How do you stay motivated when learning something new?

Honestly, I celebrate accomplishments no matter how small. When I reach certain points, I get a snack, or go out to eat when I finish. Typically when learning new things, I like to power through them until I am finished. It all depends on what I am learning.

If it is actually learning a new thing, like reading or studying, I take breaks to let the information digest a bit. During college, I did a lot of finishing a third of the reading and then you can do mindless fun activities for a bit before you have to start the next section. I love reading, but it is difficult to take it all in at once, especially nonfiction. I like to think about what I have read and apply it to things and come up with questions to continue my reading with.

If I am learning to do something, I do like to power through to the end. I take notes where needed and ask questions as they come up. I typically think about a reward for myself once I am finished. I took an art class and really struggled with hand molding clay. I have attempted it many times since then, my work looks like a kindergartner to this day. It was hard and I let myself do something to give myself a boost for finishing something I found difficult. Maybe I buy a new video game or something else that has to do with something I am good at.

I have always enjoyed learning. It is something I still do. Currently learning about producing my own yarn from my fiber animals. It is an involved process that takes a lot of necessary knowledge to do. I am taking it one step at a time. Last year I learned how to care for the animals. Next, I will take all the fur that was harvested and do the first step of prepping the wool for processing, which is cleaning and picking out the bad bits. Breaking a new skill into smaller tasks makes it a lot more manageable and I can focus on what I currently have in front of me. Once I complete the whole process, I will know how to make changes to all the steps to make it start working better for me. For now, I am learning from other people how to do the processes.

When I have a finished product that I can show myself, then I know I have completed what I have set out to do. Dreaming and visualizing of that moment helps me get through the hard parts of learning and the time it can take to see tangible gains.