Hi Steemians!

I'm really excited about joining up with Steemit to share one of my passion: learning.

I introduce myself: My name is Brian, a french economist and passionate about learning and sharing my knowledges. I start this blog to achieve one of my New Year's resolutions (these famous resolutions, proclaimed during a very long night LOL):

I'll learn one new thing per week outside of my areas of expertise.

Well... 19 days after (more or less 3 weeks!), I learned nothing new outside of my comfort zone. To be honest, I only read a lot of economic or political stuffs (and I have plenty excuses to explain why I couldn't.) . That's why I decide to start my blog.

But, how am I going to achieve my goal?

I thought the hardest part was to start. This is true! My registration on Steemit has been confirmed few days ago and I still have learned "ironically" nothing new. It's a lot harder than you think to get out of your comfort zone and start something new... Now, imagine learning "one new things per week"! It's almost scary for me!

That's why I decided to start at the beginning... I opened Google and I started writing "How to get out of my comfort zone and start Something new" (Yeah... I know... It wasn't the best thing to do... but I'm in the mainstream).

And what was the first advice of Google?

Ok, it wasn't THE "expected" result: the result who will answer my problem... But it was a beginning and probably a good beginning (after searching one hour, I confirm it was one of the best advice!). Indeed, the majority of the web recommended me pushing myself, enduring difficult situations or doing what I'm afraid of... It's almost more scary for me who was not accustomed!

I decided to follow the previous plan of Google:

The first advice was to "Do every day things differently" with the example of taking a different route to work. Ok, I don't know how this advice should help me to achieve my goal. However, I tried for a couple of days to listen alternative songs. take a different (but longer) route to work, and even to watch an ASMR video (a very strange video with a lot of weird noises...) on YouTube. And I wasn't really comfortable with doing all these stuffs (as if it was forbidden... Well... maybe because I arrived late at work...).

I understood the plan wasn't in the right order for achieving my goal... So I naturally started again by the end. The last (but now my first) step was to do it in small step. Because it is hard to get out of its comfort zone, it is even harder to do every day things differently. In order to learn one new thing per week outside of my areas of expertise, I'll have to do my best to read, think, discuss and learn step by step different things. However, I have to move gradually away from my areas of expertise (the core issue of my goal).

The second advice was to "trust myself and make snap decisions". However, the other advice was to "take my time making my decision"... It was a little confuse... How could we take our time to make a decision, and on the same time making snap decisions? Maybe these tips were two sides of the same coin.

I think the advice was: I have to take my time to making my decision about what I want to learn or not. But I'll must to trust myself when I made this decision and follow what I plan. Maybe that's why people don't achieve its goals: because they don't trust themselves... They don't really trust on their own goals... Or they are scared to fail... Well... I was a little scare to don't respect my engagement to learn one new thing per week... But I must try first for failing. I must remove these psychological barriers that allow me to procrastinate.

In business, we are one big advice: our goals need to be "S.M.A.R.T." in order to achieve it. But how can I imagine that the "S.M.A.R.T" principles are also a model of thinking a complex problem? We need to deconstruct the S.M.A.R.T. principles and identify the key of my problem:

The key of my problem here is:

"Is each goal consistent with the other goals you have established and fits with your immediate and long term plans? "

The answer is complex... Usually, people tend to prefer immediate pleasures to long term plans. In my case, I think my long term plan is to build my areas of expertise (my personal and professional comfort zone), when my "immediate" goal is to "get out of my comfort zone". These objectives are maybe confronting themselves in my subconscious...

I must redefine how I see my immediate goal in order to fit it with my long term goals. My NY's resolution should be seen as a way to extend my areas of expertise in the long term and improve my learning and thought.

I definitely love this vision: In order to achieve a goal, we need to fit this goal with our other goals (for example, by improving the global strategy with a better definition/vision/plan).

Now, I think I'm ready to start and learn one new thing per week outside of my areas of expertise.

Oh, wait a second... I just realized that I learned something new.

So, see you next week :)