Top 10 Highly-Desired Skills You Can Teach Yourself

Top 10 Highly-Desired Skills You
Can Teach Yourself.

On countless occasions, you've likely said to
yourself "I wish I knew how to do
______." Then, of course, life got in the
way and you put it off until you could find
the time. Maybe you wanted to become
fluent in a language, learn a new
instrument, start performing your house
repairs, or a master a myriad of other
skills. With the vast amount of knowledge
online, you're now your only excuse. Here
are the top ten most highly desired skills
that you can teach yourself—and should.

10. Repair Just About Anything
Sure, you don't need to repair anything
anymore. You can just pay someone else to
do it. But where's the ingenuity in that?
Plus, who wants to waste a bunch of money
on simple tasks you can handle on your
own? If you've adopted the DIY spirit,
learning to repair your own stuff is one of
the easiest and more rewarding skills you
can acquire. It's especially fruitful because
as you learn new things, you can put them
to use right away. So how do you teach
yourself? We've outlined tons of repairs
you can learn on your own to get you
started, but if you're looking for something
specific there is no shortage of how-to
videos available on YouTube and VideoJug.
There will be occasions when you do need
to call a professional, as you're not going to
be a master repairman (or woman)
instantly, but do remember that there is an
opportunity when things break: you can
learn how to fix them.

9. Pick Up an Artistic Skill Like Illustration,
Painting, or Photography
Although it often won't earn you the big
bucks, artistic skills are highly desired
because they provide you with the technical
abilities required to create something
beautiful. You're going to have to find your
own inspiration and subject matter, but the
skill you'll need is really just a matter of
technical aptitude and practice. Picking up a
book of anatomy and drawing different
bones and muscles will teach you how to
draw people. Drawing grids over
photographs can show you basic
perspective. Obviously it isn't as simple as
that, but focusing on learning to draw one
simple thing, like the petals of a flower or
the human hand, will help you learn how it
works and get in a reasonable amount of
practice. When you're ready to move on
from the basics and start illustrating on your
computer, check out our digital painting
lessons. For those of you interested in
photography, we have lessons for you, too.
Whatever you're looking to learn, just set
aside 15-30 minutes every day to practice a
very small part of that skill. It'll take awhile
to teach yourself how to draw, paint, take
better photos, make hamburger sculptures
out of clay, or whatever it is you want to do,
but breaking the daunting task into pieces
and practicing each part slowly will do the
trick. Plus, it's a really nice way to unwind
at the end of the day.
8. Learn to Defend Yourself
Who likes getting their ass kicked?
Probably a very small majority. If that's
what you're into, it doesn't require much
skill—just endurance. If you'd prefer to not
end up hurt or injured as the result of an
unexpected attack, perhaps it's time to pick
up some self-defense skills. While you'll
probably want to have a partner around to
help you out—at least when you want to
test your skill—we've outlined several self-
defense moves that you can learn on your
own. Although you will hopefully never
need to actually employ the techniques you
acquire, if you do you'll increase your
chances of coming out of a fight unharmed.
Plus, it's pretty cool to walk around with the
confidence of being able to take on most
anyone in a fight.
7. Improve Your Design Skills (or At Least
Acquire a Sense of Style)
Design and style aren't an exact science, as
tastes differ and change as time goes on,
but there are a few principles you can pick
up that'll make your work, home, or
whatever needs an aesthetic boost looking
better than average. If we're talking
traditional design, you'll first want to learn
the basics of type and layout. These are
skills you can employ in your everyday
work to make it look a lot more attractive.
This may seem like a nearly-useless skill,
because spreadsheets aren't getting entered
in any beauty contests, but when something
looks good it can have a greater impact.
That's always a plus in your work. If you
want to take things a bit further, you can
bump those skills up a notch and apply them
to web site design in Photoshop. Your sense
of style is even a useful thing when
choosing a great wallpaper and creating a
clean and organized desktop on your
computer. If your home is boring, just
follow these guidelines for awesome
interior design . You don't have to be a pro,
but learning the basics of design can make
your life a lot brighter.
6. Pick Up Just About Any Subject You
Missed In College
Whether it's science, finance, math,
humanities, law, or anything else, if there's
a course you wish you took in college
you're not out of luck—you can probably
find it online. To help you out, we've
rounded up every great source of online
education so you can gain that knowledge
you missed. What's great about learning
online is that you can take it at your own
pace and put in as much time as you can
spare each day. You don't necessarily have
to master a subject, either, but learn as
much as you need or want to know. While
you won't end up with a degree for your
hard work, you will be a little bit smarter—
and that's the most important part.
5. Build and Hack Electronic Hardware
We love technology, and we love it more
when we can make it do pretty much
whatever we want. There is almost no end
to what you can hack, but getting started
does require teaching yourself a few skills.
Learning to build a computer is a good place
to start. Soldering is especially helpful, and
understanding the basics of arduino can
help you build some really neat stuff. One
of the best ways to get started is to pick a
project and learn by doing. If you're not
sure where to start, our DIY tag page can
offer a few ideas.
4. Play a (New) Instrument
Whether you already know how to play an
instrument and want to learn something
new or are musically inept, you'll find
plenty of resources online to help you teach
yourself to play just about anything. If
guitar is your thing, you're in luck as you'd
be hard-pressed to not find online lessons.
JustinGuitar.com offers over 500, and
we've rounded up plenty more. The internet
can also teach you piano, drums, and even
orchestral instruments like the flute and
violin. Just like with repair skills, you can
find a lot of how-to videos on both YouTube
and VideoJug.
In addition to the instrument, you're also
going to want to learn a little music theory.
Ricci Adams' musictheory.net offers a bunch
of free lessons to get you started. When
you're starting to get good, you can put
together a home recording studio on the
cheap to start capturing your talent and
sharing it with others.
3. Cook Like a Pro
With so many recipe sites and cooking skill
how-to videos online, it's a surprise that
everyone isn't a master chef at this point.
There are so many simple things you can
learn that can vastly improve your culinary
skill set really quickly, many of which
we've covered. We've written so much on
the subject of learning to cook better that
this little paragraph isn't enough to cover it
all, but there are a few posts in particular
that you'll want to read to get started. First,
these tips and tricks for budding foodies will
make your learning process easier. Second,
follow this station-by-station kitchen guide
to stay organized and efficient when
cooking. Finally, these must-know recipes
will help you round out your arsenal of
cooking knowledge. For more, we like
recipe and how-to sites Epicurious and
How2Heroes. And, of course, you can
always check our how to and kitchen tag
pages for more great tips.
2. Become Fluent in a New Language
When we asked you which skills you really
wanted to learn, language was at, or close
to the top of many peoples' lists. Fortunately
for you, this clever technique offers a way
to all but master a new language in a short
period of time by teaching yourself. You'll
still have to work hard and put in the
minutes every day, but you can come out
speaking fluently in about half of a year.
Pretty cool.
1. Make a Web Site, Create an App, or Just
Learn to Code
Learning to code is something most of us
Lifehackers aspire to do at one point or
another, as it's not only a great way to
create cool apps and tools that we want to
use but it's also an incredibly marketable
skill when trying to get a job. To get you
started, we've put together two helpful sets
of lessons: the basics of programming and
making a web site.