Wednesday, July 7, 2021 (Day 188)
Relaxing Music for the week: East of Full Moon: Deuter (8:33) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBdkb0suFFI
Question: What is your favorite way to learn new things?
Answer: Most of the time, I like to learn new things by watching how things are done, then going out an doing it. A perfect example was this past Saturday, where I learned pickleball for the first time. I watched several intro to pickleball videos (like the basic rules, how to serve, how to keep score, best strategies to be successful), then went to the courts ready to play. Within an hour, I was playing on the “big boy” court with three other guys – and help my own pretty well for a first time. Actually, my partner and I won 3 out of 3 matches, which was pretty cool. I think being a 4.0 tennis player helped, because for many of the strokes, it was pretty straightforward. I think the hardest part was learning to serve underhanded, but I picked that up quickly. Volleys were easy, drop shots were something I’ll need to practice. Stokes from the baseline was definitely a strength, since that’s how I play tennis most of the time. That’s a perfect example of how I like to learn; watch a video and/or read a book or instruction manual, then let me try it out. Most of the time, I can get it right the first time, sometimes, when I don’t get it right, it’s just a small step that I missed from going too fast. I am persistent…I will try to figure it out until I can’t, then ask for help. That happened today, where I couldn’t get my work computer to connect to university system. I know it was unplugged, so that was the first problem. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the problem. To make long story short, I tried at least 4 or 5 different solutions (I’ve learned enough about tech to at least be dangerous) and NONE of them worked. So I called out tech person; comes to find out, my ethernet connection from the wall was disconnected. How about that? He thought that maybe they turned it off when it had no activity for a while (at least a year). So hopefully by the end of the week, I’ll have my connection working again. But again, at least let me try…
Other Stuff
Aligned with learning is creativity. Rebecca is definitely a creative; I consider myself a somewhat creative person. Regardless of whether you find yourself highly creative, somewhat creative, or that you have no creativity, the following article provides some insights into what creative people do and how they live their lives. Even if you’re not creative, it’s easy to incorporate a few of these practices to increase your level of creativity; find a list here:
- 18 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently – https://www.huffpost.com/entry/creativity-habits_n_4859769
I can’t say I have a favorite practice because I incorporate most of them as part of my daily routine in some form or another. What about you?
The Dream Dean 