Learning new skills is an excellent way of being more relevant in a dynamic environment. It can advance your career, diversify job opportunities, and help you to develop new, marketable skills in an ever-changing world. While these benefits are great for professional growth, there are many other benefits to learning new skills no matter your age, your profession, or the type of skill you learn. Finding my way back to art and breathing life back into this dormant skillset and passion has been an inspiring time in my life, and I am certain that this is not just a singular experience. Many people are indulging in new hobbies and learning new skills to pass the time and stay active when things around them are rather, inactive, repetitive, or mundane.

If learning something new has been on your mind over the past year, now is the time to dive in. Here are just a few of the incredible benefits that taking up hobbies, learning new things, and mastering different skillsets can have on your life.

Mind and Body Health Benefits

Learning keeps your mind and body active. Staying engaged mentally and physically can even prove to help de-stress in troubling times while increasing brain health, memory, mental wellbeing, and happiness. Whether you take up studying relevant topics, reading novels, getting creative learning new artistic skills, or mastering word puzzles and strategic games such as chess, you are training your brain to handle an array of different challenges that ultimately keep neural pathways active.

Lifelong learning can help you to discover all of your unknown potentials, and there is no better time than now to start unearthing your hidden talents. You never know what you might learn about yourself.

Opportunities will Arise

If there is one thing that we have learned over the past year, it is that jobs that we once thought were essential, are no longer such; Offices that once ran 9-5 now place value on remote work; and having a broader skillset can not only help you pass the time but also provide you with greater opportunities in times of financial hardship. Take this time to learn languages, practice programming, play around with graphic design, get messy with paint, or publish the book you always wanted to. Whichever skill you acquire will open a new door and allow you to indulge in new experiences that you may have only dreamed of.

Increase Adaptability

Has a change in your plan ever thrown you off entirely? Learning new skills trains your mind and perceptions to change, ultimately increasing your ability to adapt more easily to the curveballs that life throws your way. Adapting is a skill unto itself and the more diverse your experiences are, the easier it will be to not only cope, but thrive when the moving parts of life change without forewarning.

Wards Off Bordom

Learning new skills is a great way to ward off the boredom that might linger overhead during lockdowns, during the time spent quarantining, or even for those just looking to be active in keeping socially distanced under the current circumstances of COVID-19. By learning new skills you can easily break the monotonous cycle you may be stuck in, help you pass the time feeling fulfilled and engaged while keeping life a little more interesting.