise – 7 hours a day for 6 days
b) 42 hours golf practise – 2 hours x 3 times a week for 7 weeks.
Do you think the results would be different after 6 months?
I would definitely go with option b. I’m pretty much approaching golf like I used to approach sports in high school. Practice 5 days a week, every day. That way I build muscle memory over time. I think your body reaches an exhaustion point where it stops learning after a certain amount of time.
If I were to do option a, I would break the 7 hours up into 3 sessions to have rest in between.
Good question.
Yep, you are totally, completely right! This is something I struggle with often, not taking on too many projects at once. I’m a bit of a project slut. Too many things!
I remember once I was in university, and I had been wanting to take these two history classes since the beginning, but I was never able to fit either into my schedule, until the second semester of my third year, I took them both, because it was my last chance (fourth year was a big project—no electives). Little did I know these were two of the most intense classes my whole school offered and no one in their right mind should have taken them at the same time (they were also taught by the same prof). I don’t really regret it, because I liked the classes, but it was HARD, and I totally missed out on a lot of learning that I would have gotten if I hadn’t taken them at the same time. I ended up skipping half of the classes just because I couldn’t keep up!
One of my goals for next year is to learn Spanish. I took Spanish in college and 2 classes with the school district. I plan on taking the Rosetta Stone program and practice with my students. I am better at understanding Spanish than speaking. I guess practice, practice, practice is the key!
Good idea to focus on learning one hobby at a time. You don’t want to be a jack of all trades and master of none.
That is really good advice. I recently came to the same conclusion and have stopped myself from attending any educational webinars or buying any new how-to ebooks. I have been wasting too much time trying to learn too many different things and not putting what I know in to action.
Great blog BTW…finance can be so stuffy.