That New Skill--Yes Virginia, you need one a day

Sheesh! What is this nutzy woman talking about, one new skill a day?

Well, yes.  One.  Just one.

It is simple.  I'm not saying you should look at a new skill in terms of say, learning to play the piano as a single skill.  Learning to play the piano is complex. It is composed (sorry about that pun, it was intentional), of learning many skills.  Reading music, learning key names, learning key sounds, learning chords, reading more music, fingering a chord, fingering a scale, fingering a half step, fingering a whole step, fingering a third...

It will never be the single perfect day in which you can build Rome.  Or perform at Carnegie Hall, when yesterday you were looking at music as if it is a foreign language.  One day is not long enough to learn to cook like Julia Child, or Jacques Pepin.  Or, your grandmother.

Now, all of those steps might make sense for those who've endured that childhood staple of at least one year of piano lessons.  But your parents might have allowed you to acquire other skills not quite so musical.

How about trying the 'new skill a day' in that mode.  Let's try cooking.  Everyone has to know how to cook something.  Either that, or everyone would be learning how to lose weight really easily, or eat raw food only.  That works for salads and fruit, not so much for rice and beans.

If you are learning to cook, you must already know something about eating.  So, think of these skills as an expansion of your eating skills.  Salads, soups, tuna surprise.  All of these are foods you might know.  Now expand your salad to include vegetables you might not know.  Check out a salad cookbook.  Ask a restaurant for a recipe, or be more adventurous.  Find a dish you like, write down the ingredients, give it a try.  Start with salads, as the errors there are less likely to spoil a whole meal or an expensive cut of meat, fish or even a romantic date.

You might want to look at learning to mix a salad dressing, the mixing skill alone, the mechanical way you use a fork, whisk or spoon to stir whatever it is you are putting on that salad as your one skill for the day.

There are endless options.  Learn how to work a pair of pliers.  Learn how to use a drill.  Learn how to cut vegetables into even sizes.  Learn a new way to peel tomatoes.  But, not all skills are mechanical.

Teach yourself about poetry.  Learn how to find poets using an index of quotations or index of first lines.

Learn about paint, whether for walls and windows or for making a Picasso like masterpiece.

How about the skills required to make a paper airplane?  Or, make that airplane into Origami.

The possibilities are endless.  It's only one skill a day.  If you're adventurous, you can fly that salad into the freshly painted dining room, onto your newly hand painted plate, using an origami airplane in the shape of a piano.