Remember when we were kids and it felt like each year lasted forever?

Now the years fly by so fast.

This year, I decided to get back some of my childlike curiosity by creating a challenge:

12 skills in 12 months.

I committed to learning 1 new skill each month…here’s how it went.

Today’s sponsor 🫶

Understand your health with Superpower

Earlier this year, I went to the doc for some bloodwork and I didn’t really hear anything back other than “you’re fine.”

As someone who almost bled out in a foreign country’s airport and had to be hospitalized overnight (turns out I had endometriosis, full story here), hearing that wasn’t enough for me.

So I got my bloodwork done with Superpower and they actually gave me a personalized plan - like I found out the reason I kept getting injured marathon training was bc of my low vitamin D/weak bones. I could also ask more detailed questions especially around fertility (I got tested for AMH).

Their privacy policy is here: https://superpower.com/legal/privacy

12 skills learned in 12 months

Dec / Jan: piano

I went from being barely able to play scales to playing a song I liked (mainly the chorus only tho). This was so fun I was spending like 3 hours every night (til 3am) practicing lol. The hyperfixation hit hard.

Jan / Feb: sewing my own top

This took forever bc I had to fix up the used sewing machine I got from FB marketplace. But it was really easy to do the actual sewing part, I kinda just eyeballed everything. Done was better than perfect, and it turned out well!!

March: travelling

Went to Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam with my sister (rip my rusty Mandarin skills). Also went to my friend’s wedding in Australia.

It was way too hectic to learn a skill so I counted traveling as the skill 😂 I did have to plan and coordinate a lot.

April: relationship communication

I learned a lot from various books and irl experience haha.

Book recommendations: Crucial Conversations, Nonviolent Communication, Fight Right

May: Vietnamese

Took a class (from this guy I follow on IG). My classmates and I were grinding together on the hw for like 4 months after this. We are still in touch 🤩 

June: event hosting + stuffy lore book

Summertime 🤩 so I hosted a ton of events like a picnic potluck for content creators.

Also started putting together the outline for my stuffy lore book which is just me writing down the stories my sister and I came up with when we were kids playing with our stuffed animals.

July: treacherous hikes + ran 100km 🤯

Summer = hikes. But omg the elevation was literally like 45 degrees…it was so steep 😩

Then I did a backyard ultra race and ran 100 km. Backyard ultra = you run 6.7 km every hour (if you finish early you can rest and eat 🤩 but if you are too slow then you’re disqualified).

It felt so chill because around 80 km I started sprinting which helped a little (fast twitch muscle fibres) and then I think that speed scared the other ppl cuz half of them dropped out. So I won 3rd place in that race 🥳 also I got to look forward to delicious food every hour during my rest time.

August: murder mystery box + moving countries

The murder mystery box story was COMPLEX bc I made it for my friend who loves true crime. The storyline had like 3 twists and the puzzles looked super fun 🤩 

Also got ADHD meds to prep for the move bc the admin was killing me. Meds made my heart rate super high and I tend to exercise a lot so I stopped after I was done w the admin cuz my other ADHD copium strategies/systems work well enough for me.

Sept: marketing funnels + sales calls

This was super cool, I already have marketing experience but it was amazing seeing some other more experienced marketers do stuff (they’re more on the planning and analytical side and I’m more on the creative side). Full recap in my other newsletter here.

Also took some sales calls, it was kinda scary and I didn’t rly sell anything during the call (it was more like seeing how I can help ppl) but this led to me working with someone who said I changed her life 🥺 

Oct: cooking

OMG THE MEALS I MADE THIS MONTH. I tried 1 new cuisine per week. THAT MADE IT SO FUN. My fav week was Japanese bc it was just veggies in little dishes. So easy.

Nov: writing + aerial yoga + bungee fitness + sewing meditation cushion

End of the year = cramming everything bc I’m a procrastinator.

Writing: I did a 30 day writing challenge w some friends - seeing ppl posting progress in a WhatsApp group helped keep me accountable.

Aerial yoga + bungee fitness: this was cheaper than I thought it’d be (like under $30, or free w ClassPass trial). It was pretty fun, didn’t feel like exercise.

Sewing a meditation cushion: randomly cut pieces then sewed it together - approximating it and half-assing it was fine haha it still looked great

Dec: pilates + barre + pole dancing

I booked so many things on ClassPass omg. This rly humbled me. I was like “I ran 100 km in July I’ll be fine.”

I was not fine 😩 I saw those tiny weights and I was like wow I can lift more than that. After what felt like the 100th rep I was dying with those tiny weights…I need to work on my upper body strength.

Future skills to learn

I wanna learn fencing (some free classes, I just gotta call them up), Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, quantum mechanics (reading this book rn, brushing up on my calculus and linear algebra too), drawing, singing, dancing, etc.

Let me know if you have any recs to add to the list! Or any advice and tips.

Best learning: what happens when I “break” my streak

It’s not about being “perfect” or sticking to a disciplined structure all the time.

Some months I get busy and don’t plan what to learn.

But when I look back, I’m always doing something new - whether it’s just traveling or planning events with friends, it doesn’t feel like learning but it technically is.

Reframing how I think about “failure” and consistency has changed my behaviour…

Because instead of thinking “I broke my streak and missed last month, I’m done with this challenge and I failed,”

I think “I learned something cool, now I’m excited to try this next thing.”

Plus, I noticed in the beginning I stressed about getting everything perfect - I had to sew the perfect lines, play the perfect notes on the piano.

But near the end, I cared more about just getting into the habit of completing things:

• My meditation cushion had so many imperfections, but it’s done

• My daily writing habit was just 1 sentence on some days, but at least I got into the habit of writing every day

What about you?

What’s a new skill you’d learn?

Til next time,

Jennifer

P.S. try the template here + have a list of skills to pick from