Allow Yourself To Learn New Things And See What Happens

It’s a fascinating experience

When I graduated from college I did not know what to do with my free time.

In college, I used to hang out with friends in my free time. We had a couple of dorms on our campus and all students used to live there. So I had friends around me all the time and we used to hang out.

After graduating I joined Ph.D. and moved to another country. Since everything was new to me, it took me some time to get adjusted. Also, I was having a hard time making new friends because I was living in another country.

The problems did not end there. I made a couple of friends after 3–4 months but I was living the apartment. Living in the apartments is not the same as living in dorms. So I did not have friends around me all the time.

Since I had a lot of free time, I started watching movies and TV series just to kill time. Life was going well at that time. I was studying was watching a lot of TV. This kept on going for almost a year.

However, after a year I realized that watching TV series and movies were not the way to go. I was wasting a lot of time and I needed to do something about it.

At that moment, I realized that I did not know anything outside my studies. I was overweight and did not have any hobbies or skills. That realization hit me hard and I decided to change myself.

So I made the following changes in my routine and started doing new things:

Started exercising

I had never exercised before this. I started running every morning and my life changed forever. Not only did I lose 15 pounds, but I also started to feel energetic throughout the day.

fast forward to 2 years, I have started lifting weights and I have never felt this amazing physically.

Bought guitar

I had never played any musical instrument before this. Although learning guitar was harder than I thought, I was persistent enough and I learned it finally.

Fast forward to 2 years, I can play a lot of songs on guitar.

Started playing chess

I started another hobby right after the pandemic. I started playing chess and it has improved my overall focus. Playing chess is one of my favorite things currently.

Started my blog

I like to write. So I started my blog and started writing about my life. After one year of struggle, I have finally amassed 400 followers and I don’t want to stop writing ever.

So after learning so many new things in the last 2 years, I have learned the following lessons:

1. Learning new things makes me happy and I am sure it will make you too. You get happiness by solving problems and learning new things.
2. Running and guitar taught me the importance of persistence. Sometimes things won’t go your way but you have to hang in there. Now I apply this learning in my professional life as well when my experiments are failing.
3. They taught me the importance of consistency. You have to show up every day if you want to master any skill quickly. I can apply this learning to other areas of my life.
4. Anything is possible in life. I never thought I would be able to run 10 miles or play guitar but I did it.
5. They gave me the self-confidence to achieve anything in life. If you work hard and believe in yourself, anything is possible.