Letters for Creatives #43: Finding skills to learn
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Hello, I am Celeste. Welcome and thank you for being here. It is a bit late for this week as the site had a problem.
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I am getting ready for the move in September. It feels scary in terms of financial matters because of the global crisis.
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Reads of the week
Sean’s Content Creation Flywheel
Sean McCabe made a mind map to remind himself what to do even when he feels bored or sluggish. Working out tends to make him feel better and do all kinds of work, whether it is writing, recording, editing or learning.
If I feel bored, I edit.
If I feel curious, I learn.
If I feel creative, I write.
If I feel energetic, I record.
If I feel sluggish, I exercise.
— Sean McCabe
A Simple Exercise to Discover What Skills You Should Learn
Nat Eliason suggested a way to find what we should learn. It depends on what we want to do.
Break a piece of paper into 2 columns and name them outcomes and skills.
List everything that you want to do in the outcome column. Write all your ideas. Don’t discriminate against any of them.
Choose 5 to 10 outcomes that feels most exciting to you.
Figure out all the skills you need for each outcome.
Link outcomes to the skills you need.
Choose 3 skills to learn.
What skills popped up the most?
What skills excite you the most? Go based on what pulls you in, not what you push yourself into.
And what skills are learnable? Leadership might be interesting to you, but it’s harder to start landing work for than something more tangible like programming. You can still learn leadership, but you may need to focus on something tangential and more sellable in the short term.
— Nat Eliason
Poem of the week
Let go of the past
the dark night of the soul
the people who are not lifting you up
The light shows you what could be
what lies in the corner
A lighthouse that shows you a faint path
Go one step at a time
Follow the light
Let your heart and soul
feel the lightness of life
Let the darkness drag you down
get back up after you are ready
Look at the lighthouse
or the moon
There is always light
even when you doubt it
You would arrive at the lighthouse
before you know it
— Celeste
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Until next time,
Celeste