Saturday Smorgasbord: Finding New Skills

What is Saturday Smorgasbord?

Gurus and leading experts act like there's only one way to succeed. I believe there are so many ways to accomplish things that it's silly to narrow yourself to just one path.

So every Saturday I will list all the options, techniques and ways to accomplish various things from marketing your business to losing weight.

There is a Smorgasbord of tools at your disposal, why pick just one?

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Sane & Satisfied is mainly about learning new skills to improve your life. So what sorts of skills are out there for you to learn? Skills can be found in many areas of your life and also throughout the history of man. Below are two ways that I tend to categorize skills. It might help you discover skills you might not have thought about before.

Past, Present and Future Skills

Skills have changed over the years. Obviously. Before the Industrial Revolution humans relied exclusively on agriculture. Some skills associated with agriculture are farming, caring for animals, cooking by hand, dealing with pests and knowing when to harvest. Humans today don't really need these skills. Most children don't even understand where food comes from or how to cook food that didn't come in a box. We have other skills that we need to know.

So, we could organize skills by time: Past, Present and Future. In the past we really had to know how to work with our hands. Today, we mostly need skills associated with technology like how to run computers, internet marketing and driving cars. And in the future we will need different skills. Or perhaps we will need the same skills we needed in the past.

Past Skills are skills we needed in the past but don't really need any more like basket weaving and putting a horseshoe on a horse. Present Skills are skills we need right now. These are skills we use in our jobs, at home and in the hobbies we like to do. Future Skills are what we are learning today so we can use them tomorrow. These can be survival skills or advanced skills depending on what future you believe in.

Presently you have certain skills at your disposal. If you want to learn more skills perhaps you can look to the past for inspiration or the future to determine what you might need.

Skills By Type

Skills can also be organized by type or area of your life:

• Profession - the skills you need to perform the job you are getting paid to do
• Venture - skills needed to start a project or business of your own
• Trade - skills you can use to supplement your profession or venture. I also think of trade as skills that you might need if things drastically change and you couldn't do your profession or venture anymore
• Craft - this would be arts or crafts skills that are more creative and not necessarily needed to make money
• Hobby - similar to crafts skills

Looking at skills this way has helped me develop a more rounded skill repertoire. It's also helped give me peace of mind that no matter what situation I'm in I can be useful and make money. That's what learning skills is all about.

We get scared by what we don't know. Learning new skills helps shine the light on many areas of life making us less scared. If you are worried about the future you could learn a skill that will help you to better cope with whatever it is you are worried about. When you are better prepared for the future you can relax more in the present. Also learning skills associated with many different parts of life ensures that no matter what the situation you will probably have a skill you can use.