Why Learning a New Skill Is So Good for You

Outside Podcast

Sports, Wilderness

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2021

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As it turns out, being a grown-up novice offers all kinds of surprising benefits. Just ask journalist Tom Vanderbilt, who spent a year attempting to pick up a variety of challenging skills, from surfing to singing to drawing. Ultimately, he didn’t become amazing at any of these things, but his humble quest taught him something far more valuable: that despite your age or how busy you think you are, introducing yourself to a new skill is one of the most life-enhancing things you can do. Vanderbilt chronicled his efforts and hard-won wisdom in his latest book, Beginners: The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning. For this episode, Outside magazine’s editor, Christopher Keyes, gets Vanderbilt to explain what really happens to us when we dare to be a beginner again. This episode of the Outside Podcast is brought to you by L.L. Bean, a company that wants to help you experience the power of being outside this winter. Visit llbean.com to find inspiration and how-to advice for active outdoor fun this season, plus ready-for-anything outerwear to keep you cozy. L.L. Bean, Be an Outsider.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of the Outside Podcast is brought to you by L.L. Bean, a company that wants to help you experience the power of being outside this winter.
0:14.0	Research has shown numerous mental and physical benefits to spending time outdoors.
0:19.8	The positive effects can be the strongest during the coldest darkest days.
0:24.4	I've really found that that daily dose of physical activity is super important for my
0:29.5	resilience and my optimism.
0:32.1	That's Kieken Randall, a five-time Olympic cross-country skier.
0:36.2	She's been working with L. L. Bean to help get the word out about just how important it
0:41.9	is for all of us to play outside and how good it makes us feel,
0:46.9	even when it's freezing.
0:48.2	The added benefit of that chill in the air, it's so refreshing.
0:52.7	And so you're out there, and then when you come back in,
0:55.6	you have kind of this content glow.
0:58.6	And then when you go to bed at night,
1:00.0	you sleep so well.
1:01.9	For 20 years, Kicken competed at the highest level of sport.
1:05.9	Today, she's a mom to a four-year-old son and she knows that finding the motivation
1:11.3	to head out in winter, it can be hard.
1:14.0	I definitely look out the door some days and go, ooh, that looks cold.
1:18.0	Ooh, wouldn't it just be nice to stay inside where everything's nice and easy?
1:22.0	Like the rest of us, she needs new ideas for
1:24.1	activities that spur her to get out there, which is why she's been going to
1:28.6	L.L.com, to read guides to winter sports, inspiring stories, and suggestions for family adventures.
	...

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