The Self Taught Community – The Doers, what is the Secret?

#Authentic content creation #Mystory #ThroughMyLense

I belong to one unique community called the self taught, I’m always curious and aspires to learn diverse techniques and skills in the chosen field with a strong drive for implementation by combining theoretical and practical learning.

I strongly believe everyone has a great story and ideas on how we can make the world a better place, but a few have scratched the surface on how to go about it, this is what I term as walking the talk. Back in 2009 an idea popped in my mind on how I could be the point of change by telling my story, aspiration, projects, etc., and through many years of experiences I thought it was ideal to document, share and also form a network where all the doers could learn and inspire others, this later gave birth to Plus One Talent (1% ideas and 99% Action), Bits and Pieces personal blog and the entire Wilsen Initiative (Wi) program in 2011.

I call myself a visual communication designer with great interest in web, print, video and photography. This gives me a wider scope for learning and teaching in an interlinked field where most of the subjects learned can be applied in diverse medium. So what is the secret behind my success to learning anything new?

Here are quick tips that might help you in your pursuit! #Learning #Inside-out

1. Plan no matter how simple it might seem, just remember sometimes things happen outside the plan. A good example; when I go out to do photography, I usually have some plan for the targeted shoots, but there comes great moments that wasn’t planned that I end up capturing as the best photo.
2. Have a goal that will drive you to complete the assignment at hand. Ask Why? Self learning requires a lot of discipline. 
3. Read tutorials and Do it!
4. Keep it simple (KISS = Keep It Simple and Smart).
5. Consult an expert on quick how to but remember Google is your best friend ever.
6. Apply continuous learning from different avenues.
7. Do some pro-bono or paid assignments to raise your learning curve. Remember to sell something don't be afraid to be a sales person, there's a lot of learning point is selling your products.
8. Use any appropriate tools at your disposal.
9. Don't try to learn everything in one day or even weeks, develop a clear strategy.
10. You will get scared with the different interfaces and what you need to learn to call yourself a pro’ but a good start is learning the tools and the simple basic techniques.
11. Learn from the mistake don't focus on making an award winning project while learning. You can only do as much as your knowledge ends, so work on improving your knowledge base. 

Below is a case in point that I applied the above eleven guiding points in making the short video featuring my son Adrian. After capturing the two videos of my son, one using the mobile phone and the other with my Nikon D5100 I went into a curious mode I asked myself what else could I do with this content in my pursuit for learning? I decided to narrow it down into two things namely;

Learning Goals:

1. Simple editing using Adobe Premier Pro with barely zero skill.
2. Short story UX Design, less than 1 minute.

So you too can do it, plan your learning curve and start… the rest will fall in place as you move up!

Lastly, my best two photos shot during the CMETrust event 5th December 2015.

#TheUnexpectedMoments

#TheUnexpectedMoments

For more of my collections please visit: www.wilsenx.com

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