self-improvement

10 Things I Want to Learn

Stolen from Austin Kleon‘s Steal Like an Artist Journal. I mean, I had to.

The idea (and first prompt in the above-mentioned book) is simple: Write down 10 things you want to learn. Here’s the list Kleon came up with in the heady, pre-pandemic days of 2017:

Now, I love lists, so this is my bag. But I haven’t given a lot of thought to 10 things, which may not seem like a lot, but really is, so going off the top of my head, I may not have 10 right away. Here goes my initial attempt.

10 Things I Want to Learn (2023)

  1. Discipline
  2. How to create a song (with vocals) in Garage Band (or other music software)
  3. How to Stretch
  4. How to consistently draw Gum Gum People
  5. Meditation
  6. My camera’s ins and outs (Canon EOS M50)
  7. Unity (the game engine, not the concept)
  8. Blender (3D animation program)
  9. ???
  10. ???

All right, I have a list to start, and I think it’s a decent beginning, but I will need to ponder a bit and come back to round out the list.

The incomplete list of things I could learn to do properly and the odds of it happening

I do some things quite well, like breathing and walking. Others I do moderately well, like avoiding donuts, and some I’ve resigned myself to never being that great at, like math. Math is hard.

But there is a group of miscellaneous things that I have attempted to become better at and, for various reasons, have failed to do so. Here’s a short list of some of these things, along with the odds that I might actually become better at them:

  • Ice skating. I am not terrible at ice skating, just a bit wobbly, especially when required to move in a not-straight line. I very rarely ice skate, though. Odds of improving: Close to zero.
  • Swimming. I have long described my swimming technique as “not drowning” and after taking aborted swimming lessons, discovered that part of the problem was having an actual fear of water, or at least water’s potential to snuff out my life in the right circumstances. I rarely go in water, though I am sometimes near it. I’d have to overcome the fear before trying lessons again. Odds of improving: Slight, but better than winning the lottery.
  • Typing. I never learned to touch type. How can someone who dreamed of becoming a writer never learn to touch type? I do not know. I even got my own typewriter as a kid. I’ve tried learning with Mavis Beacon and it did not go well. I’ve dabbled a few times since. This would clearly benefit me, yet I never seem to get enough momentum to keep pushing through. I need a magic typing pill. Or just start using dictation. In fact, I’m going to dictate the rest of this post! Odds of improving: Slim, but possible.
  • Losing weight. I am in the process of losing weight now and have actually seen some success, so I am somewhat positive that this will be a thing I can actually achieve. Odds of improving : Good.
  • Drawing. Over the last couple of years I have started to draw more, and I am seeing improvements by doing so. I have taken actual lessons on things like perspective, shading and so on, and some of those lessons have actually stuck! Odds of improving: It’s already happening, woo.

I’ve now turned auto punctuation on for the dictation, because it was doing weird things with the periods and commas. Let’s see if it works better now. So far it seems to be working better. Who knew? Computers are just so darn smart. Maybe I’ll let the computer write the next post.

Daily activities for 2022 and beyond: Day 1 results

Let’s have a look at how I did on my first day (a recap in case you arrived at this post directly):

  • Draw one thing (when lacking a specific subject, I will grab a prompt and limit myself to 5 minutes total time to get this done) DONE
  • Record a journal entry (using Diarium, which has a somewhat unfortunate name, but is cross-platform) DONE
  • Write a blog entry DONE
  • Take a photo of something. It doesn’t have to be good or even interesting, just a photo…of something. DONE
  • Exercise: Walk outside, walk on the treadmill, run on the treadmill or run outside. Or ride my bike, skip rope or something that can actually be considered exercise and isn’t like, “I lifted the TV remote 20 times today!” DONE
  • Spend time learning more of the software I use to become a professional expert of impressive knowledge or something. This includes:
    • Unity
    • Affinity Designer
    • Affinity Photo
    • Procreate
    • DaVinci Resolve
    • Blender
    • Visual Studio/C#
    • Obsidian
    • Various other 2D animation and other art programs DONE
  • Work in some way on my snazzy newsletter DONE

Yes, I went 7 for 7 on my first day. I gave myself an imaginary medal! I did better on some of these than others, but hey, I did it.

Now let’s see if I can maintain momentum for two entire days in a row.

Things I will do every day, starting…tomorrow. Absolutely tomorrow.

I am feeling revitalized for reasons unknown and feel it’s time to exercise some discipline, make things happen and other assorted clichés.

Here’s my list of things I will be doing every day. Note: I have excluded essential things for healthy living or just living, period, like eating, sleeping, breathing and pooping.

Daily activities for 2022 and beyond™

  • Draw one thing (when lacking a specific subject, I will grab a prompt and limit myself to 5 minutes total time to get this done)
  • Record a journal entry (using Diarium, which has a somewhat unfortunate name, but is cross-platform)
  • Write a blog entry
  • Take a photo of something. It doesn’t have to be good or even interesting, just a photo…of something.
  • Exercise: Walk outside, walk on the treadmill, run on the treadmill or run outside. Or ride my bike, skip rope or something that can actually be considered exercise and isn’t like, “I lifted the TV remote 20 times today!”
  • Spend time learning more of the software I use to become a professional expert of impressive knowledge or something. This includes:
    • Unity
    • Affinity Designer
    • Affinity Photo
    • Procreate
    • DaVinci Resolve
    • Blender
    • Visual Studio/C#
    • Obsidian
    • Various other 2D animation and other art programs
  • Work in some way on my snazzy newsletter

I think that’s enough for now. Let’s see how well I do tomorrow, ho ho.