Why Learn A New Skill? Here Are 4 Reasons!

We’ve been talking about building and maintaining a growth mindset in a lot of our previous posts. Here’s just one more way to do it! This is because we live in a world that’s constantly changing—and sometimes so fast, we can barely catch up! Now that everything is more fast-paced than it ever was, learning new skills can help us adapt. How? It allows us to stay relevant no matter our profession, hobby or interest—not to mention gaining new skills is a great way to keep opportunities open. This is why in today’s blog post, we want to take a look at four specific reasons why you should start learning new skills now!

1. It can improve your marketability.

The more skills you have, the higher the chances you have in the market—it doesn’t matter if you’re your own boss or have an employer. Having many skills means you’re versatile and can handle diverse tasks which is definitely attractive to people who are looking to work with you. Multiple skills also display a willingness to take on new challenges and develop yourself: it clearly shows that you’re fine with stepping out of your comfort zone in order to learn new things.

Skills also play a role in advancing your career. It gives you the advantage as you negotiate your salary or rate, or as you pursue a promotion. The more skills you have, the more value you bring to the table. This increases your chances of being considered and getting exactly what you’re after, which then leads to a greater career-related satisfaction! If we feel fulfilled and are happy with what we do, then it makes us work harder. It’s a beneficial cycle.

2. It’s an amazing confidence boost!

There’s something about learning new skills that inspire a new level of self-confidence! It really does have an impact on how good and capable we think about ourselves. This is because when you become competent in new areas, there’s a sense of accomplishment that follows which then boosts your self-esteem.

It doesn’t stop there! That accomplished feeling can further affect other areas of your life, allowing you to become confident in other things too. As a result, you become more self-assured and this means you’re more likely to be assertive and decisive. That confidence will allow you to speak up, take leadership roles, and have better control over your life as a whole.

3. It helps improve cognitive function.

The more we use our brain, the stronger and better it gets—which is exactly what happens whenever we learn new skills. When we’re learning something new, we stimulate the brain to create brand new neural pathways that can help improve focus, memory, and problem solving. More than helping us with our tasks or whatever else we’ve set out to do, it also has the positive effect of delaying cognitive decline.

But just as misuse dulls the mind, another upside to learning a new skill is that it keeps the brain engaged, active, and healthy. Want to keep your mind sharp as you age? Then learning new skills is definitely the way to go!

Part of learning new skills is building good habits. Here are six strategies you can implement! You may also want to start a habit tracker of your own.

4. It’s a great way to make you more resilient.

If there’s absolutely one thing learning new skills can help with, it’s building resilience. It teaches us how to deal with setbacks, challenges, but most importantly, it also helps us face and learn from failure. Discomfort and difficulties abound when we’re trying to learn something new, but because we have a goal, we keep going. We persevere, keep moving forward, and in the process, we become stronger. This is great preparation for other challenges that may come in the future which is almost a guarantee in life.

Going back to a growth mindset, of which resilience is a big part, perfecting a skill takes time and requires us to overcome obstacles over and over again. Imagine how capable you can end up becoming every time!

There’s so much to gain by learning a new skill.

Though your goal may be simple and singular in the beginning as you pick one new skill to learn, its impact can ripple outward and affect many other aspects of your life in positive ways. Whether it’s playing an instrument, picking up a new language, or even starting a new hobby, there’s just too much to gain for us not to start now. Give it a try and see how much it can improve your life.

How has learning new skills helped you with life in general? What kind of positive effects have you enjoyed by challenging yourself in this way? Let us know in the comments—we’d love to hear from you!