How to Learn Homemaking Skills

Definition of Skill:

1. the ability, coming from one’s knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc. to do something well.
2. competent excellence in performance; expertness; dexterity
3. understanding, discernment.
4. the ability to use one’s knowledge effectively and readily in execution or performance.
5. to make a difference

Many of you who have been following our site may start to get overwhelmed at this point. It happens to almost everyone when they are trying to improve themselves in any area. At times when reading a self improvement book, taking a course, or hearing a speaker I become excited and inspired. Then I run the whole gamut, which looks something like this:

First and second day jump up and put it into practice

Third day run into an obstacle

Fourth day decide it is way too hard

Fifth day give up.

Has anyone else been there and done that? Now that I am beginning to get ancient (to quote my children– I have news for them!), I have finally figured something out.

• Everything is difficult and awkward when you first try it.
• Everything has obstacles that need to be overcome in order to succeed (That’s the secret to success: overcoming obstacles).
• You will obtain more knowledge, skill and strength if you don’t give up.
• You learn to enjoy the things you do more. There is a certain joy that comes in doing things when you know how to do them well. It actually gives you pleasure. Look at your own life. Don’t the things you do really well give you the most pleasure? Tawra gardens and she is really good at it. Guess what she enjoys doing the most – gardening. You will be surprised how many things you once hated doing that you will enjoy when you start doing them well.
• You gain confidence. With each new skill you develop, your confidence starts soaring. That is why it is so important to teach children useful skills. The more they know and are good at accomplishing, the more confidence they gain. You won’t have to read them a book on how to be confident or remind them hourly that they are special and spend hours being their cheerleader. Encouraging your kids with words is fine but there is a flip side to that too.

 

I wrote the definition of skills down so you could make note of a few key words:

Practice – That means to train at something by repeated exercises or to form a correct habit by repetition. In other words you need to do something over and over to get good at doing it.

I always say if you want to learn to bake a pie make one every day for 14 days and at the end of that time you will know how to bake a pie. Why? Because you will have made every mistake there is in making a pie and hopefully you will have learned not to do the same thing wrong the next time. You need to do this with anything you want to learn.

There is an order to things. If you keep practicing you will become competent. You can’t become competent until you have practiced. You then gain an understanding and discernment about what you are doing so that you can effectively and readily (quickly) perform the job at hand. That is how you learn a skill. Not by sitting and hoping someone will wave a magic wand over you or deciding, “That just isn’t my thing.”

People always want me to tell them how to quickly clean their kitchens or bathrooms and give them a magic formula. I can give steps, which will help, but you will only start performing them quickly and competently after you have practiced them for a bit.

It’s just like with any job. The first week I start, I want to quit. Nothing makes sense. I am always all thumbs and constantly one step behind everyone else. But because I have incentive (I need the money), I keep at it. By week two I’m feeling more comfortable. At the end of the month I think I have figured it out. In two months I consider myself an expert and very knowledgeable in what I have to do and I do it quickly and efficiently.

I like definition #5: to make a difference. Will you have made a difference by persevering; a difference for you and your family and their lives? So many of us look at the world and think, “Oh I wish I could make a difference for those people in a far off country or change the environment,” but we don’t often have the wherewithal to make a difference in our own home and family. How could we expect to do anything on a greater scale?

The secret is to do what is right even if it is hard. You can’t gain skills in anything by taking the easy way out. You need to follow the definition: practice to become competent. You will then gain understanding and discernment so you can effectively and readily do the job and make a difference in yourself, your home and the world.

-Jill

photo by: criminalintent