Prioritize lifelong learning.
I remember getting my first full-time job after college and thinking that it will be amazing to not have to do formal classroom education and learning.
After spending the first 20 years of my life in formal classroom education I didn’t want anything to do with sitting in a classroom again. I was just not interested.
So for the first few years out of school, that’s exactly what I did. I stayed as far away from a classroom as possible.
I did learn on the job of course. I learned ALOT! However, for the first 3 years or so I never set foot in the classroom, unless it was mandatory from my employer.
Thinking back on this, what a short-term outlook I had…
What a large amount of time wasted that I could have learned more, learned something new, honed more hard or soft skills…
I also didn’t pick up many books to read during this time…
My learning beyond my ‘on the job’ training and learning stalled.
Most professionals when they are out of high school or university drastically decrease their hours of learning and education.
It is a harsh, but an unfortunate reality. We get busy in our day to day. We start having families. Our time becomes more limited.
But my encouragement to others is to continue the lifelong learning. Utilize as many many formats and methods, even classroom style learning, to position yourself to be your best.
More coaching and more teaching from a variety of methods is only going to help you in the long run.
A study from the World Economic Forum says that between 2022-2025 “on average, employees will need 101 days [each year] of retraining and upskilling” just to keep pace. That’s 33 days per year or more than 6 work weeks!
Think about that! A 40 hour job at 5 days a week with 3 weeks PTO and another 10 days of holidays = roughly 235 working days. And 33 of them (14%) should be spent learning and upskilling!
To put it bluntly, it is critical to become lifelong learners.
Week 15 of 52
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