what did you learn in 2013......?

Rus Slater

Coach and Courses

Consultant

what did you learn in 2013……?

By Rus Slater

I spend my life helping others to learn so here are.......

20 Things I learned in 2013:

1. According to MIT you can motivate your staff, or volunteers or in fact anyone, with the right MAP
2. How to skin a full grown deer (theory and practical)
3. That if you really want to, you can write a 45,000 word book on a 10.1 inch tablet
4. That red candle wax indelibly stains pale yellow carpet.
5. That Skype is an excellent tool for use when coaching a person remotely.
6. That, though we all know about setting goals and sticking to personal deadlines, most people do actually do much better when they have regular contact with a coach......there is something about having a call booked that focuses your mind on action.
7. To weld; OK, I'm not talking about welding a major pipeline, just two horseshoes together to make a book end, but it is a start.
8. How to identify a ‘toxic boss’ through his or her behaviours
9. A lot about creating a marketing plan for a micro-business and then getting lots of PR for that business
10. That, if a client cuts up rough about paying their bill, Money Claim OnLine is a brilliant and inexpensive service to get your just deserts.
11. That having positive reviews on Amazon increases the sales of a book by mindless percentages.....between five and nine positive reviews ups the sales by 1128%!
12. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Virtual Team Managers.
A whole load more about delivering learning via webinar, both in theory and in practice.
13. That, in business, people still let you down, so just learn to live with it rather than obsessing.
14. That Freecycle™ is a fantastic resource for getting stuff and getting rid of stuff
15. More than I ever needed to know about life in a travelling funfair in 1950s England….though it is fascinating.
16. That short, succinct emails using highlighter are very effective as marketing tools
17. That giving time and expertise away for free brings its own rewards as well as bringing some financial rewards (revision... I knew this already but it is good to find that it is still true and worthwhile)
18. How to preserve a recently skinned deer hide without lots of nasty smelly chemicals (theory and practical)
19. That taking time to reflect on what you have learned is a valuable way of deepening the learning as well as embedding it.

I learned more than 20 things but these are the ones that I can remember!

What did you learn in 2013?

5 Responses

garry platt says:

January 8, 2014 at 8:17 am

what did you learn in 2013……?

Something about frog spawn and USB cables, but I can't recall the specifics at the moment. Err, that's it.

I will think about this and come back with a genuine list later on when I have more time and in a better reflective mood.
garry platt says:

January 8, 2014 at 8:49 am
Some of the stuff I actualy learnt in 2013
1. 1. That imitating someone’s style in photography is a great way to develop your own.
3. 2. The ins and outs of conducting webinars and developing their added value.
5. 3. How LMS’s operate at a hands on level and the pros and cons of a variety of e Learning Systems that sit on top of them.
7. 4. The true value of a journal for reflecting on and learning from very personal experiences.
9. 5. That often a little goes a long way and occasionally when we think we have done nothing when we have attempted to do something the reality is that you still get results.
11. 6. Just what a valuable financial asset I am to my company.
13. 7. That patience is a virtue not just a cliché and is probably a competence that could be taught.
15. 8. That my best photographs are valued by other people when I thought they were valueless.
17. 9. That my involvement in the Edinburgh Fringe is both renewing and the most amazing learning experience and has been for 13 years.
19. 10. Learning SCRUM project management and developing its applications away from software development.
21. 11. That sometimes our heroes are not always what they seem.
23. 12. A true grasp of the fact that my Mum won’t always be around.
25. 13. That my DIY skills are significantly better than I thought they were.
27. 14. That wild giant tortoise can have a nasty bite. (Attenborough never mentions this.)
29. 15. Just how different localised cultures within the same organisation can have significant impacts on the outcomes of training.
31. 16. That some plants no matter how much effort and energy I spend on them are never destined to reach maturity either in my garden or greenhouse.
33. 17. That funding the arts may not be profitable but it is essential.
35. 18. That six sigma is more than just an anti-ageing cream.
37. 19. That Facebook can actually get you work just as well as Linkedin
39. 20. That my attention span is shortening and I need to work on this.
41. 21. That Lightroom as a photo manipulation software programme is infinitely better than Photoshop.
garry platt says:

January 8, 2014 at 8:51 am

The first thing I have learnt in 2014

1. The absence of a post submission editing function on this forum totaly SUCKS!
reynoldsj says:

January 8, 2014 at 1:17 pm

What I learned towards the end of 2013

Never let your dyslexic teenage daughter set up a new laptop………
russlater says:

January 8, 2014 at 3:43 pm

great answers…keep em coming!

anyone else learn anything last year?