Learning Outside of Your Comfort Zone

We are halfway through 2020. How did you spend your time when the world was in a state of lockdown? Did you learn something new? Have you gotten out of your comfort zone?

Let me share with you my story. For the past few weeks, I got interested in learning a new language. Learning a new language is difficult especially if it’s not your native language. I checked out reliable sites that offer self-paced online classes like Udemy and EDX and it turns out that their Japanese language classes are on sale. Since the language course was on sale, I bought it right away and started the class.

Learning from this class was outside of my comfort zone. I didn’t know how to write Japanese. I didn’t know how to translate English to Japanese and vice versa. My only background from this language is that I watch anime and clips on YouTube about their lifestyle and Zen philosophy. I had zero knowledge about their language and how to write their characters.

This class reminded me of my childhood days wherein I had to learn how to write A,B,C and D. I had to start over.

One lesson when you learn outside of your comfort zone: You need to start over again. Starting over again refreshes your mind and gets you back to the basics.