What Can You Learn in 100 Days?
A while back, we told you about Karen X. Cheng, who wanted to learn how to dance—and documented her progress, on film, over the course of a year. The finished video, which compiled chronological clips from the 365-day project, was surprisingly inspiring. Its time-lapse quality made the improvements that are so hard to notice on a day-by-day basis startlingly, impressively apparent.
Cheng toward the end of her dancing journey
According to TechCrunch, Cheng got an overwhelming response to her video and website. One of the hundreds of emails she received was from a woman named Cynthia, who wrote about re-learning to walk after the onset of multiple sclerosis.
That gave Cheng an idea. Together with engineer Finbarr Taylor, she created GiveIt100, a video-based site where people can show themselves learning a new skill—any skill—over the course of 100 days.
What does it take to participate? Uploading a short video showing your progress at whatever it is you’re working on, every day. It’s a real commitment—but, as Cheng already knows, a commitment that will definitely pay off.
There are already a few truly inspiring journeys documented on the site. (Cynthia is on day 71 of her “Walking” series.) But there are also a bunch of projects that are just plain fun, like “Canine Freestyling” and “Making Silly, Pretty and Ridiculous Sounds with My Body.”
Have you been meaning to take up tap, or hip hop, or acro? Well, maybe now is the time. Maybe 100 days from now, you’ll have your own video series showing just how far you’ve come. Go for it—give it 100!