How Brand-New Skills Can Help Mobilize Your Job

photo: Perfecto Insecto

I don’t watch much TV, but every once in a while I’ll find a show I like to indulge in. For a few weeks it was Doc Martin, a British show about an opinionated London surgeon who takes over a small country practice.

In the season finale of season 4, Martin’s ex-fiancee Louisa asks him if he wants to hold their firstborn son. He replies, “No. I mean, he’s a baby. I might drop him or do something wrong with him. I’m not very good with babies.”

She looks up at him and says, “You could learn.”

photo: accent on eclectic

You could learn.

Three simple words that we often forget when confronted with an obstacle.

• “I can’t play an instrument because I don’t know how to read music.”
• “I can’t cook because I don’t know how to follow a recipe.”
• “I can’t live in Krakow because I don’t speak Polish.”
• “I can’t make money online because I don’t know how to build a website.”
• “I can’t do x because I don’t know how to do y.”

Of course you can’t do something if you haven’t learned how. Did you think most people were swallowing magic pills?

It’s not that hard to learn new skills. Children do it all the time.

Is your lack of skill stopping you from mobilizing your job?

First, determine whether it’s really that particular lack of ability that’s holding you back. Don’t make things harder than they need to be. You might be able to muddle along with your current skill set.

Second, figure out exactly what you need to learn in order to achieve your goal. Is there some valid reason why you can’t learn it? Do the people doing this thing have superpowers, or are they just ordinary people with average intelligence? If they can learn it, so can you.

Two Common Roadblocks

People often hang back from making their jobs location independent because of lack of language or technology skills.

These two skills are not difficult to learn, and they carry enormous benefits. Ironically, many people think they are incapable of learning another language fluently or learning how to use technology above a basic level.

The Benefits of Knowing a Foreign Language

• You can take on projects for customers who speak that language
• You can offer translation services within your field
• You can find jobs in other countries
• You can network more easily
• You can handle mundane tasks more efficiently, allowing you to focus on income-generating tasks
• You appear more educated and informed

The Benefits of Knowing How to Use Technology Well

• You can work from anywhere in the world
• You can build websites and blogs to generate passive income while you sleep
• You can work remotely or telecommute for your company
• You can advertise your small business cheaply
• You can expand your customer base worldwide
• You can communicate effectively using video conferencing and other tools
• You save time and money

Language and technology skills can be awesome tools in your quest to make your job location independent. But if you don’t know how to use the tools, it’s as if they don’t exist.

How to Learn Technology Skills

• Take a free class at the library. Many libraries offer free workshops and ongoing classes on topics like using specific software or building websites.
• Take an online class in some topic that you love. Taking a class is a great way to learn something interesting while you’re picking up the technology skills, and you’ll have a ready made forum and community to help with your tech questions.
• Use Google. Every time you experience tech-related frustration or confusion, find out the answer to your problem on your own. Just type your problem into Google. You will learn a lot faster this way than if you ask someone to do something for you.
• Focus on the tools, not the concepts. You don’t need to know how technology works in order to use it effectively. You can think of the internet as a magic web in the sky if you like. Who cares what it really is? You’ll feel less overwhelmed if you focus on the how, not the why.
• Narrow it down. What is it you really want to know how to do? Build a blog? Sell things on eBay? Make money as an Amazon affiliate? Transfer files to your laptop from your work computer? Even a technologically incompetent person can learn to do those things. It’s not like you have to learn everything there is to know about computers. That’s like thinking you have to go to culinary school to learn how to scramble an egg.

How to Learn a Foreign Language

I’m going to hand you over to Benny the Irish Polyglot for this one because he’s living proof that anyone can attain fluency in more than one language in under three months. Benny’s been traveling and learning languages since 2003, and he now speaks 11 languages (8 of them fluently). I was so inspired by Benny that I’ve decided to apply his techniques to learning Hindi! Rinch and I are headed to India within the next few months, so the timing’s perfect. (I’ll post more about my experience learning Hindi over the next few weeks.)

To find out how Benny learns languages quickly and to apply his techniques yourself, check out his awesome Language Hacking Guide.

Remember…it’s possible to learn nearly anything. If your lack of skill is the only thing holding you back from mobilizing your job and becoming location independent, figure out what you need to learn and do it! The time and effort you put into mastering new skills will pay off a thousandfold when you finally become location independent.

Good luck!

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