The Conversation Piece #16: Strengthening Your Skills

The Builder Improvement Initiative (BII), a Discord-based community, offers insights on enhancing LEGO building skills in the monthly BrickNerd series, "The Conversation Piece." This article focuses on a high-level view of improvement, emphasizing the importance of setting SMART goals.

SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This framework provides a clear, focused, and practical approach to achieving improvement in LEGO building. The article suggests challenging yourself to build more often, such as setting a build quota or participating in time-based challenges.

Several annual challenges provide a structured framework for time-based building approaches. These include SHIPtember, where builders create spaceships at least 100 studs long during September; Mechtober, which involves building one custom mech a week in October; Febrovery, a similar challenge focused on rovers in February; and RogueOlympics, with weekly prompts and a maximum of 101 parts from March to April.

Participating in these challenges can serve as milestones, offering a frame of reference for your improvement journey. Each year's participation showcases the skills you've strengthened. Consider joining contests that require skills you want to improve to hone specific aspects of your building. If you're looking to improve your building skills, consider getting a LEGO brick separator to help with disassembling and rebuilding your creations.