Weekly Technetic #36: Calm

The holiday season is upon us. More importantly, however, winter is approaching, and with it the time to chill. This year has been a wild one for me, for the world, and I hope for you. Good things have happened, yet we've also suffered setbacks. We've lived and learned. Now it's time to rest awhile.

Taking time off is important no matter what you do. This part of the year is a good chance to take that time, to find something you like to do—something that isn't your day job—and do it. Try new things, read new books, whatever you like. Just remember to go into it with an open mind and a positive attitude. No need to be competitive about it for now. Instead, consider this an opportunity to test new waters while the world begins to drift into its year-end slumber.

As a technetic, you should always see yourself as ready to learn. Sometimes, though, that fills us with a very natural drive to succeed. We want to be instant experts at everything we try, and why not? We're human. We're the most intelligent species on this planet, and we recently reached the milestone of 8 billion living humans. We couldn't do that if we didn't want to succeed.

But it's also okay to fail. That's one way we learn. Especially when we're trying something new, we will fail. Often, in fact. Just as a baby learning to walk will fall over and over before he's able to take that first wobbly step, so it is for any of us in any new endeavor. That's no reason not to try.

Call this a resolution, then. Between now and the end of the year, find something new, whether a topic, skill, hobby, or whatever you choose, and try to, as the internet says, get good. It doesn't even have to be a new activity; returning to something you'd given up on is perfectly fine. As long as it's something you haven't already succeeded in, so you have that chance to learn.

Maybe you want to learn the guitar, or learn to drive, or simply try out a new game you've never played before. Or you might want to use that gym membership you got for Christmas last year. Maybe you're tired of buying wood for your fireplace, and you'd like to try your hand at chopping your own. Or you have ideas of what you could try while you're sitting in front of that fireplace with your special someone.

Technetics aren't picky when it comes to new things. We'll give them a shot if they interest us. For the final few weeks of 2022, all I ask is that you find something that interests you. That's what I'll be doing.