Incase you missed this months wellbeing challenge it was all about learning a new skill.
I’m pretty sure you can guess what new skill I’ve been learning over the last month from my title – Spanish.
A little bit of history
I started learning Spanish in secondary school nearly 20 years ago, even took it for my GCSEs and even though I loved it as with most things in school I didn’t continue with it. If you don’t use it, you lose it. Now that I’m older and have travelled to a few places I’ve noticed what a huge benefit it would have been if I could speak fluent Spanish. So, what better opportunity than a wellbeing challenge to pick it up again.
My journey
It took me a few days to figure out what I wanted to learn and get into the swing of things. I enquired into joining a local Spanish class but there were no spaces available. I then decided to try a different route and I found a podcast called coffee break Spanish and began listening to one or two episodes each day on my drive home from work. I have been working my way through the first season of the programme and I’ve really been enjoying it.
Now whilst most of this task has been quite fun and easy I also ran into some difficulties. If your life is anything like mine there is always something happening, something to do, somewhere to go - so finding 15 minutes or more a day quiet and uninterrupted time is quite hard. The second problem I ran into was in the form of sickness. Over the past week or so I managed to pick up a virus or throat infection and lost my voice so practicing Spanish became less of a priority when the focus became getting back to full health.
Here’s what I have learnt
- Challenge yourself – don’t pick something that you can already do with your eyes closed. You will be prouder of what you achieve if there is a bit of a challenge.
- Be consistent – it may not be easy in the beginning but it will pay off in the end. Just like physical fitness, the more we do something the easier it becomes
- Don’t give up – Rome wasn’t built in a day. Be patient. It takes time to become an expert at something but if you give up you’ll never know how good you could be.
- It's ok to make mistakes, it’s how we learn. Mistakes are all part of the learning process, we make them every day. They show us what does and doesn’t work and help us to make changes.
- If all else fails try something else – if you’re really not enjoying it maybe it’s not for you. If you’ve done all the things above, you’ve given it your absolute best and still feel like it’s not something you want to do them move on. Don’t punish yourself.
Learning is a treasure that will follow it's owner everywhere - Chinese Proverb
I'm going to be continuing with my Spanish lessons and will even join the course when a space becomes available.
I'd love to hear what you've been doing and how you've been getting on with your wellbeing challenges so feel free to drop me an email and let me know.
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