Learning practical skills in seemingly mundane activities

It generally helps to be a jack of all trades, especially if you are going to live a life of self-sufficiency in any sort of way.

Being overspecialized in any one area might not be the best "training" for a life that demands a wide array of competencies, abilities and know-how: Running an eco-gardening project will be a daunting task if you have no idea about irrigation, electronic wiring or building sustainable gardening structures to plant your veggies in. Likewise, if all you know are these tasks then learning about all the ecological interrelations between the different types of plants will necessarily have to come later before you ever get to see your garden come together in all its natural abundance.

That said, there are many many options to learn a multitude of skills right now by choosing to help other people with their project. Say they have an eco-garden already, have built a sustainable house themselves or have already achieved meaningful milestones in any other project related. Well there is always a lot to do and what better way to learn the ropes of a self-sustainable style of life than by taking an active role in helping them accomplish their current tasks.

Maybe it's not about building something new or adding to the existing projects but instead maintaining them. A great deal of knowledge and competency can be acquired by simply getting used to the ins and outs of maintaining a large-scale project that involves different skills and know-how.

And even if the skills needed might seem uninteresting on the surface, I feel we should trust the learning experiences that come along with them, especially in this kind of weird and tumultuous environment where uncertainty reigns and our minds cannot make heads or tails of the situation we are finding ourselves in. What will tomorrow bring? Will I ever have security in learning this or that skill now? Will there be enough time for all I want to be doing?

These are weird times and so it might not be readily apparent what we are learning for. And so from a preparation point of view it seems like a good idea to trust the opportunities that life thrusts our way and be willing to help with the tasks that might seem menial on the surface but may in fact teach us skills we are likely going to need in the near future.

See it as a temporary apprenticeship in which you get to develop a generalized overview on many fields of competencies, in addition to all the social connections you will be forming when helping out others with what they need.

Is raking the garden for a day entirely bad? Nope, not at all. You might think it is "stupid work" but you may also take it as an opportunity to get a sensible workout and lots of movement for your body. You may learn to calm the mind and to get into a meditation-like state inside. You will get lots of sunshine and fresh air. And in the end you will have a raked garden to show for, having learned small tricks and hacks about the task, as well as how to best compost the organic parts you raked up (into fertilizer for example), even though the task itself seemed mundane and boring when you started out.

If you feel annoyed by a task then inquire why the task is needed, what its completion enables. Often we feel bored or dissonant to a task because we don't see its importance, so have someone tell you why it is important before getting frustrated about it.

Trust it. Help out. Draw out as much as you can for yourself and make sure that the activities do change over time. Sure, raking the garden for two weeks might rightfully make you become agitated but even that could harbor many good lessons in times where we really don't know how or what those experiences will eventually turn into, where they are leading us on our own path of competency and experience.

Having this attitude will also help us endure the activities that we may not be so fond of otherwise. Provided we are not locked into the same task for prolonged periods of time without any inherent meaning we can make the most out of them while we are at it. And look back on this year as a golden opportunity to have gotten all sorts of experiential insights into tasks that would otherwise require heaps of theoretical study once you actually needed the practical skills yourself. Better to prepare now and build all sorts of meaningful connections while you're at it!