At the beginning of 2013, Jack Spirko from The Survival Podcast launched a new site called 13Skills.com.  The original intention of this website was to provide a location for folks to document their 13-in-13 Challenge results.  What is the 13-in-13 Challenge you say?  Good question.  Jack explains it better than I can:

The 13 in 13 Challenge is a call to develop or drastically improve your personal skills in the coming year. These skills can be any hands on practical skill from ancient skills like flint napping to traditional skills like trapping and hunting or even technical skills like graphic arts or computer programming.

The premise behind the challenge is to come out a better person than when you went in.  Stronger skills, raised confidence, more sure about yourself and your ability to handle new and interesting work.

Big Dan’s Ramblings wrote a great article about the in’s and out’s of the site, so I’m not going to waste a lot of time here talking specifically about it.  What I did want to point out was that, on Monday (09-Sep-2013), the good folks over at 13Skills.com completed a full overhaul of the site.  The site now acts more ‘Facebook-esque’ where you can see a flow of activity from the folks you follow.  In addition, you can click on the goals you’re working on and see not only who’s working on them, but the successes they are having or where they are getting stuck.  These changes are fostering a much larger community involvement within the site and are allowing the members to help each other reach their goals.

Overall, this relaunch has added a huge increase in functionality.  I’m glad to see that Jack and crew are continuing to grow this great site.  Look for a series on this site in early 2014 about the 13-in-14 Challenge.  I’ll document what I plan on doing to better myself in 2014 and will be using the 13Skills.com website as my tracking device.

Dan

Founder/Owner at Suburban Steader

I am a middle-age guy with a wife, two young kids and a crazy dog. We live on Long Island, NY and had an interesting experience with Hurricane Sandy. That experience led me towards the self-sufficiency movement and eventually led to the founding of SuburbanSteader.com. I aim to provide suburbanites with the confidence and know-how to become more self-reliant by providing content on topics such as gardening, personal health, financial responsibility, cooking, self-preparedness and self-protection.