Thing # 2 Lifelong Learning & L2

Phooey, I can't do this one right away, either. Same reason as Thing #1, below. No speakers. I dimly remember watching this tutorial before, months ago, but I don't remember it well enough to blog about. I wonder if there are any extra speakers in the computer graveyard?

Update:
Found some crusty old headphones. Went and listened to the podcast and then watched the tutorial. I find that when I'm listening to this sort of audio presentation of straightforward information, I get frustrated. I can read much faster than the speed of the narration, so I'd much rather read a transcript than have to listen to somebody slowly reading the script. In fact, on the "7 1/2 Habits" tutorial, I clicked through to the next slide before the narrator finished speaking on every single one, because I was reading the transcript that was displayed to the left of the media player.

Don't get me wrong, I listen to podcasts all the time. My current favorites are Uncontrolled Airspace (a pilot podcast), and Mo Sermons (a Christian podcast). The difference? These podcasts are what I might call "native audio." They're more like radio shows- meant to be listened to- and less like someone reading a written document out loud, which is what the first two podcasts on the 23 Things site sound like.

But moving on to the 7 1/2 habits:
I pretty much already have these habits in place. I'm really into learning, and the problem for me is finding the time to pursue my learning interests and maintaining balance. Right now I'm engaged in the following learning pursuits:

1. Earning a Private Pilot Certificate
2. Working towards a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do (I'm at brown right now)
3. Re-learning Spanish & American Sign Language, in which I was once almost fluent but haven't kept up my skills since college
4. Learning Gregg shorthand
5. Learning to Podcast & Vlog
6. Learning to play the guitar well enough for sing-alongs in storytime
7. Learning to make balloon animals (so far I can make dachshunds and giraffes).

I've temporarily put most of these pursuits on hold to concentrate on the Pilot's Certificate because it demands focus and lots of study and flight time.

I guess, of the 7 1/2 habits, the hardest one is #3, "View problems as challenges." When I'm weary or otherwise not at my best, I don't always respond to difficulties with a positive attitude. I'm working on it, though.

The easiest habit for me is # 7 1/2, "Play." I definitely tend to dive right into things and figure them out as I go along. As a team leader at Habitat for Humanity likes to tell his newbies, "Go ahead and try. You can't break anything that can't be fixed."